In late May, St. Petersburg authorities proposed banning migrants from working as taxi drivers and couriers. It only concerns foreign citizens who work under a work permit. The ban will not affect citizens of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, as they do not need a permit.

The ban was officially introduced by Beglov's decree of July 28 and is valid until the end of 2025. The authorities claim the ban will improve the “quality and safety” of services.

Additionally, The Russian Ministry of Labor has prepared a bill that proposes to ban hiring foreign workers who do not know Russian for positions "that involve social interaction and communication with Russian citizens." This includes drivers, salespeople, and doctors.

The agency specifies that this concerns migrants from countries with visa entry: China, India, Turkey and others. There is a visa-free regime with the countries of Central Asia, from where most migrants come to Russia. However, people from these countries have to obtain patents for work, and the package of documents for the patent also includes a certificate of passing the Russian language exam.

At the end of July 2025, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a bill exempting such migrants from the language exam. But the document was criticized by Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin: "Why are you proposing to include those who may not know the language in the list? Categories such as drivers, salespeople, they need to communicate, they need to know the language, they need to know the laws." The response to this statement was the bill of the Ministry of Labor.

Against the backdrop of tightening laws and growing intolerance of Russian authorities towards migrant workers, raids on foreigners continue – in dormitories, markets, and sports clubs. People caught in them say that they are being recruited to fight under the threat of deportation and beatings. If a migrant has managed to obtain Russian citizenship, he can be sent to the army – and forced to participate in the war with Ukraine – by force: in May 2025, the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin, reported that 20 thousand migrants who had received Russian citizenship had been sent to war.