Paul Goble
Staunton, Oct. 14 – The Russian government program for resettling compatriots who return to their homeland has collapsed by 80 percent since the Crimean Anschluss with the number doing so having fallen from 45,500 in 2015 to 4500 in the first half of 2024, according to official figures from the Russian interior ministry.
According to Galina Ragozina, an expert with the Resettlement Organizations Forum, Moscow has only itself to blame. The fallout from its war in Ukraine, increasing hostility to immigrants as a whole, and the need for compatriots to take language exams have all pushed the numbers down (ng.ru/politics/2024-10-14/1_9114_migration.html).
Other experts point to related difficulties. Mikhail Burda, a Moscow scholar who serves as an advisor to the World Russian Popular Assembly, says that many compatriots are afraid to return lest they be forced to serve in the Russian military and be sent to fight in Putin’s war in Ukraine.
And Aleksey Yesakov, vice president of the Coordination Center for Support of Compatriots Abroad, says that Russians now living in “unfriendly” countries face problems with processing documents and enormous costs of moving from where they are now living back to Russia.
He urged the government to create a special ombudsman for compatriots who would promote their interests and also for Moscow to reduce or eliminate consular fees for processing them if they apply to return to Russia and must secure translations of official documents proving their status.
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