Russia approves fines of up to 60 million rubles for falsifying migration documents

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that raises fines for legal entities for forging documents to organize illegal migration. The corresponding document was published on the official portal of legal information on November 23.

The imposition of fines is envisaged in cases where the act was committed to violate the rules of entry to the Russian Federation by a foreigner or stateless person, movement on its territory, migration registration or the procedure for choosing a place of stay or residence in the country.

The fine for legal entities will be from 5 million to 10 million rubles with confiscation of the instrument of offense. In case of a repeated offense, the fine will be increased - from Br10 million to Br60 million with confiscation.

The law also makes the punishment for forgery of documents, stamps, seals or letterheads, their use, transfer or sale stricter. Violators may be fined from Br40 thousand to Br80 thousand, while before it was Br30 thousand to Br50 thousand. The fine for repeat offenses will be from Br100 thousand to Br200 thousand, before it was from Br50 thousand to Br100 thousand. In both cases, confiscation of the instrument, by which the offense was committed, is assumed.

Earlier, November 21, Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin reported that the State Duma deputies adopted an appeal to the Russian government on the implementation of measures to combat illegal migration. He said that it is proposed to introduce mandatory oral testing of Russian language skills for migrants, expand video recording of exams, differentiate language proficiency levels depending on profession and strengthen control over the testing procedure. In the field of labor migration it is proposed to develop unified criteria for its regulation, to establish clear quotas, to strengthen the responsibility of employers and to develop a transition to the collection of biometrics of foreign citizens.