Translated material
In Russia, almost 2.5 million foreign passports were issued from January to June. This is the maximum in the last three years
From January to June 2022, almost 2.5 million foreign passports were issued in Russia - this is the maximum in the last three years, RBC writes, citing information from the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the migration situation in the Russian Federation.
Most foreign passports were issued in March. Then the documents were received by 553 thousand people, which is 36% more than in February. In the following months, the number of foreign passports issued slightly decreased: in April there were about 470,000, in May - less than 400,000, in June - 446,000.
Demographer Aleksey Raksha attributed the increased number of issued international passports at the beginning of the year to “pent-up demand for foreign travel” caused by the gradual lifting of covid restrictions. But the March jump that followed, the demographer believes, is connected with the start of the war in Ukraine.
In January-June 2019, Russians received 2.3 million foreign passports, which is about 200,000 documents less than this year. In general, the figures for 2022 are comparable to the statistics on the issuance of 2018 and 2017: then the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued almost 2.6 million and 2 million foreign passports, respectively. In the first six months of 2016, significantly fewer documents were issued - almost 1.2 million documents.