MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. Russia welcomes people coming to the country, including young scientists, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with the Vesti on Saturday weekly television program, adding other countries, including European countries, on the contrary - are facing outflow of people, and the scale is close to catastrophe.

"Russia is changing, Europe is changing, the entire world is changing. We have many problems, but we also have clear competitive advantages," Putin said. "In Russia, we witness a migration inflow, and, as you well know, our own demography, thanks God, has a positive dynamics for several years now."

"Besides, we pay, perhaps, not enough though still attention to our higher education, and this grant-based support… attracts to us young scientists," he said. "And we are very happy about it."

During the program interview, the anchorman discussed with the president Lithuania and Europe in the context of migration flows.

"Probably, not everyone is aware of the fact that the census in about 1985 - in the 1990s reported more than three and a half million people in Lithuania, and now - by a third fewer," Putin said. "Even worse is the situation, say, in Latvia; slightly better in Estonia, but the flee is colossal there, simply colossal."

He said, for most countries the situation, where one in three has left the Fatherland "is a catastrophe.".