Source: www.rucriminal.info

On December 10, 2024, Federal Law No. 377-FZ of November 9, 2024 "On Amendments to Articles 15.1 and 15.2 of the Federal Law "On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens of the Russian Federation" came into force, aimed at strengthening control over foreign citizens passing tests in the Russian language, the history of Russia, and the fundamentals of the legislation of the Russian Federation. And along with it, by-laws establishing a new form of certificate, the cost of exams, the procedure for conducting exams, requirements for government agencies that will conduct testing, for their inclusion in the list approved by the order of the Government of the Russian Federation dated December 10, 2024 No. 3641-r.

In the Moscow region and the city of Moscow, testing for the level of a work permit was carried out at the Federal State Unitary Enterprise of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Odintsovo and in Podolsk through the Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education "RUDN University". But from 12/10/24, the powers for testing were transferred to the Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education "State University of Education". From 12/12/2024, the University of Education began accepting exams. As the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel and Rucriminal.info found out, in January 2025, the university creates the Center for Language Testing and Educational Training of Migrants (CT), which on 13/01/2025 is headed by Irina Arsenyevna Kizilova, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, who left her post on 10/01/2025 in Nizhny Novgorod, citing the fact that she had long been considering the possibility of changing her activities. The rector of the Institute of Education, Natalia Aleksandrovna Naumova, offered her the vacancy of the director of the Central Testing Center. N.A. Kizilov invited Irina Viktorovna Sharynina, who was a consultant in the Department for Control and Supervision in the Sphere of Education in the Ministry of Education and Science of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, to the position of deputy.

Naumova, Kizilov and Sharynina had never worked with labor migrants. The Institute of Education did not have its own programs and methods for the correct assessment and direct implementation of the procedure for testing foreign labor citizens on knowledge of the Russian language, history of Russia and the basics of the legislation of the Russian Federation, but, nevertheless, their research fellow participated in the development of KIMs for FIPI.

The website of the Language Testing Center as of 03.03.25 does not have a clickable link for information to employers about interaction with the Center, the link to download the application form for the exam still does not work. It is impossible to get through to the Testing Center by phone, only the postal address is indicated. When the employer writes an application, the Testing Center does not cope with requests from enterprises in a timely manner and processes the application only on the 5-7th day, then issues a testing date in a couple of weeks at best, the reason for such a delay is that Sharynina is responsible for this. Such a delay for the employer leads to the cancellation of the foreigner's permit documents. The Testing Center promised that with a regular and increased flow, additional audiences and testers will be involved. As of the current date, audiences and testers have not been allocated, Kizilova and Sharynina cannot cope with the flow of applications from organizations and the construction of a management system due to the lack of experience in the migration sphere and the management of such processes. The access system to the territory of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Odintsovo from the side of the Testing Center has not been built, people registered for the exam cannot enter the premises for several hours due to the fact that the Testing Center did not transfer the lists in a timely manner to the contract department of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise for payment and then to the checkpoint to let people through. According to the VChK-OGPU, the Central Testing Administration conducts non-speaking foreigners through the Central Testing; almost all foreign citizens who have passed exams for a work permit from December 2024 to the current date did not have written literacy, the ability to read, or speak even at a minimal level. Naumova and Kizilova themselves believe that it is not necessary to check the level of reading or speaking skills of foreigners during the exam due to the fact that these requirements are not spelled out in the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 31.05.2021 No. 840 "On approval of the requirements for the minimum level of knowledge necessary for passing the exam in Russian as a foreign language, the history of Russia, and the fundamentals of the legislation of the Russian Federation". The requirements for the minimum level of knowledge necessary for passing the exam in Russian as a foreign language, the history of Russia, and the fundamentals of the legislation of the Russian Federation define speech tasks in a generalized version. A foreign citizen applying for a job or a patent must be able to realize the need for communication, understand by ear the main information voiced in the message of the interlocutor, audio message and determine its topic; read texts in order to understand the main content, determine the topic of texts, understand the main information, be able to fill out questionnaires, forms and other documents of this type, must be able to write a sample application (for employment) from, etc.). In the process of operationalizing the requirements, the speech tasks in the "Writing" section are broken down into mini-components. The speech task "to be able to fill out questionnaires, forms and other documents of this type, write a sample application (for employment, etc.)" includes the need to provide the following elements: information about yourself: gender, first name, last name, country of origin; where you studied; what education you have; what your specialty (profession) is; what work experience you have in this specialty; where you want to work, in what specialty; where you currently live and work; marital status, family composition. Operationalizing the requirements in the "speech tasks" section made it possible to identify a group of skills that must be developed in a participant in the Level 1 exam in each type of speech activity. According to the regulations on conducting an exam for foreign citizens applying for a work permit or patent, the exam is conducted only in writing. "THUS, A SPEAKING CHECK IS NOT REQUIRED DURING THE EXAM, BUT A LAWSIFYING QUESTION ARISES - HOW CAN A FOREIGN CITIZEN READ AND UNDERSTAND THE TASK SPECIFIED IN THE EXAM MATERIALS IF HE DOES NOT KNOW THE ALPHABET, READING OR UNDERSTANDING WHAT IS IN THE MATERIALS THEMSELVES. Why does the university not check these skills during the exam, because in order to issue a certificate of proficiency in the Russian language, the authorized organization and examiners must make sure that the foreign citizen CAN READ THE TASK AND UNDERSTAND IT FOR COMPLETION," notes the interlocutor of Rucriminal.info. The Institute of Education does not respond at all to the signals that were repeatedly transmitted to Naumova personally and Kizilova.

For example, information was conveyed that a number of organizations signed up for testing on a certain date to bring foreigners who, with the help of translators, memorized all the test materials, they are publicly available on the FIPI website.

They memorized the correct answers without reading and understanding the text. In response, they received gratitude for the signal, and information that they would conduct a check, and as a result, non-speaking foreigners freely received certificates and spread information throughout the Moscow region that in Odintsovo and Podolsk you can easily pass exams, they do not ask questions on knowledge of Russian and do not check reading, you just need to memorize the tests.

Thus, with the new CT in the Moscow region, foreigners who do not speak Russian, do not have reading skills and do not understand an elementary level of Russian as a foreign language receive certificates, which does not meet the requirements specified in the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 840 of 05/31/2021.

The Central Testing Center is run by completely incompetent personnel, under whom the situation with exams in the Moscow region has worsened for both employers and foreigners themselves, and in general, due to their indifference and inaction, uncontrolled issuance of certificates with a corrupt component is taking place.

 

Arseniy Dronov

Source: www.rucriminal.info