Migrants contributed 321 billion rubles to Russia’s budgets in 18 months: Interior Ministry

Migration-related revenues to Russia’s federal and regional budgets reached 321 billion rubles (about $4 billion) over the past 18 months, up 30% from the previous period, according to Russia’s Interior Ministry. First Deputy Interior Minister Andrei Kikot, who heads the ministry’s Service for Citizenship and Registration of Foreign Nationals, presented the figures during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the Kremlin . “Somewhere around 60 billion goes to the federal budget, and over 250 or 260 billion goes to regional budgets. But, as I understand it, primarily from patents? ” Putin asked. Kikot confirmed that the bulk of the revenue comes from payments related to labor migrants’ patents. According to Kikot, around 9 million foreign nationals enter Russia each year for various purposes. At any given time, 6–6.

5 million foreigners are in the country, including about 3 million labor migrants , 1. 7 million family members and around 1 million people in other categories, such as tourists, students and private visitors. He also reported that the share of legal labor migration has increased from 45% to 50% , calling the trend “a good indicator. ” Kikot said that in the first half of 2026, the number of registered crimes committed by foreign nationals in Russia fell by 40% . New rules for migrants’ families Kikot also discussed measures being introduced under Russia’s State Migration Policy Concept, adopted last year. One of its goals is to reduce the number of non-working family members of labor migrants living in Russia. According to Kikot, their number has already declined by 20% from the previously reported 1. 7 million. He attributed the decline partly to new requirements for children of foreign nationals seeking to attend Russian schools,…