UN STUDY ON POPULATION SHIFTS IN FORMER SOVIET STATES.
Approximately 9 million people have changed their place of
residence in the former Soviet Union since 1989, with the most
traffic running between the Central Asian states and Russia,
RFE/RL reported on 6 May, citing a recently released UN study.
The figure does not include military transfers or voluntary
migration. Noting that the definition of the term 'migrants' is
subjective, the report focuses on the plights of "punished
peoples"--the Stalin-era victims of mass-deportation such as the
Crimean Tatars and Volga Germans--and the "homeless refugees"
fleeing from conflicts in areas ranging from the North Caucasus
to Tajikistan. In addition, "ecological migrants" are a growing
problem, with at least 700,000 people forced to leave an
estimated 300 "lethal environments," including parts of Chornobyl
and Lake Baikal, Semipalatinsk, and the Aral Sea region. -- Roger
Kangas