Why Russia wants to hire more Indian workers

Russia is seeking to hire more Indian workers as it grapples with a labour shortage amid its three-year-long war with Ukraine. It is looking to plug the gaps in its machinery and electronics sectors with skilled foreign workers.

For this, Vinay Kumar, India’s ambassador to Russia, said Moscow is showing a growing interest in Indian workers. There have been recent reports that Russia is planning to expand its source of migrant workers beyond former Soviet republics to Asian countries, including Myanmar.

Let’s take a closer look.

Russia to hire more Indian workers?

Russian companies, particularly in machinery and electronics, want to employ Indian nationals. India’s Ambassador to Russia, Vinay Kumar, told TASS state news agency that the workload of consular services has increased as more Indians reach Russia for job opportunities.

“At a broader level, there is a manpower requirement in Russia , and India has skilled manpower. So at present, within the Russian regulations, framework of Russian regulations, laws and quotas, the companies are hiring Indians,” the Indian diplomat said.

“Most of the people who have come are in the construction and textile sectors”, he said, adding that the demand for Indians in the machinery and electronics segments is also rising.

The envoy flagged that the surge in the number of Indian workers in Russia is stretching consular resources.

“When people come and leave, they need consular services to extend passports, childbirth, say for example, and loss of passport and those kinds, basically consular services,” Kumar added.

The Indian embassy and consulates are preparing to deal with the uptick in incoming workers by opening a new Consulate General in Yekaterinburg.

Last July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced India’s plan to open two new consulates in Russian cities of Kazan and Yekaterinburg to boost travel and trade with the country. He had made the announcement while addressing the Indian community in Moscow during his two-day visit to Russia.

Rise in Indian workers in Russia

The number of Indian workers has increased in Russia in recent years, with 5,480 getting work permits in 2021 to 36,208 in 2024, the think tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF) said, citing the Russian government data.

In July, Russia’s Labour Ministry denied claims that it plans to recruit 10 lakh workers from India by the end of 2025. The clarification came after the head of the Urals Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Andrei Besedin, said that Russia is likely to see a significant rise in foreign workers to make up for labour shortages.

“The agreements have been reached, particularly with India. According to what I’ve heard from my Indian colleagues, by the end of the year, one million specialists from India will come to Russia, including to Sverdlovsk Region. A new Consulate General of India is opening in Yekaterinburg to handle these matters,” Besedin said, as per BBC Monitoring.

He also stated that “work is also underway with other countries” to bring foreign workers to Russia.

“Sri Lanka is next in line with great potential. They have tasked the embassy with thoroughly developing this issue in cooperation with the region. There are also agreements with North Korea - people there know how to work,” Besedin said.

The Russian Labour Ministry later said the claims of hiring 10 lakh Indian workers this year “are not accurate”. “Labour from visa countries such as India is attracted to Russia through a quota system. Quotas are set for one year in advance. The volume of quotas is determined based on requests from regions according to the needs declared by employers,” the ministry said.

The maximum number of work permits for Indians under the 2025 quota is 71,817, the Russian ministry told TASS.

In March, Samolyot Group, a developer based in Moscow, launched a pilot programme to hire Indian construction workers. However, it was not entirely successful, with Alexei Akindinov, the company’s operations director, blaming the language barrier and cultural differences, as per The Moscow Times. 

Retail giant X5 Group and online marketplace Ozon have also hired workers from India in recent years.

Russia’s labour shortage

Russia is currently struggling with a shrinking domestic workforce, primarily driven by the war in Ukraine. The trend has been further worsened by Russia’s  demographic decline and anti-migration policies.

Amid labour shortages, Russian factories hired 47,000 foreign workers in 2024, the Vedomosti business daily reported in June this year, citing Labour Ministry data. This was 16 per cent more than the government-set quota of 40,500 workers.

Most of these workers were from China, India, Turkey, Serbia and other countries whose citizens need visas to travel to Russia, a ministry representative told the business daily.

There has been a growing demand for foreign workers in Russia for professions such as welders, concrete workers, finishers and food and agricultural staff, according to Dmitry Lapshinov, managing director of the recruitment agency Intrud, as reported by The Moscow Times. 

The sizeable recruitment by the Russian armed forces and defence industries has taken away workers from civilian enterprises. Hundreds of thousands of Russians have also fled the country since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

With inputs from agencies