This chapter analyzes the politics of refugee policy in post-Soviet Russia and shows how state policies toward compatriot and toward foreign refugees were affected by the politics of national identity and strategies of the UNHCR. Over the course of nearly two decades, the politics of refugee policy became more complex, and analysis in this chapter identifies other factors that came to play a role in Russian refugee policy making. Yet, even though new factors and actors are consequential, the politics of national identity and the UNHCR remain major determinants of Russia’s refugee policy responses.

The Politics of National Identity

A theoretical model of refugee politics proposed in this book sees the politics of national identity – contestation between political elites debating the citizenship and diaspora legislation – critically important for refugee policy responses in contested postcommunist states of which Russia is an example. Specifically, depending on whether the politics of national identity results in a consensus or a compromise definition of the official nation in the citizenship and diaspora laws, state refugee policies either privilege compatriot refugees or treat all refugee groups equally. This chapter thus starts with the analysis of the politics of national identity in Russia.