Paul Goble
Staunton, June 15 – The notion that immigrants are being brought in by one or another political group to replace the core population of various countries, a theory popular among the extreme right in Europe and the United States, has now spread to Russia, to judge by comments at a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum devoted to immigration.
Among the participants of that gathering was Mikhail Mavashi, a musician and blogger who regularly comments about immigrants in the Russian Federation. He said that the Russian interior ministry has found that “70 percent of all crimes” like rape and other forms of violence “are committed by migrants from Central Asia” (nakanune.ru/articles/120955/).
Mavashi added that immigrants can’t pass tests in the Russian language that are required by law for citizenship and instead obtain that status by bribery, proving that “the migration system has completely failed” and that those arriving in Russia “actually buy citizenship and replace the indigenous population” as “the birthrate among migrants is much higher.”
“Our culture is being replaced,” he said (stress supplied). “If this does not stop, we will not be here in 100 years.” And he lashed out at officials who, he said, undercount the number of immigrants by focusing only on workers. For everyone of those, there is “a wife, six children and eight brothers” who are immediately brought in. Now multiply the official figure.”
Other speakers at the session echoed his remarks and complained that immigrants are given all kinds of benefits including citizenship without any requirement that they perform military service, a particular sore point at a time when Moscow is raising troops to fight and in many cases die in Ukraine.
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