Will the Kremlin Ever Make it Possible For Westerners to Migrate to Russia?

An interview with Timur Beslangurov, one of Russia's top migration reform lawyers

As part of a series of interviews I did, I spoke to Timur Beslangurov an immigration lawyer and the leading expert in the country on all things related to resettling. in Russia. Timur has generally worked on issues relating to migration reform for the last 20 years and called for reforms. Because of the war, many Westerners have expressed interest in moving to Russia and Timur’s organization has actively tried to help them. Timur not only helps foreigners move over, but also provides advice to them on starting businesses in Russia. He also provides advice to the Russian government on setting up a competitive immigration policy designed to attract the sort of people Russia ought to be pursuing. His website can be found here.  

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Hello, Timur, thank you for speaking to me. From what I understand, there is no clear process for moving over to Russia for Western migrants. So, what are the main problems that Westerners face?

Hello, yes, well, let me just say that Russia’s migration system needs to be reformed entirely. It was never built around the principle of bringing over talented people from the West. Our migration services are built as a police force. Contrast this with Israel, which has a head-hunting policy when it comes to attracting talented migrants from the West. It is not even necessary to be a Jew anymore. They simply seek out talent. 

But, how does a Westerner with a family move over to Russia? I mean, just think, during the application process, if the time limit on the visa expires, the whole family has to leave the country. And the Russian bureaucracy is very strict - one misspelling somewhere and the whole application is tossed out. Westerners simply don’t know how to fill out Russian application forms correctly.

A concrete example: Russia’s migration services require proof of marriage and in America, for example, some states do not give the documents that are required in Russia to prove that there was a marriage and then an official name change. There are many problems with the changing of last names upon becoming married and then there are also discrepancies when this information is compared with the information on, say, the passport. So, the Russian authorities will ask the American couple to get more documents proving the name change, but now, with the embassy closed, that is simply impossible to do if you moved to Russia already. So you have to go back. Exit the country. Get the necessary documents. Come back. Try again. All with a family in tow?

You see the problems, yes? 

I do. But there are many people working on solutions, including yourself and your organization, no?

The truth is that the migration problem can only be solved only at the very highest level. A single Duma Deputy cannot solve this problem. A single ministry cannot solve this problem. There has to be a concerted political will to change this problem. The President himself has to take an interest in this matter personally. And Putin’s cabinet, aka the Presidential Administration, was seriously looking at this during most of 2021, but the project got put on the back burner when Ukraine kicked off.

Also, we have very few specialists that deal with migration affairs in our country.

In America, in contrast, there are 12k migration lawyers that deal with these problems, attract new talent, and deal with the bureaucracy. But in Russia, you can count these specialists on two hands. 

Recently, PM Mishustin gave a speech on simplifying the migration process. This was after Putin declared that his government would have to come up with a new plan by the 1st of June. But the question is, what changes will they make? We have already submitted our recommendations for attracting Westerners to Russia. They know about our suggestions and they have been lying there, gathering dust for a while now on the tables of the various ministries.

So we will see, I suppose.

We are trying to get the issue pushed further up the chain. 

But for Westerners trying to move to our large cities, they have to understand that there are limited quotas in each city and many people in line as is and that they will not be given preference over other migrants if they go this route.

I take it you want to attract IT workers, right?

OK, so the situation is more complicated than it appears at first glance. See, in Russia, many IT workers left the country with the start of the SMO, that is true. But these companies have largely been able to keep paying their employees in third party countries. So, actually, there is only a hypothesis that Russia will need many more IT workers in the near future. It is actually easier for these companies to simply open up shop abroad, pay their workers abroad, and keep things working this way. Furthermore, the process for IT workers has already been drastically simplified already, but we do not see many IT companies in Russia inviting Westerners to come over to work for them. And, without corporate sponsorship, it is hard for these Westerners to come over at all.

I see, that’s not encouraging.

Actually, I do not think that the IT focus makes much sense anyways. Besides, IT workers actually already have an easier time getting in to Russia than any other profession. But temote work is a reality of our times. In contrast, farmers have to actually come and actually live in Russia and benefit the country. 

Oh yes, I’ve wanted to ask an expert on this for a long time - what happened with the Boer farmers that wanted to escape genocide in South Africa and resettle in Russia?

