Many flee or die

Too few workers: Kremlin recruits migrants

The propaganda poster in front of the Russian Foreign Ministry reads: "Unity leads to victory".(Bild: APA/AFP/Alexander NEMENOV)

Hundreds of thousands of Russian men of working age have fled abroad to avoid being drafted into the war, are fighting in Ukraine or have died there. Now the Kremlin is faced with a huge labor shortage.

The government of President Vladimir Putin has already taken various measures to tackle the demographic problems. For example, large families receive generous state aid and mortgage subsidies. At the beginning of this week, the Russian parliament also passed a law banning "propaganda" for childlessness. This makes it a criminal offense to encourage others not to have children.

"We have a tense demographic situation. We live in the largest country in the world, but there aren't that many of us," government spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed his concern in an interview with the Ria Novosti news agency published on Friday. According to the Kremlin, Russia is now increasingly reliant on foreign workers: "Migrants are a necessity," said Peskov.

Migrants often complain about racism
Anti-immigrant rhetoric is widespread in Russia. This is particularly true of workers from the former Central Asian Soviet republics, who are already employed in many key sectors of the Russian economy. "We need workers in order to develop dynamically and implement all of our development projects," Peskov now concedes. Migration is therefore to be welcomed.

Birth problem has existed since the Soviet Union
The birth rate in Russia has been low since the days of the Soviet Union. According to official figures, it was 1.41 births per woman of childbearing age in 2023. It has fallen further with the conflict in Ukraine. According to official data, 920,000 children were born between January and September this year - 3.4 percent fewer than in the same period last year.