DUSHANBE, July 9, 2014, Asia-Plus – News website Banki.ru reports that Tajikistan is one of the key countries for Russia’s money transfer systems and notes that Russian government resolution toughening the requirements for Tajik nationals to enter the Russian Federation can affect the money transfer systems because some 30-40 percent of Tajik nationals will not be able to enter Russia because of Kremlin’s decision to tighten entry requirements for citizens of Tajikistan.

We will recall that Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a resolution tightening the requirements for Tajik nationals to enter the country.  The text of the resolution was placed on the Russian cabinet''s website on June 23.  As of January 1, 2015, Tajik citizens will no longer be able to enter the Russian Federation only with their national identification documents, known as “internal passports.”  They must now obtain travel documents, such as regular, service, or diplomatic passports.

Experts say the resolution will affect the estimated 1.5 million labor migrants from Tajikistan who work in Russia on a permanent basis and periodically travel between the two countries.

Moscow had announced earlier that it intends to tighten by 2015 the regulations for entering Russia by nationals of former Soviet republics who are nonmembers of the Russian-led customs union and Eurasian Economic Union.

Bank.ru notes that Russia’s money transfer systems carry out transactions due to business with the CIS nations as citizens of these nations arrive in Russia seeking better employment opportunities.

Among the CIS nations, Tajikistan takes second place in terms of money transfer from Russia following Uzbekistan, which is in the lead in this area.  

Banki.ru reports that according to data of the World Bank, as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) Tajikistan was the top recipient of remittances in 2012 – 51 percent.

As of June 1, 2014, more than 2.5 million Uzbek citizens and more than 1.1 million Tajik nationals reportedly worked in the Russian Federation.

Representatives of the money transfer system Western Union have cited the Central Bank of Russia as noting that physical entities have remitted 648 million U.S. dollars to banks in Tajikistan over the first quarter of this year.  Representatives of Western Union confirmed that that the Russia-CIS corridor is one of the key corridors for the company as labor migrants’ remittances constitute a serious part of a total cash flow.

Representatives of Russian trade unions working with migrant workers predict that some 30-40 percent of Tajik nationals will not be able to enter Russia because of lack of passports for foreign travels.

Top manager of International Money Transfers System Leader, Sergey Bludov, says migrant workers account for the overwhelming part of his company’s money turnover.  Over the first six months of 2013, the CIS nations accounted for 83 percent of the overall volume of remittances sent through Leader.  In the first –half-year of 2014, this percentage, however, reduced to 77 percent.  Over the first six months of 2013, Tajikistan reportedly accounted for 29 percent of the overall volume of remittances sent through Leader and in January-June this year, this percentage increased to 35 percent.

Bludov considers that the resolution tightening entry requirements for Tajik nationals will not affect the Leader business.  “At present some 80 percent of Tajik nationals have passports for foreign travels and the procedure of issuing foreign passports is quite simple in Tajikistan,” said Bludov.  “Therefore, the remaining 20 percent, in the case of necessity, will receive foreign passports without any problems.”

He further added that Tajikistan remained one of the priority directions for Leader and it was not reasonable to replace this direction with other regions.

Director of the money transfer system Zolotaya Korona (Golden Crown), Ivan Sitnov, also considers that the resolution tightening entry requirements for Tajik nationals will not make entry to Russia for Tajik nationals difficult because issuance of foreign passport is not a serious problem in Tajikistan.