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2/24/23 wrote:As a result of the conference held in Moscow on February 14, dedicated to ideological immigration to Russia, it was announced the creation of a Coordinating Headquarters for assistance to immigrants from NATO countries. This decision may give rise to a new direction in the migration policy of the Russian Federation, the main task of which will be the resettlement of residents of the United States and the European Union who are friendly towards Russia towards Russia.

Outlining the tasks of the coordinating headquarters, Dmitry Gusev, the first deputy head of the A Just Russia - For Truth faction in the State Duma, noted that one should not persuade those who do not love her to return to their homeland, but help those who consciously want to move to the Russian Federation. Since such a decision is closely related to the worldview and religious affiliation of potential migrants, their immigration is called ideological. As an incentive for resettlement in Russia, D. Gusev at the end of January proposed to provide immigrants from the United States and Europe with 10 hectares of land, hoping that up to 7 million people could take advantage of this offer. This proposal was not mentioned in the announcement about the creation of a coordinating headquarters for ideological immigration. Although the work of the headquarters was planned to be discussed at a closed meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The main argument in favor of such a policy is the high demographic losses that Russia suffered during the COVID-19 epidemic, as well as two waves of “anti-war” emigration. Moreover, the real picture is much worse than the one that D. Gusev painted in his January statement. For seven years - from 2016, when the excess of deaths over births was again recorded in Russia, to 2022, the natural decline in the country's population, according to Rosstat, amounted to more than 3 million people. Most of this natural loss is the result of the COVID-19 epidemic. For 2020-2021 only. As a result of the excess of deaths over births, the population of Russia has decreased by more than 1.7 million. Over the past 2022, when the epidemic seemed to have ended, but its consequences continued to affect, the population of the Russian Federation decreased by another 600 thousand people.

Since it will most likely not be possible to quickly increase the birth rate, the only way to make up for the demographic losses is immigration, that is, the resettlement of the population to Russia for permanent residence. But it obviously needs a selective approach based on ethno-cultural closeness with the settlers. Mass immigration of people of other cultures from the Asian countries of the CIS, which still has a predominantly labor form, will lead, and in the regions most attractive to migrants, is already leading to a change in the ethnic structure of the population. As a result, there is a deterioration in the crime situation, an increase in the number of conflicts with the local population and representatives of other ethnic diasporas, and an aggravation of interethnic relations. Moreover, in the case of immigration from the territory of Ukraine or Moldova,

The same role can be played by “ideological” emigration from Western countries to Russia, which can be not only political, but also religious. And the latter is actually already happening. In June 2021, RT published a report about Orthodox priest Joseph Gleason, who moved to Russia with his wife Amy and eight children four years ago. In his homeland in the USA, D. Gleason first converted from Calvinism to Anglicanism and founded an Anglican parish, and then, together with his wife and the whole parish, converted to Orthodoxy. In 2015, when the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states, the Gleesons decided to move to an Orthodox country that bans same-sex marriage and allows home schooling. And it was Orthodoxy that played the main role in the choice of Russia. In 2017, the Gleesons moved to the village of Ivashevo, Borisoglebsky district, Yaroslavl region, where the family runs their household, its head serves in the local church in Krasnovo and teaches English at the Varnitskaya gymnasium in Rostov the Great.