Well, what people don’t understand about the farmers is that they want to live and work in the south. Yes, there was a lot of fake news about 15k farmers who moved over to Russia. Yes, a delegation came to visit, was met with bread and salt. But, then they left. Why? Because their visas expired and they had to leave. Because they only had three months on his visa to figure out literally everything! And there were no specialists who were there on the ground to help them figure things out! Also, since these farmers do not want to work in Siberia, they are limited to Krasnodar and those parts, mostly.

In contrast, Georgia has a far better policy. So, two-hundred Boer farmer families moved to Georgia and only two families stayed in Russia. How does that sound? But it is true! Also, there, the wife of the president took a personal interest in their fate and helped them out. But in Russia? The media and chinovniks fulfilled their PR quota and then dropped the issue because no one could be bothered to actually figure the thing out and no one gave a damn. 

But, despite this, you maintain that the migration situation is not a political problem, correct? 

Yes, but look at it his way: you need to get the stakeholders involved. And who are the stakeholders in our society? Well, the oligarchs, of course and then the politicians who represent the people and who have to demand that a change be made. There is no other way.

Now, we have gotten more PR in the last few years for our proposals and that is good progress already. But one of the biggest obstacles has been convincing the government bureaucrats that people from the West do indeed want to move to Russia. Because they simply don’t believe it or don’t want to believe it.

I’ve heard something similar from Deputy Kuznetsov. Why do they not believe it? 

Well, because they do not believe that anyone would ever actually want to move to Russia. Also, our chinovniks simply do not want to believe that the West has changed and that Russia now looks quite appealing to people. It is a mental block for these people - many probably wish to move to the West themselves. It is jarring to have your entire worldview challenged by new information. Our chinovniks simply do not want to believe that the West has changed and that Russia now looks quite appealing to some people. They assume that this is just crude propaganda from our side. 

So, when we do good PR and raise a lot of noise in the media about the topic, this helps us build our case to them, so that they cannot ignore us. Of course, it takes time to convince the Russian media as well, which is very important. And we are making progress on this front, thanks to people like Deputy Kuznetsov’s work in raising our media profile as well.

Our plan is simple: to raise our media profile to then help us prove our case to the bureaucracy. 

Since we are talking about immigration, I can’t help but ask … the Russian government seems fine with migration to Russia, so long as it comes from Сentral Asia.

Yes, yes, we have an open borders policy with Central Asia. They simply go to the migration centers, get permission to work, and only then do they need to go find themselves a job. [tongue-in-cheek remark that few of them actually work]

But for visa countries, this is simply not possible. A Westerner has to find a sponsor before he even sets foot in Russia. Let me just say this, I believe that 100 Western farmers resettling in one little oblast will have a better economic effect than the opening of, say, one Walmart. And if 1000 come, then the effect will be felt on the federal level. That is to say, the effect will be exponential. 

We have so many lands that can be reclaimed that have been abandoned. There is a government program to restore 14 million hectares now, but it has had mixed results.

The problem is that I do not have the ability to ask the Minister of Agriculture [Patrushev junior] for an hour of his time. At the best, I can get three minutes. Three minutes is not enough, and so, we have the problem that we have now. 

Can I just ask you about about the free land giveaway? The homestead eastern Siberia scheme that we have heard so much about?

Actually in Russia, the program to offer free land is being accepted by Old Believers and not so much by regular Russians. They are returning from Brazil and Argentina to claim their 300 hectares from the government. As part of the bargain, they have to work the land or surrender it. And so they sell their farms abroad and move to Russia. Again, this is all a good thing. 

I have to ask: perhaps Russia’s large agro-monopolies have an incentive to interfere with such plans? 

No, large agricultural conglomerates operate on such a large scale that they will not feel competition from small farmers. 

So, why do people want to migrate to Russia from the West, in your opinion?

The main reasons for migrating are ideological. Yes, there are many Orthodox, but also just many people who have conservative values. For example, many Protestants from America are interested in coming over as well. But there are also traditional Catholics as well. You have heard of them? They reject Vatican II or the current pope and believe in the Fatima prophecy and that the end of the world will occur soon.

The most important divide is probably Republican v Democrat or Conservative v Liberal. In general, most of the people who want to come over from the West just want to be left alone to live in peace in Russia.