The Russian parliament has enacted a new law mandating geolocation tracking for all foreigners residing in Moscow and the Moscow region starting on September 1, 2025.
Migrants in Moscow and the Moscow region will be required to register in a special mobile application, provide consent for the processing of their personal data (including the device’s geolocation), and periodically send a message regarding their actual location to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Any changes to their residence address must be reported through the application within three business days. Exceptions apply in cases where a foreigner is in a hotel, sanatorium, hospital, or prison.
If a foreigner fails to transmit their device’s geolocation data within three days of their last check-in, they will lose their registration and be entered into the registry of controlled persons – a database of foreigners regarded as residing in Russia illegally. Inclusion in this registry severely limits the rights of foreigners and initiates deportation proceedings.
The experiment, which will last for four years and exclude minors, diplomats, and their family members, along with citizens of Belarus, continues the ongoing tightening of Russia’s migration regulations. Since the March 2024 terrorist attack at the Crocus City concert hall, the Russian government has enacted over a dozen laws complicating migration to the country.
“If the experiment proves successful, it can be extended to other regions,” wrote the chairman of the lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, on his Telegram channel.
Digital experts quickly highlighted the significant risk of personal data leaks from the mobile application, which corrupt government and law enforcement entities, as well as fraudsters and extortionists, could exploit illegally. Technical issues such as glitches in the mobile app or internet connectivity loss may complicate the check-in process and jeopardize foreigners’ registration status. Human rights advocates, in turn, raised concerns that the new law violates both the principles of international law and the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and places additional pressure on labor migrants from Central Asia.
Unable to find gainful employment in their home countries, Central Asians migrate to Russia seeking work and better incomes. In recent years, remittances from Russia have amounted to the equivalent of a third of Tajikistan’s GDP and a quarter of Kyrgyzstan’s (though there was a significant drop in remittances during the second year of the full-scale war in Ukraine). According to data from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, labor migration from Central Asia reached a five-year high in 2022, with up to a million Kyrgyz, 3.5 million Tajiks, and 5.8 million Uzbeks entering Russia with the intention to work (some individuals may have been counted multiple times in these figures, as they reflect the total number of registered border crossings). However, while Russia remains a popular destination, migrants have long encountered issues that range from wage theft and relentless bureaucracy to daily abuse, discrimination, and even death threats from both law enforcement and ordinary Russians.
The new law may serve as an additional lever of pressure against labor migrants from Central Asia, compelling them to pay bribes or to fight for Russia in the invasion of Ukraine. Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum last month, the chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, noted that new stricter migration regulations have already enabled law enforcement officers to apprehend 80,000 newly naturalized Russian citizens from Central Asia who had previously evaded military registration. “Already 20,000 ‘young’ Russian citizens, who for some reason don’t like living in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, are on the front line in Ukraine,” said Bastrykin.
Despite the new law’s potential for abuse and human rights violations, exiled migrant rights activist Valentina Chupik notes a silver lining: migrants will have the opportunity to register themselves at a new address and report their actual location.
“Property owners often do not want to officially register a migrant because these owners are hiding from taxes. This means that a foreigner is forced to buy fictitious registrations at addresses where they do not actually live. And the mobile application described in the new law can eliminate the need to buy these documents,” Chupik reasoned in a recent interview. But she nevertheless emphasized that the coercion to register in the new mobile application is “outrageous” and creates potential for abuse.
