A new migration policy rule took effect in September: if a foreign national is diagnosed with a dangerous infectious disease, deportation—the formal removal of a foreign national from Russia—may be applied. The information was published by the State Duma (Государственная Дума), Russia’s lower house of parliament. For an employer, this is primarily a factor to consider when assessing the stability of an employment relationship with a foreign employee, rather than grounds for independently changing HR or medical processes.
What exactly changed in September
The law introduced the possibility of deporting a foreign national if a dangerous infectious disease is diagnosed. This is a rule currently in force: the original material states that it took effect in September. The exact effective date is not given, nor is the number of the federal law.
The State Duma’s report does not disclose the list of diseases considered dangerous for the purposes of this rule. It also contains no information about which authority makes the decision, how the disease is established, what the deportation procedure involves, or which steps precede it. Therefore, the publication cannot be used as a ready-made guide for a specific case.
How this affects workforce planning
For a company, the news means that another circumstance may affect whether a foreign employee can remain in Russia. If deportation is applied to an employee, this may affect the employee’s ability to continue working in practice. However, the source itself does not establish a separate procedure for the employer to follow in such a situation.
When planning recruitment and position coverage, it is useful to distinguish confirmed changes from assumptions. The only confirmed fact is that deportation may be possible if a dangerous infection is diagnosed. There is no confirmation of the categories of workers to whom the rule most often applies, the review timelines, or the documents an employer may be required to provide.
Why employers should not introduce new health checks
The original publication does not instruct employers to independently check the health of foreign workers. It does not require them to request additional medical information, certificates, or examination results. Nor does it state that employers must change their standard procedures for onboarding, maintaining personnel files, or internal immigration compliance.
Creating special procedures based solely on a brief report could lead to unjustified HR decisions and the handling of data whose necessity has not been confirmed by the source. Until the official text of the law has been reviewed, it is more reasonable not to expand the list of requested information and not to draw conclusions about an employee’s status without official information about a specific decision.
The context of immigration control in 2026
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (МВД), Russia’s federal agency responsible for internal affairs and migration, during the first half of 2026, approximately 100 thousand foreign nationals who had violated the law were deported or administratively expelled. Approximately 200 thousand foreign nationals were banned from entering Russia, while around 800 thousand people were added to the register of controlled persons.
These figures show the scale of immigration control, but they do not make it possible to link any specific number of decisions to dangerous infections: the publication contains no such data. For an employer, statistics do not replace an assessment of the circumstances of each employee and do not create new obligations on this issue.
How to establish a cautious working practice
An employer should record that the new rule has been in effect since September and include it in the list of migration changes to monitor. The next step is to locate the official text of the law and verify the exact effective date, the list of diseases, the parties involved in the procedure, and the consequences of a decision for the foreign national’s status.
Until the primary source is obtained, the HR department should not independently determine whether a disease falls under the new rule or treat deportation as an automatic outcome. The State Duma’s report does not identify any special sanctions for employer inaction and does not describe what HR actions should be taken after a disease is diagnosed.
What to check
- Record that the rule allowing deportation has been in effect since September.
- Do not treat the publication as grounds for additional medical checks of employees.
- Do not request new medical documents solely because of this report.
- Locate and review the official text of the law: its number is not given in the original publication.
- Check the exact effective date, the list of diseases, and the procedure for applying the rule.
- Do not draw conclusions about a specific employee’s status without official information about their situation.