Russia’s Duma passed a bill yesterday banning children who are not proficient in Russian from attending school. The law takes aim at migrant children, who must now pass a Russian language proficiency exam.
The State Duma, which passed the bill 409-1, is the lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly.
Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin also clarified that migrant children will have their legal status in the country checked, that is, if they are living in the country legally.
The upper house of Russia’s parliament, the Federation Council, is expected to pass the bill as well, with it set to come into force in April 2025 after President Vladimir Putin signs it into law.
Volodin claimed that 41 percent of migrant children had “difficulty” speaking Russian at the start of the 2024-2025 school year. He also said 14 bills in total have been passed to combat illegal migration this year.
Putin’s tightening of migration policy is not a surprise after the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack at a concert at Crocus City Hall in Moscow that left 145 dead and 551 injured.
Tajikistanis purportedly carried out the IS plan, with mass police raids and deportations of migrants from Tajikistan and other former Soviet Central Asian republics in the wake of the attack.
Just this past June, Islamic terror attacks targeted an Orthodox church in the town of Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan; a synagogue in the town of Derbent; and a police station in Makhachkala.
In response to this bill, Amnesty International’s Russia Director, Natalia Zviagina, said:
“This bill not only blatantly violates international law, which Russia is bound by, but also the country’s own Constitution, which prohibits discrimination and guarantees everyone the right to free school education. It is a gross display of xenophobia elevated to the level of state policy.”
