The Moldovans in Russia consists of two major parts: Russian citizens and labor migrants (gastarbeiters).
According to the 2002 Russian Census there were 172,196 Moldovans[1] among the legal residents of Russia.[nb 1]
According to the 2010 Russian Census there were 156,400 Moldovans, as well as 3,201 Romanians.[2] According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 544 ethnic Romanians born in Russia lived in the United States in 2015.[3]
The head of the diaspora is Alexandr Kalinin the leader of the Party of Regions of Moldova.[4] In Russia, he heads the Congress of Moldovan Diasporas (Конгресс Молдавских Диаспор) established in 2009.
According to the 2014 estimate of the Russian Federal Migration Service, there were over 550,000 nationals of Moldova in Russia, with estimated 228,000 illegal residents. In 2013, about 33,500 work permits were issued to Moldovan citizens.[4]
At the end of 2018 Presidents of Russia and Moldova declared a migration law amnesty for Moldovan citizens who would return to Moldova between January 1 and 23, 2019. Alexandr Kalinin commented that this move looked like an attempt to boost the election performance of the then Moldovan President Igor Dodon.[5]