Paul Goble
Staunton, April 5 – Earlier this year, Moscow announced that it was in discussions with Kabul about having Afghans come to Russia as migrant workers; but before taking that step, Aleksandr Shustov says, Moscow should focus on what happened in Iran when such people came in and what Tehran was then forced to do.
The Iranians discovered, the Russian commentator says, that there were Israeli agents among the Afghan immigrants and that these agents helped Israel target key individuals and institutions in Iran last year (ritmeurasia.ru/news--2026-04-05--k-chemu-mozhet-privesti-afganskaja-trudovaja-immigracija-v-rossiju-86889).
In response, Shustov continues, Iran was forced to deport most Afghans in Iran lest they continue to undermine Iranian statehood on behalf of Israel; and Moscow should recognize that a similar influx of Afghan migrants to Russia could carry with it the same or even greater dangers for Russia.
Given hostility in Russia to immigrants from Muslim countries, several writers have suggested that letting in Afghans would be a mistake, even though they could replace Central Asians who have left and even though Afghanistan is very supportive of the idea because of the transfer payments home such people would be likely to make.
But Shustov’s words and his close attention to what is going on in Iran represents a significant increase in such opposition, all the more likely to be attended to in the Kremlin because of what is taking place in Iran now with the Israeli-American attacks. Indeed, what this generally Kremlin loyalist says likely reflects the views of many in the Russian government.
If that is the case, then the possibility Moscow will allow in Afghan migrant workers anytime soon is likely to be put on hold at least for the time being, something that will only exacerbate Moscow’s problems in trying to fill the jobs that workers from Central Asia had been filling.
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