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The proposed amendments to the law “On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation” would require foreign workers to have a document confirming their command of the Russian language, which would have to be presented to territorial authorities. Immigrants would be instructed by the state and forced to leave the country of they fail to master the language.
Experts say that employers will probably be willing to pay for the language instruction of highly-qualified specialists, but preference may be shown for Russian-speaking laborers. “In my view,” stated Oleg Eremeev, chairman of the Coordinating Council of Employers of Russia, “the immigrant should pay for instruction himself, or the state should.” The requirement would apply to workers from the CIS and others as well, with only foreign citizens working for foreign firms being exempt.
Chairman of the Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation and Statecraft Vladimir Pligin, a United Russia member, stated that “we'll have to think well about sources of funding” but supported the amendments as a whole. Tofik Melikov, head of the Ojah Azeri cultural society, said that, “the state may use this initiative to create a language barrier for foreigners coming to Russia.”
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