One of the recently issues decrees of the president Vladimir Putin aimed at stimulating Russian nationals to come back to the Russian Federation again raised concers about the future prospects of Kyrgyzstan labor market as well as about the overall future of the country. According to local analysts a new wave of migration of the Russian speaking population expected to shake the social reality in Kyrgyzstan once again.

It is a matter of fact that nowadays there is only 560 thousands of Slavic population still permanently reside in Kyrgyzstan.The initiative of the Russian president is believed to pave the way for ethnic Russians left to abandon Kyrgyzstan.

The head of the Slavic Foundation of the Kyrgyz Republic Vladimir Vishnevsky emphasizes in the interview to NewEurasia : “Russians now hesitate revealing the real reasons behind their decision to leave Kyrgyzstan. They used to experience racial and language discrimination, than massive economic stagnation became the driving force to define migration dynamics in the country. ”

It should be noted though that in the past years the character of migration in the country has changed profoundly. Migration in fact became polyethnic. It’s estimated that around 700 000 Kyrgyz citizens, including those of Kyrgyz ethnicity, chose to leave the country for Kazakhstan and Russia counting on better salaries.

According to the statistical data annually thousands of ethnic Kyrgyz (age 18-35) chose to leave Kyrgyzstan striving for better prospects and living standards. It’s a well known fact-several thousands of garbage cleaners come from the same small village in Kyrgyzstan. The “fashion” now is to relocate along with the whole community.

“National disaster” is the main characteristic that experts tend to give in the current situation. According to Vladimir Vishnevsky, the number of Slavs leaving the country annually may account to 20 000. The promise given by Vladimir Putin in this light is likely to spur Russian nationals from Kyrgyzstan to reunite with their “historical motherland”. Russian president has apparently given a promise to compensate the relocation costs and handle the issues of unemployment for newcomers from Kyrgyztan.

The motivation behind such initiatives of the Russian president is explainable. For the last 30 years the population of Russia has decreased tremendously and the country got trapped in the demographic crises. Russian authorities of late decided to spur the birth rates by all available means.

It should be noted that Russian nationals still residing in Kyrgyzstan emphasize in one accord that Russia was supposed to launch such an initiative 15 years ago immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Nowadays rumor has it that lots of Russians in Kyrgyzstan has already started intensive packing immediately after Putin’s proposal got publicized.
Kyrgyz authorities got unpleasantly surprised by the situation. Of late, as it normally happens. Kyrgyz president Bakiev announced recently that “the fading industry will soon recover” with “new employment opportunities being created in the nearest future.”

The question is – who is to occupy these promised positions? The majority of qualified workers has already left the country. Kurmanbek Bakiev was previously warning on the situation with the poor quality of the Russian language instructions in Kyrgyz village schools. Another paradox appears- people not speaking sufficient Russian won’t be able to find jobs in neighboring Kazakhstan and Russia.

The situation is disastrous indeed providing the fact that Kyrgyzstan will hardly be able to cater enough jobs for its citizens in the nearest future despite of all optimistic promises of the Kyrgyz president. The reality is that people keep leaving Kyrgyzstan keep being forced out by the economic stagnation and bureaucratic barriers.

Ruslan Eshimov has left Kyrgyzstan 15 years ago. “I was not able to elbow my way through the system”,-he says. “I was not able to make my living and in general I hade a feeling that noone in the country cares about the peoplewho are able to work and invest their efforts into the development of Kyrgyzstan ”

The final question is whether we have any hope here? How much time is left for Kyrgyzstan to enjoy the status of the country with educated population, geopolitical advantages and a flourishing civil society (or at least a variety of NGO’s present on the ground)?

The feeling on the contrary is that very soon Kyrgyzstan’s population will be mainly comprised of bureaucrats and aging retired people who are simply not capable to leave.
May be someone can still benefit from such an outcome?