INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russia needs migrants to address its declining domestic workforce, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview published by state
for economic development.Anti-migrant sentiment is widespread in Russia, particularly against laborers from Central Asia, who fill crucial
like financial payouts and mortgage subsidies for families with multiple children.The population decline has been exacerbated by large
numbers of Covid-19 deaths, casualties among soldiers fighting in Ukraine and the mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of men fleeing
according to the state statistics agency Rosstat
Between January and September, 920,200 babies were born, a 3.4% drop from the same period last year and the lowest figure since the 1990s,
