Russia's Labor Ministry has denied claims that it plans to recruit as many as 1 million workers from India by the end of the year.
Andrei Besedin, head of the Ural Chamber of Commerce and Industry, had made that assertion on Wednesday, saying the arrival of Indian workers would assuage the country's deepening labor shortage, particularly in the Sverdlovsk region.
But the Labor Ministry later told the RBC news website that the recruitment of workers from India is regulated by quotas that are set a year in advance based on regions and employers' needs.
"Each specialist from visa countries invited within the quota obtains a work visa and work permit. And the company, before employing a visa worker, obtains permission from the Interior Ministry to hire such employees," the Labor Ministry told RBC.
Russia's total quota for foreign workers in 2025 is 234,900, with 71,817 spots for Indian citizens.
In the Sverdlovsk region, the quota for all foreign workers is 4,343 people.
Suspicious_Flan1455 on July 10th, 2025 at 11:36 UTC »
There was a rebuttal published by RF ministry of labor. I will translate relevant part:
There is a visa regime between India and RF, and all laborers are invited through quotation system with humbers known beforehand and approved by goverment. Total quota for invited laborers for 2025 is ~235 thousand, and among them ~72 thousand Indian citizens
-18k- on July 10th, 2025 at 11:10 UTC »
"Workers"
Mundane-Laugh8562 on July 10th, 2025 at 07:57 UTC »
1 million people is not a small number, that's more than the number of Russians who fled the country in the months following the invasion of Ukraine. It would be interesting to see if Russia thinks of this as a model to fill in their labor shortages.
That being said, I see only Russian sources reporting this, so I'd take it with a grain of salt.