Asia | From Moscow with money

Central Asian governments fret over shrinking remittances from Russia

Sanctions notwithstanding, the country remains a magnet for migrants

Mandatory Credit: Photo by IGOR KOVALENKO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (12987608m)Kyrgyz people plant a garden in the Batken region, 800 km from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 15 June 2022. An intensive garden of fruit and berry crops of apple, pear, nectarine and apricot will occupy 100 hectares of land in the Batken region cooperative intensive garden 'Green Border'.Kyrgyz people plant a garden in the Batken region, Kyrgyzstan - 15 Jun 2022

Jun 23rd 2022|BATKEN

Daniyar abdyrakhmanov, a 37-year-old from Jany-Jer, a village in the Batken region in southern Kyrgyzstan, has spent half his life toiling in warehouses and at construction sites in Russia. Two of his three brothers still work there. His wife, a schoolteacher, hails from a neighbouring village. But they met in Moscow, where she worked as a shop assistant. When their son was two years old, they left him with his grandparents and went back to Russia to earn money.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “From Moscow with money”