Late last night, the President held a meeting with First Deputy Minister of the Interior – Head of the Interior Ministry Service for Issues of Citizenship and Registration of Foreign Citizens, Police Colonel General Andrei Kikot.
The meeting took place ahead of the Interior Ministry’s Migration Departments Day, observed on September 11.
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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Let us discuss the implementation of state migration policy. You have submitted a report covering the past 18 months.
First Deputy Minister of the Interior of Russia Andrei Kikot: Mr President, last year you approved the State Migration Policy Concept, clearly defining the tasks for the migration service. Guided by these tasks, we have addressed the relevant issues. I would like to begin my report with a brief overview of the current migration situation.
Each year, around 9 million foreign nationals enter our country for various purposes. At any given time, between 6 and 6.5 million are present on our territory. What does this figure include? Approximately 3 million are labour migrants, 1.7 million are family members, and 1 million people fall into other categories – tourists, students, and those on private visits.
There is one further indicator: 800,000 foreign nationals who have violated Russian law or migration. We record them and enter them into the register of monitored persons, and search measures are carried out with regard to them.
As for the composition of these categories, we have observed a year-on-year increase in legal labour migration. Its share of the total stood at 45 percent…
Vladimir Putin: Has it reached 50 percent?
Andrei Kikot: Yes, it has now reached 50 percent. That is a positive indicator.
Within the framework of the tasks outlined in the State Migration Policy Concept, you set the objective of restricting the presence of non-working family members on our territory. In this regard, we have achieved a 20 percent reduction relative to the 1.7 million figure. This was made possible by the criteria established by the Government for enrolling children of foreign nationals in schools. Furthermore, on our initiative, a Federal Law imposing a tax on working foreign nationals for each non-working family member present in the country has been adopted and will enter into force on January 1, 2027.
In our efforts to combat crime committed by foreign nationals, there are also some encouraging trends to report. Last year, we saw a slight rise in the number of such offences, which reached 41,000. This year, however, we have witnessed a sharp decline: 14,500 offences were recorded in the first half of the year alone, representing a drop of 40 percent. What accounts for this figure and this trend? At your directive, the Migration Service has been vested with additional powers in crime prevention, empowering us to conduct operational investigative activities and to carry out inquiries under specialised articles.
We are no longer focusing on identifying minor and less serious offences. Instead, we have begun deploying the full range of necessary methods to identify organised criminal groups, as well as the schemes and channels behind organised illegal migration.
We have also developed the practice of uncovering networks of underground printing presses that falsify documents used for the registration and legalization of labour migration. The results, as you can see, speak for themselves: a 30 percent increase in the number of organised criminal groups identified.
As regards the structure of crime, traditionally – and given the number of arriving foreign nationals – Moscow, the Moscow Region, and St Petersburg account for slightly under half of all offences, with the remainder distributed fairly evenly across the regions at 2 to 3 percent each.
Significant results have also been achieved through our administrative activities in the form of migration control. We have seen an increase in raids – up by 155,000. Of these, we have doubled the number of legal entities inspected, an increase of 43 percent. The upshot was the detection of…
Vladimir Putin: Deportation cases have risen by 160 percent. Did you say administrative deportations?
Andrei Kikot: Yes.
The upshot was that we deported approximately 100,000 people, 75,000 of whom were forcibly removed.
Vladimir Putin: How much – up 85 percent?
Andrei Kikot: Yes, up 85 percent, exactly.
As part of our preventive work, our units have refused entry to approximately 200,000 foreign nationals – 197,000, to be precise – who have committed offences or breached the law here; we have restricted their entry for a set period.
We have also stepped up our efforts to ensure the quality of document checks submitted with status applications. We have identified ten times as many forged documents containing patently false information.
We have also intensified efforts to verify the legitimacy of marriages and family relationships. As a result, the number of irregularities detected has increased by 20 percent, while cases involving deliberately false information have risen tenfold. Overall, this work has led to the revocation of 20,000 temporary and permanent residence permits.
Mr President, the results I have just outlined were made possible by a change in the way the police organise their work. Previously, we relied primarily on territorial units, involving patrol and traffic police and conducting raids jointly with National Guard units. We have now also begun to involve the transport police – specialised units whose work is largely preventive.
