India’s envoy to Russia, Vinay Kumar, has highlighted growing interest from Russian companies in the machinery and electronics industries to hire Indian professionals. Speaking to TASS, Kumar emphasized that while many Indian workers currently join the construction and textile sectors, demand in machinery and electronics is on the rise.
Kumar also noted the increasing workload of consular services as more Indians arrive for employment. Services such as passport extension, childbirth registration, and lost passport assistance are in higher demand due to the growing inflow of skilled workers.
According to Andrey Besedin, head of the Ural Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Russia plans to import up to 1 million workers from India by the end of 2025, particularly to fill gaps in highly industrialized regions like Sverdlovsk, home to major enterprises including Uralmash and Ural Wagon Zavod (T-90 tank production). Besedin explained that local industries face a shortage of skilled labor, exacerbated by deployments in the military and low interest from younger workers in factory jobs.
A new Consulate General in Yekaterinburg will specifically handle employment-related services for Indian migrants. While Russia is also considering labor from Sri Lanka and North Korea, the process is complex. Indian workers first began arriving in 2024, including to the Kaliningrad fish processing complex “Za Rodinu”, addressing regional labor shortages.
The Russian Ministry of Labour projects a shortage of 3.1 million workers by 2030 and has proposed increasing quotas for qualified foreign workers by 1.5 times to 0.23 million in 2025.
(With agency inputs)
