The Russian government is to slash by almost half the number of temporary residence permits the country issues to foreigners and stateless persons in 2025, state-owned news agency TASS reported on Wednesday.
According to a statement issued by the Cabinet of Ministers, Russia would “set the number of temporary residence permits to foreign citizens and stateless persons for 2025 … at 5,500”.
The temporary residence permits issued would be distributed equally throughout Russia’s regions depending on the number of applications received, TASS continued. Moscow and the Moscow region are due to receive the most, at 1,000 and 350 permits respectively, compared to 1,500 and 750 in 2024, while St. Petersburg is to be allocated 200 permits, down from 300 for the current year.
This is the fifth year in a row that the government has reduced the number of permits being released. In 2021, over 39,000 residence permits were issued, according to TASS, though they were capped at 13,500 in 2023 and just 10,500 in 2024.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, promised in September to adopt five migration bills by the end of the year, in an attempt to “restore order” to Russia’s migration figures.
Nevertheless, Russia’s regions only issue a fraction of the temporary residence permits assigned to them by the federal government despite their decreasing overall number, with just 20.4% of this year’s quota used up in the first seven months of 2024, according to the Russian Interior Ministry.