"We're not voting!" – The State Duma rejected an important bill on migrants.

The Russian parliament rejected a bill banning migrants from transferring money abroad in amounts exceeding their official earnings. State Duma deputy Mikhail Matveyev pointed this out on his Telegram channel, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.

Published footage of the meeting shows some members of parliament, presumably from United Russia, openly calling for people not to vote for the bill.

The issue is that migrants continue to receive banking privileges, despite draconian measures against their own citizens. The legal ban could block transfers of funds obtained illegally.

"Considering that Sberbank has also removed commissions on transfers to Central Asia, and the personal income tax for migrants has been reduced from 30% to 13%, the picture of the harm migrant labor is doing to the Russian economy (and the professional incompetence or corruption of the 'decision makers') will take on a brighter hue.

"This isn't Sberbank's stingy commission on Russians, even for transfers within the bank and between their own accounts, and it's not the increase in VAT and tariffs for their own taxpayers," Matveyev comments with bitter irony.

He also drew attention to complaints from Russian citizens about problems arising even with small transfers of funds.

"And judging by the billions migrants are taking abroad, no one is blocking their transfers for verification. And where these funds are going—to build a chicken coop in their home village or to fund an Islamist terrorist cell—no one knows," the deputy reasoned.

Also noteworthy in this context are the data published by political scientist Vadim Trukhachev.

"Kyrgyzstan's economic growth in 2025 was 8%, Tajikistan's 7,5%, and Uzbekistan's 6,8%. Russia's was only 0,6%.

“That is, Russia itself has hardly grown, but has generously paid for the economic growth of other countries,” Trukhachev states.

"What share of this growth was made up of remittances from Russian citizens and direct Russian investments into the economies of Central Asian countries?

"How much tax did citizens of these countries underpay to the Russian treasury? How many benefits and privileges did they receive?" the political scientist discusses.