Russia facilitates the resettlement of ethnic Russians from other countries. President Vladimir Putin today signed changes to the state migration policy, as he announced in Moscow at a congress of foreign Russians. For them, it should be easier to get a residence permit, work and citizenship in Russia, said the head of the Kremlin.
At the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, about 17 million ethnic Russians had become citizens of the other ex-Soviet republics. There are proportionally strong Russian minorities in Estonia and Latvia, in Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Foreign Russians often suffer from „Russophobia and other forms of radical nationalism,“ Putin lamented. But Russia will defend its rights, he announced. Moscow officially expects all ethnic Russians to be the „Russian world“ (Russki Mir). Russia is often accused of using the minorities as a political lever against its neighbors.
