Honored migrants of the Russian Federation – Newspaper Kommersant No. 158 (7359) of 08/30/2022

On August 29, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the head of the Federal Agency for Ethnic Affairs, Igor Barinov, and agreed that the country needed adaptation centers for migrants. Special Correspondent “Kommersant” Andrey Kolesnikov believes that this idea is at least risky.

Vladimir Putin, having met with Igor Barinov in his office in the Kremlin, suggested starting with a discussion of global issues. That is, Mr. Barinov went into quarantine, which in this case cannot be called forced. In this case, it is voluntary: a participant in a meeting with the president is offered different formats, and such a format is his personal choice. And do not think that every interlocutor of Vladimir Putin, if there is a drop of common sense in him, chooses a meeting face to face, or rather eye to eye. There are people who avoid just that. They have video conferencing. However, there are daredevils (they are) who, for the sake of meeting with the president, are not ready to delete ten days from their lives, including personal ones.

– If we evaluate the situation in the ethno-confessional sphere as a whole, then it is stable, – said Igor Barinov. – The results of sociological studies also speak about this.

Igor Barinov was preparing, it seems, to tell something that, as a rule, is not spoken aloud at all. It’s too sensitive a subject. It’s too much better not to talk about it.

“During the period of coronavirus restrictions,” Mr. Barinov continued nonetheless, “some of our indicators dropped, and this was probably an objective situation. We assess this as a general social deterioration in the well-being of our citizens.

The whole question here is what indicators he, the head of the agency for nationalities, considers “ours”. What are his?

“But now,” he assured, “we have again reached positive, positive dynamics, and 80.7% of the population evaluate interethnic relations (obviously, between Russians.— A.K.) is positive, and 81.4% are ethno-confessional. There is also such a very important indicator as the all-Russian civic identity. He also returned to a fairly high level – 93.4%.

Such an indicator as the all-Russian civic identity, in theory, should now go off scale. After all, those who are against us are no longer with us.

Meanwhile, it turns out that the agency is engaged in monitoring the most sensitive in a person, that is, for example, ethno-confessional and international.

What exactly it is, it is unlikely that those who are involved will be able to explain. It is enough that they are doing.

“We understand that our sphere is very sensitive for people, and we are not going to rest on our laurels,” added Igor Barinov, meanwhile (with an emphasis on the first syllable in the word “rest”, so it sounded exactly like “treat”; or maybe , Igor Barinov had him in mind and wanted to say that on these laurels, which, most likely, are just some kind of perfume, he doesn’t even have thoughts of sitting and having a bite.— A.K.).— Because the negative moments, negative aspects, risks in our sphere have not gone away, and with the start of a special military operation, new ones have been added! We see how our opponents in the West are trying to discredit the state’s nationality policy.

“They always try to do it,” Vladimir Putin, unfortunately, cheered him up.

There was no need to do this, because Igor Barinov was suddenly and finally inspired. In addition, probably, the absence of a living word addressed to him in the past ten days made itself felt. That is, we now had in front of us an empathetic Igor Barinov (no, not us, but Mr. Putin).

— Yes, they changed the accents, changed the terminology and now they are talking not about “export of democracy”, but about “decolonization” of Russia! Igor Barinov exclaimed. “We have already calculated how many parts to divide us into, what is the maximum number of citizens that should live in these parts. But only, apparently, they do not know the history of the Russian Federation well!

His voice, so to speak, rang out:

– We have never been a colonial power and were formed on completely different principles and lived by other principles. By the way, the Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyin wrote very well about them (Igor Barinov apparently believed that he knew whom to quote.— A.K.): “Respect everyone, reconcile everyone, give everyone the opportunity to pray in their own way, work in their own way, and attract the best from everywhere to state and cultural construction.” By the way, this quote was also used ten years ago, when your article on the national question was published.

It might seem that this quote was used against Vladimir Putin. In fact, Vladimir Putin himself used it for himself.

“There are few people in our society who are subject to this influence,” continued Mr. Barinov. “Reverse processes are underway—consolidation! Apparently, this is such a feature of our people: when the country is faced with serious challenges, we forget about some problems, personal grievances, negative stereotypes and become one, consolidate.

And even a special opinion can not be? Can you think about yourself? Ah, later…

– And the confirmation of these processes in society at the moment – ​​the work that we are doing with our largest national-cultural and public associations for humanitarian assistance to the republics of Donbass – it might seem that Igor Barinov rushed somewhere to the side in his reasoning, but this was not the case. In fact, from the very beginning of the special military operation, we began to form humanitarian aid, humanitarian convoys … I would like to tell you about Lisichansk, where we were the first to deliver humanitarian aid literally a few days after the liberation and together with United Russia opened a humanitarian center. Social activists from Volgograd brought everything necessary for pilaf – two huge cauldrons, fed everyone who came to the humanitarian center that day. And then we unfurled a hundred-meter flag of the Russian Federation in the school yard!

