Why are Central Asian countries urging citizens to avoid travelling to Russia?

Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Ministry has urged its citizens to refrain from travelling to Russia after last week’s deadly mass shooting at a concert hall in Moscow killed over 130 people. A wave of anti-immigrant sentiments sparked in Russia after suspects taken in custody have been predominantly identified as Central Asian.

The attack fanned aversion towards migrants, especially towards Muslim labourers from Central Asian countries. Seven suspects originally from Tajikistan and one from Kyrgyzstan have been arrested under terrorism charges and placed under pre-trial detention.

Not only Kyrgyzstan, but authorities in neighbouring Uzbekistan have issued similar directions to any Uzbek citizens currently in Russia or planning a visit, local media reported.

Central Asian countries forewarning citizens

In its advisory this week, the foreign ministry of Kyrgyzstan asked citizens with ’no necessary business’ to refrain from traveling to Russia and those there to carry documents at all times and comply with Russian regulations following beefed-up security measures and increased border control since the attack.

The head of Russia’s Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, suggested the concert hall attack was an attempt to stir up interreligious tensions in the country.

“An attempt was made to pit two traditional religions (Christianity and Islam) against each other, an attempt was made to divide people according to religious principles and also pit one against the other. Of course, we cannot allow anything like this,” a Russian news agency reported.

Hundreds of thousands of Central Asians work in Russia, and some have already said it has become tougher for them to do so. Some passengers, for example, refuse to board taxis with Tajik drivers as per a Reuters report.

This week, many passengers from Turkmenistan’s capital were not allowed to board flights to Moscow and were told by immigration officials that this was connected to “the recent terrorist attack in Moscow”, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.

Russian authorities, including President Vladimir Putin, have been quick to try to cool ethnic tensions, pointing the finger instead at Ukraine and the West.

Labours have choices, Russia doesn’t

Since the Ukraine war, the inflow of migrants has “almost stopped”, Alexandra Prokopenko, an economist and analyst at Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center said.

Russia is suffering an overall labour shortage because of the demands of its war in Ukraine, which led it to call up 300,000 reservists to join the army in 2022.

Fear of being forced to join the Russian army has prompted thousands of labourers to flee the country, in search of better employment opportunities.

“All these people from Central Asia can go and work in Gulf states, South Korea or Turkey - they can get jobs and there would be no problems with money transfers because of (Western) sanctions, there would be fewer problems in terms of safety and security, and probably local authorities would treat them better than in Russia,” Alexandra said.

A decrease in the number of Central Asian migrant workers could pose challenges for the Russian economy, as it heavily depends on labour in key sectors like construction, retail, and delivery services.