Facing Labor Crunch, Russia Plans Influx of Indian Workers in 2026

Russia is turning to India to help fill a deepening labor shortage, with officials expecting tens of thousands of Indian workers to arrive in 2026, according to Deutsche Welle on January 25.

The outlet said that Russia’s special representative for sustainable development, Boris Titov, said that at least 40,000 Indian citizens were expected to come as workers in 2026.

India’s ambassador in Moscow, Vinay Kumar, said that between 70,000 and 80,000 Indian citizens were already working in Russia by the end of 2025.

The outlet said the shift follows a labor mobility agreement signed in December 2025 in New Delhi by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, with the document planning a quota of more than 70,000 Indian citizens for 2026.

World Bank labor-force estimates show India had a labor force of about 607.7 million people in 2024, making it the world’s second-largest labor pool after China at about 773.9 million, according to the World Bank’s “Labor force, total” series and the CIA World Factbook’s 2024 country comparison. 

DW said border-crossing data it reviewed showed Indian entries rising through 2025, from about 32,000 in the first quarter and 36,000 in the second quarter to 63,000 in the third quarter. It said recruitment runs through official and unofficial agencies, with wages for low-skilled jobs ranging from about $555 to $1,111 per month.

The outlet also added that Indian workers cleaning streets in St. Petersburg and receiving a monthly pay of around $1,316, along with free accommodation, meals, and Russian-language courses, DW said, adding that city authorities said about 3,000 Indian jobseekers had arrived.

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DW cited Russia’s federal statistics service as estimating a labor shortage of 2.2 million workers in 2024, with experts from the Russian Academy of Sciences putting the figure as high as 4.8 million in 2023, while noting estimates vary.

At the same time, it was reported that Russia expanded recruitment from India and other South Asian countries to offset severe workforce shortages linked to the war, with flows of Indian migrants growing and quotas rising toward nearly 72,000 workers, highlighting continued reliance on foreign labor.

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