Is Kremlin throwing labour migrants under bus of xenophobia to ensure Putin stays in power?

15.12.2023, 20:16 exclusive.kz

Russian politicians appear to have started to whip up public hatred towards Central Asian and other ‘ethnic’ labour migrants as Putin prepares to seek a fifth term in office.

Almost two years after the start of the war on Ukraine, its consequences for Russia, despite the continued occupation of some Ukrainian territories, can hardly be paraded as a success in the upcoming election campaign.

Especially if the voters are asked to give another six years in power to the person who started “the special operation”.

The level of political suppression in Russia is comparable to Soviet times. The Kremlin is fully in control of the electoral system and Russians’ minds.

But voters still need to be somehow ‘stimulated’ and ‘united’ ahead of the election, and reminded why they should support Putin’s regime.

Importantly, any potentially brewing public discontent caused by the human and economic pressures of the war must be channelled away from the government.

Hatred of ‘the other’ is the cornerstone of the Kremlin’s political ideology. Putin’s government was for years stoking public hatred towards the Ukrainians to ensure their support for the February 2022 invasion.

Now, ahead of the March presidential vote, the Kremlin appears to be deliberately promoting xenophobia and chauvinism towards the Central Asian and Caucasian migrants.

Central Asian migrants, mainly Uzbeks, Tajiks and Kyrgyz, have always faced a hostile environment in Russia. The strains of the war in Ukraine, particularly mobilisation, has made Russian public attitudes towards them even worse.

There has been a growing number of calls by Russian politicians to “sort out” the migration policy.

Various MPs have been coming up with new bills aimed at toughening migration regulations, stripping migrants of citizenship for dodging military service, introduce “a regime of controlled stay”, and limiting migrants’ rights to bring their family members to Russia.

Some Russian regions have banned migrants from doing certain jobs.

The alleged high crime rate and extremism among migrants, their creation of “ethnic enclaves” in Russian cities and causing ethnic tensions are permanent topics in the Russian media.

“Thanks to the enclaves, well organised groups of migrants emerge which are able to manipulate large numbers of people,” the Russian Parliamentary Newspaper wrote on 4 December.

It quoted a member of the presidential Human Rights Council, Kirill Kabanov, as saying that “at the current rate of resettlement”, by 2030 foreigners could be making up 30 percent of Russia’s population.

“It will destroy our traditional way of life. Russia as such will be no more” he added.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill has also called for “a correction” of Russia’s migration policy because migrants threaten “the entire Russian world”.

“The mass inflow of migrants who do not speak Russian, and have no proper idea about Russian history and culture … is changing the look of Russian cities, leading to the deforming of the country’s uniform legal, cultural and language space,” he said in remarks made in November.

In a piece for Forbes Russia, political observer Kiril Kirovsheyev said the Russian authorities seem to want to use “primitive xenophobia as a political tool” in the upcoming election campaign.

He also said that there had been a “serious change” in Russia’s public space in terms of the acceptability of using “hate language” towards migrants from Caucasus and Central Asia.

He warned that once unleashed xenophobia will be hard to reverse.

“Many Russian nationalists take the current phase in the country’s history as a turning point, after which there will be no going back to the old times,” he wrote.

At a recent meeting, the head of the Spiritual Board of the Muslims of Russia, Albir Krganov said that it appeared there was “a deliberate stoking up” of negativity around migrants.

“We are concerned that this anti-migrant wave might spread to the Muslims, who are citizens of this country. If it happens, who will be able to stop it?”