DUSHANBE, May 26, 2011, Asia-Plus -- Some 70 Tajik nationals have moved to Russia’s Tambov region under the Russian national program to assist the voluntary resettlement of fellow-countrymen living abroad to the Russian Federation since 2007, when the program was launched, the Tambov employment department head Mikhail Filimonov announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on May 25.

“In all, 820 people from different countries have moved to the Tambov region under the voluntary resettlement program since 2007,” said Filimonov, “People have come from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Germany and Israel.  Over the report period, only 15 people have left the region, mainly because of climatic conditions of the region.”

He stressed that mostly medical workers had moved to the Tambov region under the resettlement program.  According to him, the region now needs, first all, physicians, agronomists, builders, teachers and agricultural machine operators.

Viktor Sebelev, head of the representative office of Russia’s Federal Migration Service (FMS) in Tajikistan, noted that more than 700 families (totaling more than 2,000 people) from various regions of Tajikistan have moved to Russia under the voluntary resettlement program over the past four years,