They will be placed under the control of the special services

migration policy
Yesterday, at a briefing at the Moscow Main Internal Affairs Directorate, the head of the passport and visa department, Alexander Barabanshchikov, said that the exchange of Soviet passports for new Russian ones will be completed in the capital on October 1 of this year. The issue of monitoring migrants was also discussed at the briefing. The head of the department for migration affairs of the Moscow Main Internal Affairs Directorate, Anatoly Baturkin, said that special services are being created in the capital that will monitor companies that hire foreigners.
According to the head of the passport and visa department of the Moscow Main Internal Affairs Directorate, the exchange of Soviet passports for Russian ones will be completed on October 1 of this year. Alexander Barabanshchikov emphasized that there are 1.2 million citizens left in the capital without new passports. But passport offices process up to 20 thousand passports every day, and by October 1, according to the colonel’s calculations, the work will be completed. Those who, for good reason, do not have time to exchange their passport within the established period, will be able to do this until December 31 “on an individual basis.”
At the same time, work is underway to issue migration cards to foreigners. The introduction of these cards is provided for by the federal law “On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation,” which came into force on November 1, 2002. Minister of Internal Affairs Boris Gryzlov even went to the Nekhoteevka checkpoint on the Russian-Ukrainian border to present migration cards to those entering Russia in front of journalists. The head of the department for migration affairs, Anatoly Baturkin, said yesterday that work on issuing cards in the capital began on November 20 last year and was supposed to be completed within 60 days. But in reality this work turned out to be much more difficult. This is especially true for foreigners living in Moscow. Mr. Baturkin also stated that the capital’s OVIR offices, due to heavy workload, have been transferred to a six-day work schedule. According to him, in connection with such problems, passport office workers and trainees from the Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were sent to help OVIRs. Anatoly Baturkin reminded that migration cards can be obtained not only at OVIR offices, but also at hotels where foreigners stay.
True, in places where cards are issued, there is no special assistance from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. A Kommersant correspondent at OVIR #3 of the Central Administrative District Internal Affairs Directorate was told that, indeed, by order of their superiors, everyone switched to a six-day work schedule. But, according to them, the problems and workload did not decrease because no additional workers were sent to them. The issuance of migration cards, as they said at the OVIR, is carried out by one person.
Anatoly Baturkin also said yesterday that migration control services will be created in the capital, the main task of which will be to monitor firms recruiting immigrants, as well as control the length of stay of foreigners who come to work in Moscow. True, Mr. Baturkin emphasized that such inspections will be carried out as an experiment for now.
Yesterday, information appeared that in the near future only employees of the patrol service will be able to check documents in the capital, and not any police officers, as now. This is due to a large number of complaints from citizens dissatisfied with constant document checks. However, the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate did not confirm such information to Kommersant.
MIKHAIL Kommersant-DEMIDENKO

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 34 dated February 27, 2003, page 7

Foreigners in Moscow will be stricter