Russia Needs New Approach to Migration after Concert Attack, Putin Says

 In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin participates in an annual extended meeting of the Board of the Russian Interior Ministry in Moscow on April 2, 2024. (AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin participates in an annual extended meeting of the Board of the Russian Interior Ministry in Moscow on April 2, 2024. (AFP)
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Russia Needs New Approach to Migration after Concert Attack, Putin Says

 In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin participates in an annual extended meeting of the Board of the Russian Interior Ministry in Moscow on April 2, 2024. (AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin participates in an annual extended meeting of the Board of the Russian Interior Ministry in Moscow on April 2, 2024. (AFP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called for a new approach to migration after Tajiks living in Russia were detained for a deadly attack on a concert hall outside Moscow that killed at least 144 people and wounded 551 more.

ISIS, the militant group that once sought control over swathes of Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for the mass shooting. Russia has said it suspects Ukraine was linked to the attack, a claim denied by Kyiv and dismissed by Washington.

At least 12 people - including four accused gunmen - have been detained in Russia in connection with the attack. Most are Tajiks who had lived and worked in Russia.

Putin told police chiefs that the attack was aimed at sowing discord, xenophobia and Islamophobia inside Russia. But he said that migration systems needed improvement, as it was clear that work permits were sometimes being issued to people with serious criminal records.

"We need to deeply and radically update our approaches to migration policy," Putin said, adding that some people with almost no knowledge of Russian or Russian culture were being allowed to work without proper checks.

"The decisive principle should be that only those who respect our traditions, language, culture, and history can come to live and work in Russia."

Russia's room for maneuver on migration, though, is limited.

Millions of people from former Soviet republics in Central Asia have flocked to Russia's biggest cities over the past few decades, supporting a blossoming 24-hour consumer society by working as taxi drivers, cleaners, barbers or beauticians.

With Russia's 147 million population forecast to fall over future decades, migrants play a vital role in the economy, also working in heavy industry and farming.

"It is necessary to ensure the interests and security of the state and society, to conserve and preserve interethnic and interreligious harmony, our cultural and linguistic identity, all that is Russia's strength," Putin said.

At least 277 languages and dialects are spoken in Russia. About 10% to 15% of Russia's population are Muslims.

Tajik officials have said they have seen a rise in Tajiks leaving Russia since the attack, and Russian media have reported police raids against unregistered migrants.

A blast ripped through a Central Asian-themed cafe in the southern Russian city of Voronezh in the early hours of Monday, when no one was on the premises.



Trump Says he and Putin Have Agreed to Begin Negotiations on Ending War

FILE – Then-US President Donald Trump, right, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, Friday, July 7, 2017. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE – Then-US President Donald Trump, right, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, Friday, July 7, 2017. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
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Trump Says he and Putin Have Agreed to Begin Negotiations on Ending War

FILE – Then-US President Donald Trump, right, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, Friday, July 7, 2017. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE – Then-US President Donald Trump, right, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, Friday, July 7, 2017. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

President Donald Trump upended three years of US policy toward Ukraine on Wednesday, saying that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to begin negotiations on ending the war following a dramatic prisoner swap.

Trump said in a social media post that he and Putin held a lengthy phone call during which they committed to “work together, very closely” to bring the conflict to an end and would meet in person, including perhaps in each other's countries.
It was unclear how closely Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would be involved. Although Trump held a phone call with him Wednesday, Ukrainian presidential adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said, characterizing it as a "good conversation," The Associated Press reported.
Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump's special Russia-Ukraine envoy, retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, will all be in Germany later this week for the annual Munich Security Conference, which Zelenskyy will also attend.
However, in a blow to Ukraine's aspirations, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier Wednesday at NATO headquarters in Brussels that NATO membership was not realistic for Ukraine and said that any security guarantees for the country would have to be born by European countries.
The Biden administration had joined other NATO members since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 in vowing that membership in the alliance was “inevitable.”
And Trump's announcement appeared to dismantle the Biden-era mantra that Kyiv would be a full participant in any decisions made. “Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” Biden and his top national security aides said repeatedly.
Wednesday's Trump-Putin call and resulting policy sea change, followed a prisoner swap that resulted in Russia releasing American schoolteacher Marc Fogel, of Pennsylvania, after more than three years of detention in return for convicted Russian criminal Alexander Vinnik.
“We each talked about the strengths of our respective Nations, and the great benefit that we will someday have in working together,” Trump said in a social media post disclosing details about the call. "But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine.
Trump said they also “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately” and would be alerting Zelenskyy to their conversation. He appointed Rubio, CIA director John Ratcliffe, national security advisor Michael Waltz, and his special Mideast envoy Steven Witkoff to lead those talks.
White House officials later declined to clarify whether Ukraine would be a party to the U.S. negotiations with Russia.
But, they described the prisoner swap as evidence of a diplomatic thaw that could advance negotiations to end the fighting in Ukraine.
Fogel, an American history teacher who was deemed wrongfully detained by Russia, was arrested in August 2021 for possession of marijuana and was serving a 14-year prison sentence. He had been left out of previous prisoner swaps with Russia that were negotiated by the Biden administration.
Vinnik — the other person involved, according to two US officials — was arrested in 2017 in Greece at the request of the US on cryptocurrency fraud charges and was later extradited to the United States, where he pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit money laundering.
He is currently in custody in California awaiting transport to return to Russia, the officials said. The Kremlin confirmed that a Russian citizen was freed in the United States in exchange for Fogel but refused to identify him until he arrives in Russia.
Trump had welcomed Fogel at the White House on Tuesday evening after his return to US soil on Witkoff's personal plane. On Wednesday, Trump declined to say if he spoke with Putin about Fogel and didn't say what the United States had provided in exchange for Fogel’s release.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Trump suggested that Fogel's release could help anchor a peace deal on Ukraine, saying: “We were treated very nicely by Russia, actually. I hope that’s the beginning of a relationship where we can end that war.”
The Kremlin was more cautious, but it also noted that the deal could help strengthen mutual trust.