Kremlin Needs Migrants Both to Keep Economy Moving and to Give Russians a Way to Relieve Stress that Doesn’t Threaten Regime, Panfilova Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Nov. 1 – The Kremlin needs immigrants not just to keep the Russian economy operating but as a convenient and safe target ordinary Russians can vent their anger about many aspects of their lives in ways that relieve their own stress without threatening the interests of the regime, Elena Panfilova says.
    The independent Russian journalist and anti-corruption fighter says that if the first of these needs for more immigrants is obvious, the second of having them as a safe target for the population is less so but beyond doubt is at least equally important to the regime (gorby.media/articles/2024/11/01/chto-delat-s-ponaekhavshimi).
    She draws that conclusion on the basis of conversations in a series of focus groups organized jointly by Novaya Gazeta and the Levada Center whose participants made clear that Russians focus their anger about many things on the migrants and thus relieve tensions in ways that do not bring them into conflict with the Putin regime.
    That doesn’t mean that the powers that be have invented migration as an issue, Panfilova continues, but they are using it because the stress of life in Russia today could lead to an explosion if there was no outlet. Attacking migrants provides precisely such an outlet and thus helps the Kremlin keep anger in the population from building up against itself.