Russian school children give a salute on Moscow’s Red Square. Photo: EPA / SERGEI CHIRIKOV
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has issued a list of countries the Russian government considers to be implementing “destructive, neoliberal, ideological policies” which make it hard for those “sharing traditional Russian spiritual and moral values” to live, journalist Farida Rustamova revealed on her Faridaily Telegram channel on Friday.
While Russia has a poor reputation for its treatment of immigrants in general, citizens of any country on the list of mostly Western nations wanting to emigrate to Russia are to be granted temporary residence permits, even if they have no knowledge of the Russian language or legal code, both of which are normally prerequisites for foreign nationals wishing to migrate.
In November 2022, Putin issued a decree aimed at “preserving and consolidating” traditional Russian values, which he said included “patriotism”, “service to the motherland” and the idea of a “strong family”, and the “priority of the spiritual over the material”.
On 19 August Putin decreed that any would-be immigrants sharing those moral values would be welcome in Russia.
All 47 countries on the list, which include all but two members of the European Union, the US, the UK, Canada, South Korea, Ukraine, Taiwan and — surprisingly — Micronesia, have already appeared on a list of nations that the Russian government considers to be “unfriendly”, subjecting them to certain commercial and diplomatic restrictions.
The only two EU countries not to be on the list are Slovakia and Hungary, both of which currently have leaders known for their pro-Kremlin sympathies. Rustamova dryly predicted a rush of people wanting to move to Russia from the countries on the list, adding that Russian state TV would be only too happy to report on each case.
