Russian Prime Minister Medvedev: Moscow needs to protect the Far East region
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev yesterday warned of China's growing influence in the resource-rich Far East, saying Moscow needed to protect the region from "excessive expansion by neighbouring states".
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
Mr Medvedev, who was president from 2008 until May this year, raised the sensitive issue at a government meeting to discuss immigration.
Speaking days after Russia's first deputy defense minister announced that two nuclear submarines would be sent to the Pacific Fleet, Medvedev said "it is important not to allow negative effects, including the formation of areas populated entirely by foreign citizens."
“Unfortunately, not many people live there and the task of protecting our Far Eastern territories from excessive expansion by neighboring countries remains,” Prime Minister Medvedev stressed.
The Russian prime minister's comments, believed to be his strongest on the issue to date, underscored the Kremlin's concerns that a sharp increase in Chinese immigration to Siberia and the Far East could pose a threat to Russia's remote and sparsely populated territories.
Russia and China have close trade and diplomatic ties and share similar views on Syria, having vetoed three draft resolutions against President Bashar al-Assad's regime. However, their growing influence in the Far East - where street names are often in both Russian and Chinese - has long been a source of tension between the two countries.
New immigration policies
Resource-rich Russia is the world’s largest country by land area but has a population of just 143 million. Its population has been falling in recent years. Meanwhile, its energy-hungry neighbor to the south, China, has a population of 1.3 billion and is still growing.
Russia has tried to counter China's growing influence in the Far East by boosting its political-military presence in the region, where Moscow's position is weakening.
Mr Medvedev's new government, formed in May, appointed a Far East minister for the first time to promote government policies in the region. One of them is to bring 400 families from former Soviet republics to the region to increase its Russian-speaking population.
Mr Medvedev said the new migration policies had been approved by President Vladimir Putin and asked ministers to draw up an action plan to turn the policies into reality.
Earlier this year, Mr Putin said minorities in Russia must understand the country's culture and that migrant workers must pass tests on Russian language and history.
Mr Putin also said that authorities should be given more powers to check the professional skills of migrant workers.
Moscow and Beijing have signed a series of economic and energy agreements in recent years. At the APEC summit hosted by Russia in the city
According to dantri-M
