State Duma deputy speaker proposes banning migrants whose home countries don’t recognize Russian as state language from service industry jobs

At a Federation Council hearing on Tuesday, State Duma Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy called for migrants from countries that don’t recognize Russian as a state language to be banned from working in the service industry.

Tolstoy said that former Soviet countries are increasingly embracing English as well as their own national languages, which he accused them of using to “supplant Russian speech.”

“If Russian isn’t a state language in your country, then sorry, citizens of these countries shouldn’t work in public spaces — as taxi drivers, cashiers, and especially not as Yandex food delivery workers,” he declared.

Outside of Russia, Russian has the status of a state language only in Belarus. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan recognize it as an “official language,” while Tajikistan recognizes it as a “language of international communication.”