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IDPs of the first wave ask Vladimir Putin to include them in the program to help compatriots

The first wave of repatriates hope to become participants in the new Russian program for the return of compatriots . Those who returned to their historical homeland 10-15 years ago are still forced to fight with bureaucrats for citizenship and decent living conditions and react quite painfully to the calls of the current government to their compatriots who remained in the CIS. Yesterday, “old migrants” gathered in Moscow for an all-Russian conference organized by the Compatriots refugee relief fund. This forum, unlike the official congress of compatriots held recently in St. Petersburg, was not given the attention of any of the authorities. And therefore, the delegates wrote to President Vladimir Putin, who proclaimed “support and protection of the rights of compatriots as one of the national priorities,” with a request to “amnesty” post-perestroika repatriates and include them in the state program for promoting the voluntary resettlement of compatriots.

According to the delegates of this conference, the fate of the migrants of the 90s became a clear example of how the official Russian authorities “cool down on the promises made and forget the unresolved problems of repatriates.” As Mikhail Demidov, chairman of the board of the Compatriots Foundation, told Vremya Novostey, according to unofficial data, today about 10 million first-wave migrants live in Russia, and about 5 million of them have not yet received citizenship. “Until 1998, with the support of the state, housing was built for them and compact settlements were organized,” said Mr. Demidov. “Enclaves of repatriates appeared in more than 50 regions of the country, and only, for example, in the Pskov region there were about 20 such settlements.”

The mass resettlement of compatriots from the former Soviet republics began in 1992, and for almost a decade, according to Mr. Demidov, approximately 450 thousand people returned to Russia annually. But today the flow has dried up, largely because our country has not become a homeland for many repatriates. “When we were planning our compact settlement of refugees and migrants from Tajikistan, we also envisaged the creation of jobs,” Ravza Khairutdinova, director of the republican public reception office of Tatarstan for refugees and migrants, told Vremya Novostei. - But we do not have the financial ability to build housing. Of the 260 families, only 70 managed to acquire houses in the settlements; the rest huddle in dormitories or live in shacks without electricity or water. Our two main problems are housing and employment.” The Voronezh resettlement organization "Khoko", one of the first in the early 90s to begin implementing a program of resettlement of the Russian-speaking population from the republics of Central Asia, has the same complaints. In two settlements for repatriates near the city of Borisoglebsk, for 15 years now people have been living in garden houses designed for short-term accommodation. And the authorities treat the newcomers worse and worse. “Illegal migrants hide their problems, and we stick it out, so we are not welcome in Russia,” Anatoly Balashov, head of Khoko, told Vremya Novostei.

IDPs believe that Russian leaders who refuse to include the first wave of repatriates in the program for the return of compatriots will not be able to count on the trust of the diaspora in the CIS. According to Mr. Balashov, “despite the fact that many Russians today have to hide their nationality in Tajikistan, out of more than 200 thousand people, hardly anyone will go to Russia today.” “Everyone knows perfectly well that we were abandoned here to the mercy of fate,” he explained. “In addition, today the Russian authorities provide significant support to compatriots living abroad; there is no point in them returning.” Repatriate Ravza Khairutdinova is also sure that Russian residents of the former Soviet republics will not agree to “such an adventure” today. “This small cohort of people who remained in Tajikistan takes a more balanced approach to the issue of resettlement than we did during the conflict in the early 90s,” she told Vremya Novostei. “I lost my husband then.” And, frankly, I regret that I did not take advantage of my refugee status from the CIS countries to immigrate to another country in the world, but chose Russia - sort of like my homeland.”

The demands of the first settlers are also supported by many human rights activists, who believe that dividing compatriots into “old” and “new” will lead to conflicts. They also insist on the inclusion of all repatriates in the state program to promote the voluntary resettlement of compatriots, which promises migrants payment from the state budget for moving expenses, one-time benefits for settlement and a social package. According to the head of the social service of the Compatriots Foundation, director of the Moscow regional public reception for refugees and migrants, Alla Yakunina, without taking into account the problems of forced migrants of the first wave, “the government is pushing them into the arms of nationalists.” By the way, judging by the presence at the conference of immigrants of a number of odious figures like State Duma deputy Nikolai Kuryanovich, this warning may be overdue.

Yulia KHOMCHENKO