Putin Policy of Recruiting from Poorer Regions Leaving Russian Agriculture with Shortage of Workers

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 27 – In order to prevent his expanded invasion of Ukraine from sparking protests in Moscow and other major cities, Vladimir Putin chose to focus on recruiting men from poorer regions both Russian and non-Russian. But that policy is now backfiring as it has left those agricultural areas with a serious shortage of workers.

            Aleksandr Tkachyov, Russia’s former agricultural minister, is warning of disaster ahead if Moscow doesn’t take “immediate measures” to provide more workers for the agricultural sector. If that doesn’t happen, he says, Russia will soon face an agricultural catastrophe (versia.ru/selskomu-xozyajstvu-predrekayut-katastrofu-iz-za-nexvatki-kadrov).

            Russia’s current agricultural minister, Oksana Lut, concurs and says that the sector she oversees currently has a labor shortage amounting “at a minimum” to 200,000 people despite some recent efforts to correct the situation (versia.ru/glava-minselxoza-prizvala-rossiyan-stavit-svechki-ile-proroku).

            Both of them as well as other Moscow agricultural experts have placed the blame for this development and its possible impact on Russian food production on the slow dying off of villages. That certainly plays a role, but it is the impact of Putin’s war that has exacerbated this long-term trend and turned it into a crisis.