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The governor of Russia’s northwestern Vologda region reversed a ban on migrant labor in the construction sector after industrial giant Severstal warned that the decision would jeopardize its investments in the region.
Last Thursday, Governor Georgy Filimonov issued a decree barring migrants from working in the Vologda region’s construction sector for all of 2025.
Severstal, one of Russia’s largest steel producers, responded to the ban on Friday, warning that it threatened “dozens of industrial and social construction projects” due to an “acute shortage” of local labor.
The company, owned by billionaire Alexei Mordashov, accused regional authorities of “distorting facts, manipulating and refusing to comply with previously reached agreements.”
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Filimonov’s latest decree rescinding the ban acknowledges that the region lacks enough local workers to fill the growing number of construction vacancies.
The governor has faced a series of controversies in recent weeks, which analysts have linked to his tensions with Severstal.
His opposition to what he called a “mass influx” of migrant workers at the Cherepovets Steel Mill, a key Severstal asset, was among the grievances listed in a letter to President Vladimir Putin last month, signed by 120 members of the ruling United Russia party.
As of Thursday, nearly 30,000 people had signed a Change.org petition urging Putin to dismiss Filimonov over what they called his “ineffective management, injustice and tyranny.”
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