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Ban to employ Turkish workers not to affect Russia’s job market — Russian lawmaker

"Russia faces unemployment and we can occupy these vacancies with people from the regions hit by the economic crisis," said a member of Duma’s committee for labour

MOSCOW, November 29. /TASS/. A ban to employ Turkish nationals will have no influence on Russia’s job market as they might be replaced by Russians residing in the regions along with citizens from former Soviet republics, the deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma (parliamentary lower house), Andrey Isayev, has told TASS.

"Russia faces unemployment and we can occupy these vacancies with people from the regions hit by the economic crisis," said Isayev, a member of Duma’s committee for labour.

"First, there are countries - the former Soviet republics, our allies - from which the workers could arrive to replace the Turkish ones, for instance from Tajikistan," he said noting the measures were quite appropriate, becoming a barometer of sentiment in society and of Russia’s reaction to the incident with the Su-24 bomber.

"The Turkish economy is closely linked to the Russian and depends on it considerably," Isayev said.

"It is of great importance to get the Turkish to feel what they are losing because of the ambitions (of Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan) to create a new Ottoman Empire," the lawmaker said. "It provides us with an opportunity to stop Turkey, get it to change its mind and attitude towards Russia."

Turkey pursues policies opposite to the Russian positions, he said.

"They support those Crimean Tatars who are organising Crimea’s blockade, they were supporting Dudayev’s gunmen in Chechnya and they are historically against Armenia we historically defend," Isayev said adding "We are on the opposite banks in regard to the Cyprus crisis and besides, in the Middle East they are opponents of our ally, Syria."

On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that suspends employment of Turkish workers starting from January 1, 2016. Also, Russia suspends the visa-free travel agreement with Turkey, imposes bans or restrictions on imports of certain goods (the list will be determined by the government). Besides, travel agencies are advised against selling holiday packages to Turkey. The government is instructed to tighten control over activities of Turkish haulage companies with the goal of ensuring security within Russia.