A group of weary Indians stood in line at Moscow airport on a recent evening for passport control after a 3,000-kilometer flight through Uzbekistan, one illustration of Russia’s labor shortage, Reuters reports.
One of the men said in English that he had a year-long contract to work at a garbage collection company and that the pay was good.
Russia currently has a shortage of about 2.3 million workers, a situation created by its aggression in Ukraine, and Central Asian workers are no longer able to fill the vacancies. That’s why Moscow is looking to new places, such as India, for workers.
In 2021, a year before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, about 5,000 Indian citizens had been granted work permits. Last year, the number reached 72,000, almost a third of the annual quota for foreign workers. A representative of a company that imports Indian workers into Russia said that the largest number of workers are currently coming from India. He said that citizens of Central Asian countries, who do not need visas, are no longer coming in sufficient numbers. True, official statistics show that citizens of these countries filled the most vacancies last year. However, the depreciation of the ruble, stricter migration rules and anti-immigration rhetoric from the Kremlin have reduced the desire of Central Asians to go to Russia for profit, and this has led Moscow to increase visa quotas for workers from other countries.
India has so far bought discounted Moscow oil, which the Russians cannot sell elsewhere due to Western sanctions,
but this may soon run out.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed an agreement in December that will make it easier for Indians to get jobs in Russia. Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said at the time that Russia could take in an unlimited number of Indian workers. He said there was a shortage of about 800,000 workers in industry, while construction and the service sector were short 1.5 million workers.
About a dozen workers from South Asia work at the Moscow-based sewing company Brera Intex. A vegetable farm on the outskirts of Moscow also employs Indians, paying them about 50,000 rubles (660 dollars) a month. Locals would not come to work for such wages. Meanwhile, Indians working in Russia say the pay is very good.
However, US pressure on India to end its purchases of Russian oil could dampen Moscow’s willingness to take in Indian workers. It is not yet clear how New Delhi will restructure oil imports, and Moscow has also dismissed any hints of potential tensions.
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