ABOUT 3 MILLION PEOPLE HAVE MIGRATED TO RUSSIA IN THE LAST THREE YEARS.

Over 2.7 million people have migrated to Russia from the other former Soviet republics in the past three years, more than a million of them refugees and internally displaced persons, according to Tatyana Regent, head of Russia’s Federal Migration Service. The majority are ethnic Russians. About 70 percent have come from the Central Asian states, mostly Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Regent said Russia welcomed the influx, since most of the migrants are able-bodied and the influx is helping to redress the demographic balance. As a result, the Russian population — which had been shrinking over recent years — is now stable. But Regent said illegal immigration is now a major problem for Russia. She said about 300,000 foreigners are now working in Russia while some 12,000 Russian citizens are working in other countries. (Interfax, May 24)

Regent’s data supplement information showing that, since 1989, almost 9 million people (3 percent of the total population) have migrated from one country to another in the former Soviet Union. They have been fleeing war, nationalist discrimination, and ecological hazards, says a report published by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration, and the OSCE. (BBC, May 23)

Duma Calls for Lifting of Iraq Sanctions.