Immigration
Russia. The Russian Federal Border Service estimated that there were a million illegal migrants in the country, most from China; between January 1999 and June 2000, 1.5 million Chinese entered Russia, and only 237,000 were legally registered. However, the Federal Migration Service said that there were not one million Chinese in the country, saying that most of the Chinese are shuttle migrants who buy and sell goods, and do not remain in Russia.
Russia and China share a 500-kilometer border in Siberia and the Far East.
China said that its migrants who are working and trading in Russia are spreading prosperity on both sides of the border. Local Russian officials counter that the migrants contribute little to the local economies, dodge taxes and are increasingly involved in illegal timber and scrap metal exports. The FMS says that the Chinese send home more than six billion dollars a year.
In a poll cited by ITAR-TASS, nearly 44 percent of Russians are opposed to issuing work permits to jobless migrants, with 28 percent backing a reduction in immigration. The Russian government issued about 200,000 work permits in 1999 most for those from the Ukraine, Turkey, China, Vietnam, Moldova and Azerbaijan.
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Sino-Russian Relations
Mr. Nemtsov discussed two major points with regards to Sino-Russian relations.
First, he observed that there were at present no political problems between the two countries. A potential danger area concerned the problem of illegal Chinese immigration into Siberia. The population of Siberia totals approximately 20 million people, who live next to a much greater Chinese population in Northeastern China. At present, he estimated that there are approximately one million illegal Chinese immigrants in Siberia.
Secondly, Nemtsov noted that the huge potential for an immensely rewarding economic relationship between the two powers. Russia, blessed with abundant energy resources, could build a pipeline from Siberia to China to help satisfy China's growing need for energy imports. The problem: the current weak international oil market makes financing such a project problematic. Russian electricity exports to China constitute another possible new market.
As for Russian weapons exports to China, Nemtsov noted that the do indeed "exist" but that the Russian government would never send "something wrong" to China. Russia will abide by its international obligations and doesn't expect that this will be a problem in the future either.
