The count comes from Russia’s own border service, cited by Vedomosti and relayed by kun.uz on Thursday. Entries for work purposes in January to June: 1.17 million from Uzbekistan, down 13.2% year on year; 494,500 from Tajikistan, down 17.9%; 289,100 from Kyrgyzstan, down 16.7%. Together just over 1.95 million, against about 2.3 million a year earlier. The series counts crossings, and one worker can make several; it measures traffic toward Russian jobs, and the traffic is thinning.
Alexander Safonov of the Financial University in Moscow, quoted in the Vedomosti account, points to the rising price of work permits, medical checks, housing and transport. The same account has workers from all three countries turning instead to South Korea, China, the Middle East and the EU.
A new instrument arrives on 1 September. The Amina app becomes the main registration channel for visa-free foreign nationals aged 18 and over staying in Moscow and Moscow region; minors stay with the interior ministry’s territorial offices. Tajikistan’s labour ministry mission in Russia set the requirement out in a notice relayed by Asia-Plus on Friday, naming students and researchers among those covered.
The third line is the price of staying. The ruble touched 1.0834 som on Thursday, a 4-month low against the Kyrgyz currency by the National Bank’s data. A remittance of 100,000 rubles bought 122,760 som on 2 July and 108,340 som on Thursday: 14,420 som less, a fall of 11.75% in five weeks. Kyrgyz migrants sent home $1.101 billion in the first five months of the year.
The three lines point the same way, and each stands on its own publisher; the desk draws no arrow between them. Watch 1 September, when the app goes mandatory, and the August remittance prints, which will carry the ruble’s slide in full.