It’s a puzzling reality, but one that’s become increasingly undeniable in recent months—Russia, despite acute labour shortages that even threaten to undermine its “war economy” factories, is driving away the valuable resource that is Central Asian migrants. A watershed moment came with the Crocus City Hall Islamist terrorist atrocity in March that was allegedly committed by four Tajik gunmen. After that, reason appeared to go out the window as a wave of xenophobia took over. Even before Crocus—as indicated by a Bruce Pannier piece for bne IntelliNews published in February telling how Russia wa…
