Ukrainians make up 30% of foreigners coming to Russia – Border Service

The Russian Federal Security Service’s Border Service has been recording a surge in the number of foreign nationals entering the country over the past several years, TASS reported Monday. “The number of foreigners coming to Russia has been mounting in the past years,” Border Service Chief Igor Shmotkin said in an interview ahead of the agency’s 100th anniversary. “Only 23 million foreign nationals visited Russia in 2007 but their number has been escalating lately, reaching 32 million in 2017,” he noted. The bulk of foreigners traveling to Russia is made up of people from the neighboring states, primarily Ukraine (30%), Kazakhstan (13%), Uzbekistan (7.3%), Tajikistan (4.2%) and Azerbaijan (3.6%), according to the official.