Kazakhstan has barred Russian nationals from staying in the country indefinitely and will start checking visas of such people every three months, said a government mandate published this week.
The government will discontinue the system from January 26, mandating Russians and nationals of other nations who are a part of the post-Soviet group known as the Eurasian Economic Union to depart the nation for at least 90 days following their three-month stay-permit.
The move was put forward by the Interior Ministry which said that this would equip the state with major control over immigration.
Thousands of Russians, mostly in their young or middle ages, started residing in Kazakhstan from 2021 amidst the Ukraine conflict that started with Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.
Kazakhstan has Russian as its most spoken language and it shares the world’s longest continuous land border with Russian. This has also been a major reason for Russians migrating to the country.
The ability to stay in the country de facto indefinitely – by leaving it and reentering every 90 days – has been another important factor.
Nevertheless, Kazakhstan has been tackling the influx of Russians. Officials there have feared such migration of people leading to inflation, which shot up to more than 20% last year, its highest since the 1990s.
The conflict in Ukraine has also strained relations between Moscow and Astana, since the latter has sided with peace advocates rather than its former Soviet master.
