Russians Concerned About ‘Alien Invasion’

Moscow — Russians who marry foreigners could be exiled and stripped of their citizenship under a bill being drafted by a group of members of parliament, a deputy has said.

One of the bill’s authors, Duma deputy Nikolai Kuryanovich, a member of the ultra-nationalist LDPR party, has acknowledged parliament is unlikely to approve the measures, but insists that they are necessary.

“Our women, the most beautiful and best in the world, are going abroad. By doing this, they are wasting the most valuable thing we have — the gene pool of our nation,” Kuryanovich said.

While condemning women for going abroad, he said he did not want people bringing foreign spouses to Russia either.

Newlyweds would have to go to live in spouses’ countries of origin to protect Russia from “an invasion of alien elements”.

“Adapting to life in Russia . . . foreigners impose their own rules, which are unacceptable to us,” Kuryanovich said.

Since the fall of Communism, the numbers of Russians marrying foreigners have increased significantly.

A poll finding cited in respected magazine Ogonyok last year said one in three girls aged between 17 and 25 wanted to marry a foreigner and live abroad.

The leader of the LDPR, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, is known as a maverick who enjoys stirring up controversy and has traded punches with fellow deputies during parliamentary sittings.