Migrants in Russia Numbered 3 Mln by 2003

The number of migrants in Russia amounted to three million by the beginning of 2003, and migration flows annually account for 800,000 people.

These data were cited by chairman of the expert council on the national and migration policy, and interaction with religious associations at the office of the president's plenipotentiary representative in the central federal district Vyacheslav Mikhailov. He made a report at a scientific-practical conference "Poli-ethnic Resource of the Russian Statehood". It opened on Monday in Moscow under the patronage of Mikhailov.

"Migration is a substantial and long-term factor of life in Russia, which partly solves the society's demographic problems," he said. According to his data, the number of Russian citizens will reduce by 7.5 percent by 2016, and hence the number of able-bodied population will also plummet.

That is why, Mikhailov said, it is necessary that there be tolerance towards other nationalities. "Let's liquidate such notions as Islamic extremism and Russian fascism, since simply extremism and fascism exist," the president's representative in the central federal district pointed out. He believes that the new way of Russian statehood is based on the national accord.