MOSCOW. April 2 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded a drastic change in the approach to the migration policy and proposed that the police consider this together with other relevant agencies.
"We need a profound, drastic transformation of the approaches to the migration policy: our approaches to the migration policy need an update. I am asking the Interior Ministry, other law enforcement agencies and security services to make a comprehensive, detailed analysis of such issues together with the government and the presidential administration," Putin said at an Interior Ministry expanded board meeting.
"It is necessary to submit a list of priorities," Putin said. "Above all, we must ensure the interests and security of the state and society, keep interethnic and interreligious peace, and preserve our cultural and linguistic identity, everything that constitutes Russia's strength," he said.
Putin underlined that foreigners, who come to Russia for work or other purposes, must respect Russian traditions and history.
"The principle by which only those who respect our traditions, language, culture and history can come to live and work in Russia must be crucial," he said.
The current migration system has flaws, which allow people with a criminal record to easily obtain work permits and be naturalized "even without a basic knowledge of the Russian language," Putin said.
"We need modern digital biometric databases. The existing ones seem to be insufficient, as they do not allow dealing with the recurrence of illegal immigration to the full extent," he said.
It often happens so that foreign citizens with Russian origins "are unable to get naturalized for years," Putin said.