As per your instructions, we are establishing migration control points at all transport hubs and border crossings, as well as in their immediate vicinity. Twenty-three such points have already been set up, and we are continuing to expand this work. The initiative began with a pilot project at Sheremetyevo Airport, which proved effective.
Together with our colleagues from the FSB, the Border Service and the Ministry of Transport, we have developed a new procedure that had not been used before. It allows us to identify illegal migrants upon arrival and deny them entry at border crossings, while preventing those who have violated migration rules from re-entering the country after they leave.
We are engaged in this preventive work. The reason I mentioned at the beginning that the number of foreign nationals currently in the country stands at between 6 and 6.5 million, down 8 percent, is that these efforts have helped bring that figure down. At the same time, I would emphasise once again that the volume of legal labour migration is actually increasing.
Another new initiative, undertaken on your instructions, is the establishment of an analytical centre. Using advanced technologies and artificial intelligence, the centre will integrate data from a wide range of sources. It will bring together information from border crossings, migration control systems and facial-recognition video surveillance, as well as data provided by employers and government agencies. By consolidating this information, the centre will help us identify and combat illegal migration.
As for funding, the necessary resources have been secured and a location for the centre has been selected. We are currently preparing the technical specifications and moving ahead with the design phase. We plan to launch the centre next year. It will bring together both the transport component, which I reported to you on before, and the territorial component to create an integrated system.
Another measure to restore order in migration is the introduction in our country of a system for the targeted, organised recruitment of foreign nationals. Pursuant to your instruction, the migration service is drafting a relevant draft law, which is currently undergoing approval within the Government. We have drawn it up so as to alter the employment procedure in a measured and gradual manner, dividing it into three stages to provide for a smooth transition, with each stage lasting two years. In essence, I can report that the conceptual difference from the current system is as follows.
Under the current model, a foreign national who has decided to work in Russia purchases a ticket independently, travels here, and essentially looks for an employer upon arrival; at the moment of entry, they are not employed. Under the organised recruitment model, the process will begin with the employer – it starts with an application. The employer submits an application to a specialised agency – the migration service. We then delegate the task to the organised recruitment operator, who identifies the required workforce by qualification and number, arranges their arrival, ensures they undergo all administrative and legalisation procedures, and assigns them to the employer. According to the proposed draft law, the employer – whether large or medium-sized – will be obliged to provide specialised accommodation and also to arrange transport to and from the workplace, thereby establishing a closed cycle: home – work – home. Upon termination of the employment contract, the worker will return to their home country in the same manner.
Vladimir Putin: Indeed, this arrangement safeguards the legal rights of the labour migrants themselves. We must take that into consideration as well.
Andrei Kikot: This is a civilised approach.
Vladimir Putin: A civilised approach. And it serves the interests of our own citizens, which is of paramount importance to us.
Furthermore, when I speak with colleagues – primarily, of course, from the countries from which labour migrants arrive in Russia – they express keen interest in our joint efforts to train those who intend to work here, preparing them both for their work and for life in Russia. They wish to see Russian language instruction developed there – this is their initiative – to increase the number of Russian language teachers, so that young people can acquire the requisite knowledge, and so forth. Without such measures, it is difficult for us to establish a proper process.
Naturally, this is not a matter for your service alone, but for the Government as a whole. Nevertheless, I would ask you to raise this initiative in the Government of the Russian Federation as well.
Andrei Kikot: Understood.
Mr President, allow me to proceed to the issue of state revenues. Over the past 18 months, as a result of all migration-related processes, the state has received 321 billion rubles in revenue, representing an increase of 30 percent.
Vladimir Putin: That is quite substantial. Somewhere over 60 billion accrues to the federal budget, and over 250 or 260 billion – to the regional budgets. But as I understand it, this is primarily derived from patents?
Andrei Kikot: Yes, absolutely correct.
By scaling up this work and rolling out this experience – precisely as you instructed us initially – where we have now piloted it, I can state with confidence that the legal segment of labour migration will continue to expand and, accordingly, so too will the revenues. We will work towards this goal.
Vladimir Putin: Good.
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