The harsh law of hospitality

Visitors from Ukraine are waiting for a political decision

Ukrainian guest workers, it seems, may again become hostages of the difficult political relations between Moscow and Kyiv. Today, conflicting information is coming from official Russian structures about whether, after the January update of our migration legislation, the existing preferences for visitors from Ukraine will continue. Moreover, both supporters and opponents of retaining the right of Ukrainians to stay in Russia for three months without registration hint that in the end a “political decision” must be made. At the same time, the Kremlin must be experiencing a clear déjà vu - in such a situation, it is difficult not to remember the fall of 2004, when a 90-day delay in registration for any Ukrainian guest arriving in Russia (compared to a three-day period for everyone else) was presented as everyone else understood, as a pre-election gift to the then presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych. Although two years ago this did not help him much, now, when Mr. Yanukovych, already in the rank of prime minister, is fighting with varying success to reduce the powers of President Viktor Yushchenko , Moscow’s word in defense of guest workers from Ukraine may not be out of place.

However, Russian official representatives are dragging their feet with explanations, although amendments to migration legislation came into force on January 15. Such uncertainty has already plunged the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry into a nervous state. Last week, the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine issued a note to Moscow, but yesterday hastened to issue a calming statement, which, however, was immediately disavowed by the Federal Migration Service of Russia.

Diplomats in Kyiv, who stated that the preferential stay regime for Ukrainians in Russia will continue, refer to information from the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation. As the head of the press service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Andrei Deshchitsa, told Vremya Novostey yesterday, Russia “will not apply sanctions to Ukrainian citizens who stay in the Russian Federation for less than 90 days without registration and do not have the purpose of finding employment” until all migration issues are resolved. According to him, on January 29, at bilateral negotiations at the Federal Migration Service in Moscow, Ukraine asked the Russian side to clearly explain the mechanism for applying new migration rules to Ukrainian citizens. “The Russian side assured that in bilateral relations the intergovernmental agreement on visa-free travel of citizens from 1997 and the protocol on amendments to it from 2004 will continue to be in force if the stay of Ukrainians is not related to employment,” explained Mr. Deshchytsia .

The fact that it is planned to maintain preferential treatment for Ukrainians who have a migration card correctly issued at the border was confirmed to Vremya Novostey and a source in the Russian government. However, the press service of the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation, Vremya Novostey, officially stated that “with the entry into force on January 15, 2007 of the law “On Migration Registration of Foreign Citizens and Stateless Persons,” citizens of Ukraine, like all foreigners arriving in the country, must register for migration within three days from the moment of crossing the state border.” According to FMS employees, the new law deprives Ukrainians of the three-month registration benefit that was valid only for them. “But this will not cause problems for Ukrainians arriving in Russia, since the burden of accounting falls entirely on the receiving party - those who invite them,” added the head of the press service of the migration department, Konstantin Poltoranin.

The FMS believes that the conflict arose due to the fact that the updated law, in fact, abolishes the registration of visitors from abroad as such - now Russians or Russian companies inviting foreigners are required to simply notify them of their arrival and location within three days residence migration service. And Vladimir Putin in 2004 promised a deferment precisely for registration, which is now a thing of the past, especially since similar benefits then applied to Russians in Ukraine. “Having the level of relations that we have today, we, of course, are simply obliged to create an order that would be mirrored, that would provide citizens of Ukraine in Russia with the same rights that Ukraine provides to Russian citizens in Ukraine. Therefore, on the basis of reciprocity, we will introduce the same procedure,” the Russian president promised in October 2004 during a visit to Kyiv and live communication with Ukrainian voters.

The preferential treatment for Ukrainians, introduced just a few days after this statement, was not canceled even after Mr. Yanukovych’s defeat, despite the phobia of everything “orange” that quickly emerged among the Russian political elite. Its today's change can directly affect hundreds of thousands of migrant workers - only officially, according to the FMS, the head of which Konstantin Romodanovsky considers visitors from Ukraine to be among the most law-abiding, more than 120 thousand Ukrainian migrants were registered in Russia in the first half of 2006. According to unofficial estimates, about a million Ukrainian citizens come to our country every year to work. And a survey conducted in 2006 by the Ukrainian Center for Economic and Political Research named after. A. Razumkova, revealed that for more than half (56.3%) of young migrants from this country, Russia seems the most attractive.

Therefore, active discussions between Russian and Ukrainian diplomats and employees of migration departments about the features of designating the same concepts in related languages ​​will continue. Andrei Deshchitsa assured Vremya Novostei of this, believing that for a clear international legal settlement of the migration issue, it is necessary to officially clarify the terminology of bilateral treaties in the interests of citizens of the two countries. At the same time, according to the head of the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, “the Russian side assured that until this settlement is completed, sanctions will not be applied to Ukrainian citizens in cases of failure to register with the competent authorities of the Russian Federation at the place of their temporary stay on Russian territory.” The FMS also confirmed that consultations are continuing and “the Ukrainian side is asking for a deferment.” But, according to Konstantin Poltoranin, “the decision will probably be made at the political level.”

Actually, there is no doubt in Kyiv that the decision, even regardless of who voices it, will be political. “The abolition of the previous migration regime for Ukrainians will most likely hit Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych,” Vadim Karasev, head of the Ukrainian Institute of Global Strategies, told Vremya Novostey. - The myth about his political support by Russians may be destroyed. Ukrainians will decide that Russia does not intend to give him any special preferences in comparison with other politicians, and bilateral relations will be pragmatic regardless of the actors in power. The first argument in favor of this opinion was the fact that after Yanukovych’s appointment as prime minister, Russia remained in fairly strict positions on gas.”

Oleg VOLKOV, Yulia KHOMCHENKO, Svetlana STEPANENKO, Kyiv