Russia expects to recruit as many as 1 million workers from India by the end of the year, said Andrei Besedin, head of the Ural Chamber of Commerce and Industry, citing his Indian counterparts.
The effort comes as Russia, grappling with an intensifying labor shortage linked to the ongoing war in Ukraine and broader demographic challenges, seeks to tap into labor pools beyond the former Soviet sphere.
“Agreements have been reached, in particular, with India. As far as I heard from my Indian colleagues, 1 million specialists from India will come to Russia, including the Sverdlovsk region, by the end of the year,” Besedin said in an interview.
A new Indian consulate would open in Yekaterinburg to accommodate the incoming Indian laborers, he said.
He added that these workers will help address staff shortages at metallurgical and mechanical engineering enterprises in the Sverdlovsk region.
“Many local workers have left to take part in the conflict in Ukraine, while young people are not seeking jobs in factories,” he said.
Besedin also said efforts were underway to bring in workers from other countries, including Sri Lanka and North Korea.
“Those people are good workers,” he remarked of North Korean workers, while acknowledging that integrating Indian and Sri Lankan laborers could prove difficult. “We’re used to migrants from nearby former Soviet republics who studied in Russia and speak the language. For now we don’t have any experience working with [Sri Lankan and Indian laborers]... it will be difficult, as our approaches and practices may differ.”
Russian businesses have already begun experimenting with Indian labor.
In March, Moscow-based developer Samolyot Group launched a pilot program to hire Indian construction workers. While executives cited advantages, including lower wage expectations and limited job mobility compared to Central Asian laborers, they also encountered early setbacks.
“The results haven’t been particularly successful,” said Alexei Akindinov, the company’s operations director, blaming the language barrier and cultural differences.
Retail giant X5 Group, which owns Pyaterochka and Perekrestok supermarkets, has also started hiring Indian workers for logistics and distribution roles.
“There are many nuances,” said company president Yekaterina Lobacheva, pointing to “basic linguistic and cultural differences.”
Last year, over 4,000 Indian migrants applied for jobs in St. Petersburg alone, and Indian workers have been spotted in the Kaliningrad and Moscow regions.
Online marketplace Ozon has hired Indian citizens for both warehouse positions and technical roles.
Meanwhile, Russia’s influential Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs has floated the idea of building vocational training schools in India to prepare laborers specifically for the Russian job market — an initiative supported by Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov, who has pledged to coordinate with the Foreign Ministry.
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