I hope it wasn’t that gathering enough people to unfurl the flag without pilaf might not work.

“And I’ll tell you,” he continued, “that this unification and consolidation is taking place not only inside the country, they are going even faster there, on the front line, between the guys who are fighting against Nazism shoulder to shoulder in Ukraine. Yes, they are of different nationalities, from different subjects, different religions. In general, there is a saying that there are no atheists in the trenches. She’s probably right.

Igor Barinov spoke in this way nothing less than a new religion.

– For me, a vivid example of this was the video, – added the head of the federal agency, – which was recorded by soldiers of the special forces regiment named after Hero of Russia Akhmat-hadzhi Kadyrov from Chechnya and the Cossacks of the separate Cossack regiment named after Matvey Platov – this, if I am not mistaken, was after the liberation of Severodonetsk . They embraced and chanted: “Akhmat is power! Cossacks – power! Together – we are force!” Together we are really strong, and no one should be given the opportunity to destroy this unity!

Try to answer here. For example, I wouldn’t even try.

– Migration processes, they are complex, important, we understand that the economy needs an influx of foreign labor, but, unfortunately, these processes sometimes form, actually change the ethno-cultural landscape in certain territories – as suddenly as it apparently does everything else, moved on to a new and very sensitive topic Igor Barinov. — There are risks of the formation of enclaves, ethnic crime is growing, some areas of the labor market are under very serious pressure. Naturally, there is a backlash, often negative from the host community, from our citizens. And here, it seems to me, it is very important to intensify work on the socio-cultural adaptation of migrants.

It was interesting how it would be possible to explain the fight against these disturbing tendencies in terms of strengthening the unity of power.

“My colleagues in the government, these are nine federal executive bodies, and the Prosecutor General’s Office have now begun work on a new set of measures to prevent the spatial and social isolation of migrants, and we believe that this work should be strengthened with the involvement of public and religious organizations,” explained Igor Barinov .

“We need to start in the homeland of potential migrants,” Mr. Putin remarked riskily.

– Yes. The countries of origin also need this work, you are absolutely right! Igor Barinov supported.

There were already biblical notes in his words.

“Our colleagues agree with this, they are ready to get involved,” the president remarked approvingly. “I talk to many colleagues, many have already connected, we just need to be more active in this regard (about preventing the spatial and social isolation of migrants.— A.K.). There is no one against, no one objects! On the contrary, in Uzbekistan, in Tajikistan, in Kyrgyzstan – please, they all do it with pleasure! We just need to be more active there, they are even interested in this. They are well aware of the fact that when people leave their homeland and come to us, they must be adapted, they must know our culture, language, and know Russian legislation. Of course!

In fact, Igor Barinov was now receiving the go-ahead for very serious actions.

— At the moment, it seems to me that this work needs to be strengthened, and we see that in practice, as a rule, one of the most effective mechanisms is still (that is, there were discussions.— A.K.) creation of adaptation centers, but we do not have this infrastructure now.

– Do you mean in Russia? Putin seemed to be surprised.

Or maybe he really wanted to clarify.

– Yes! — exclaimed Igor Barinov. — And if you allow me, my colleagues and I would start this work, maybe in several pilot regions…

“Come on,” the president agreed. “People must understand that if they come to Russia, they must respect our customs, our traditions, know and observe Russian laws.

It sounded even harsher. Dmitry Rogozin stood on such phrases, at one time creating not Roskosmos, of course, but the Rodina party.

“And when all this can be done in one place – and learn about traditions, customs, culture, and get legal support and even psychological support, because, as psychologists say, a migrant is under a lot of stress … – it seems that Igor Barinov did not even believe, that he is now so solemnly and publicly blessed.

“Of course, separation from the motherland, from family, from relatives, from friends,” Vladimir Putin concluded sympathetically. “That’s understandable.

It is from the point of view of maximum sympathy for migrants that in this way adaptation centers will appear in the country, and there will immediately be those who want to call them labor, or rather filtration.

And not centers, but camps.

And then at least it will be clear what to spend such high indicators of Russian civic identity, interethnic and ethno-confessional unity.

On the sacred idea of ​​creating adaptation centers.

Because these indicators will simply collapse.

Andrey Kolesnikov