| No more than 50 thousand Russians will respond to Georgy Boos’s invitation to move to the Kaliningrad region from Latvia Russian-speaking residents of Latvia are discussing the idea of Governor Georgiy Boos, who proposed that all “our people” move to the Kaliningrad region for permanent residence (the Vremya Novostei newspaper wrote about this on October 21) . Let us recall that the Kaliningrad governor recently proposed doubling the population of the Kaliningrad region. According to his estimates, ideally up to 5 million people could live in the westernmost region of Russia. “This task is difficult to achieve in the near future, but it is quite possible to increase it to 2 million,” the governor said.
In Latvia, no one is in a hurry to pack their suitcases yet. According to expert estimates, no more than 50 thousand people will decide to take such a step. In total, there are slightly more than 680 thousand Russians in Latvia. Of these, 430 thousand people have the status of non-citizens (such wording is only in Latvian migration legislation), whose lives are burdened with various kinds of restrictions. These are, apparently, what Mr. Boos had in mind.
But Mr. Boos's proposal received unconditional support from Kaliningrad politicians and experts. In particular, Nikolai Tulaev, a member of the Federation Council from the Kaliningrad Regional Duma, said that the region will only benefit from the resettlement of the Russian-speaking population from the Baltic countries. “We need qualified labor. Plus, we will improve the general demographic situation, which leaves much to be desired,” the senator said.
And the former director of the Kaliningradgrazhdanproekt Institute and head of the regional department of architecture and urban planning, Vladilen Adrianov, claims that all this was invented long before Mr. Boos. “Around the end of the 80s, a detailed analysis was made of the region’s capabilities in terms of receiving additional population. We came to the conclusion that all cities in the region, except Gusev, could additionally accept 50-100% of the population without going beyond their borders. The rural population could also be doubled, Mr. Adrianov recalled. — We submitted a proposal to the regional leadership to change migration policy, but it was not supported. I believe that the governor’s plans are real and necessary.”
In Latvia itself, the idea of Governor Boos is being discussed even more actively. For example, the chairman of the Russian community of Latvia, Vyacheslav Altukhov, accepted this proposal with great joy: “Living and working in one’s native linguistic and cultural environment is very important. And you also have a better climate, and you are closer to Europe. And people, I think, will come to you. But, I emphasize, under such an important condition as clear prospects. They should know why? According to Mr. Altukhov, the Kaliningrad governor, having made a political statement, must now move on to practical steps.
His point of view is shared by the co-chairman of the movement “For Human Rights” and the leader of the faction of the same name in the Latvian Seimas, Jacob Pliner. “Of course, I would really like the current situation in Latvia to improve. And not only in terms of treatment of Russians, but also in economic terms. Unfortunately, this has not happened yet, so Governor Boos’s idea is interesting. However, it is not original. Russian President Vladimir Putin made a similar statement about a year ago. But there were no specifics then.”
Yakov Pliner also wonders who exactly the Kaliningrad region is ready to accept. “It’s one thing if a family of thirty or forty years old moves there and is capable of working for a long time for the benefit of the regional economy. And it’s completely different if a 70-year-old grandfather asks to come to Kaliningrad,” the politician explained. He believes that as a result, no more than 5% of the entire Russian-speaking population of Latvia will leave for the Russian exclave in the Baltic.
Member of the European Parliament from Latvia Tatyana Zhdanaka and deputy head of the Equal Rights party Miroslav Mitrofanov share a similar opinion. “Today the likelihood of a massive response to such a proposal from Governor Boos is negligible. Now, if the cry had been thrown out in the early 90s and even supported by real assistance to displaced people with housing, then perhaps the region would have been able to ensure some influx of displaced people,” they believe. In their opinion, at present, in bureaucratic terms, leaving for Russia is much more difficult for the vast majority of citizens and non-citizens of Latvia than moving to Ireland or the UK. And the income level of Baltic migrants in Ireland is usually an order of magnitude higher than that of residents of the Kaliningrad region.
They also note an interesting fact: regarding the resettlement to Kaliningrad, Russian-speaking compatriots from the Baltic countries have a special “fad” that arose as a result of our specific historical experience. “We once considered our land ours, but it turned out that at home we are migrants and even, scary to say, “occupiers,” explains Mr. Mitrofanov. “The legal position of Kaliningrad today looks strong, but if you get burned with milk, you will start blowing water...”
The head of the Latvian Human Rights Committee, Aleksei Dimitrov, is slightly more optimistic in his assessments. “Of course, there won’t be a mass outflow. We can talk about a maximum of 50 thousand people. Those who wanted to connect their lives with Russia did so earlier, he says. - I note that Latvia itself will have little benefit from such a move of Russians. This will seriously hit the country’s economy - because you will get workers, and we will lose them.”
However, 50 thousand people is not so little. For comparison: half as many people live in the Neman urban district, and only 36 thousand in the Baltic urban district. And if representatives of the Russian-speaking population of Latvia do come, the issues of providing housing, work, and education for their children will arise. In Latvia, the average salary is 150 lats per month (about 10 thousand rubles). In the Kaliningrad region this figure is one third less. But the language environment is native. So the “Russian” Latvians have to make a difficult choice.
Meanwhile, the regional government announced the beginning of the development of a special program to increase the population in the region. For migrants from large and overpopulated Russian cities, as well as compatriots living abroad, the Kaliningrad authorities plan to create all conditions - just come and live. “We will create jobs and living conditions for those families who want to come to us. In particular, a program is being developed for the transport industry. Transport workers will attract families of new workers, give them mortgage loans, and we will subsidize interest rates. This benefits everyone - the enterprise, the employee, the region,” said Kaliningrad Governor Georgy Boos.
It is possible that with the influx of immigrants the status of Kaliningrad itself will change. From an ordinary provincial population of half a million, it can be turned into a large metropolis. In this case, the nearest regional centers will become satellite cities or prefectures, modeled on the Moscow administrative-territorial division. Vadim SMIRNOV, Kaliningrad |
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