In total, according to him, 60 subjects are working on the program. But the project for the resettlement of compatriots turned out to be extremely unpopular among potential returnees. Since December 2, 2006 - the date of the project's launch at the congress of compatriots in St. Petersburg - only 26 participants of the program have returned. Another 74 received the corresponding certificates.
"Most are interested in the offer from the Kaliningrad region. Two participants of the program with their families will move to the Lipetsk region. Another about 3,000 people have filled out questionnaires for resettlement," said Deputy Head of the Department for Compatriot Affairs of the FMS Natalya Molchanova. She does not hide that the pace of resettlement is clearly lagging behind the planned. The problem, according to her, lies in the inflexibility of the federal program and the reluctance of some subjects to participate in it.
"According to the presidential decree, all regions are obliged to propose their own resettlement programs for compatriots to the government. Under the conditions, each of the 87 regions must fall into one of groups - A, B, and C. Depending on the economic and geographical situation, the amounts of subsidies were distributed. Some districts, taking advantage of the fact that they cannot be assigned to any group, wrote a refusal," Molchanova indignantly said. Among such unconscientious ones: Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Chuvashia, Komi, Kalmykia, Tuva, Udmurtia, etc. They cited high migration pressure.
But Moscow and St. Petersburg behaved more disciplined, but in their own way. As early as mid-January, the FMS received letters from the authorities of these cities with proposals for implementing the program. "In Moscow, 13 thousand people live per square kilometer, employment reaches 100%. Therefore, we offer our assistance to border regions. For example, Tver, Kaluga, Tambov, and Lipetsk regions. We could provide guarantees to investors working there with compatriots. Moscow is the port of five seas and the main transport hub of the country. Therefore, we are ready to ensure the transit of compatriots through our city," said Yevgeny Chernetsov, head of the labor exchange organization department of the Moscow Committee for Interregional Relations and National Policy, to the correspondent.
The FMS did not appreciate the grand gesture of the capital's authorities. According to Natalya Molchanova, this plan does not meet the criteria of the standard program, so it was sent back for revision. She reported that not only Moscow proposed alternative forms of implementing the program. For example, Novosibirsk is happy to have compatriots, but only students, and such selectivity is also not provided for by the project. The reaction of the subjects forces the FMS to think about proposing to the government to adjust the program for the resettlement of compatriots so as to interest regional authorities.
The head of the "Forum of Resettlement Organizations" Lidiya Grafova stated that the success of the entire resettlement policy now largely depends on the position of Moscow and St. Petersburg - whether they will open the doors to compatriots. "Thanks to high capital salaries, the resettlers will be able to purchase housing using a mortgage. In other regions, they unfortunately are not able to do this," she noted.