A/HRC/4/19/Add.3 page 6 Introduction 1. At the invitation of the Government, the Special Rapporteur visited the Russian Federation (Moscow and St. Petersburg) from 12 to 17 June 2006. At governmental level, he held meetings with the Deputy Director of the Department of Humanitarian Cooperation and Human Rights of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the first Deputy of the Ministry of Justice, several directors of the Ministry of Interior, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Regional Development and the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Health and Social Development. The Special Rapporteur also met with the President of the Supreme Court, the Deputy Prosecutor-General, the Chairperson of the Presidential Council on assistance to the development of civil society structures and human rights and the Federal Commissioner for Human Rights of the Russian Federation. In addition, he met, in Moscow, with the Governor of the city and other local personalities and, in St. Petersburg, with the Vice-Governor, the Prosecutor and other local officials. 2. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur met with representatives of civil society organizations active in the combat against racism and xenophobia, communities and groups victims of racism and racial discrimination, a high-level representative of the Department of External Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, United Nations officials, members of the diplomatic community, intellectuals and the press. He also visited a Kelderary Roma community in the village of Peri, in the Leningrad region. 3. The Special Rapporteur wishes to thank the Russian Government for its cooperation throughout the visit. He also thanks the representatives of non-governmental organizations for their precious cooperation, and the United Nations Country Team in Moscow, in particular the staff of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), for its outstanding support. I. GENERAL BACKGROUND A. Demographic, ethnic and religious composition 4. The Russian Federation, one of the largest multi-ethnic and multiconfessional States in the world, comprises more than 170 different ethnic groups and nationalities. According to the 2002 census, its population is estimated at 145 million, the largest ethnic groups being Russians (79.83 per cent), Tatars (3.83 per cent), Ukrainians (2.03 per cent), Bashkirs (1.15 per cent), Chuvashs (1.13 per cent), Chechens (0.94 per cent) and Armenians (0.78 per cent). 5. Russia’s demographic structure has over time experienced gradual emigration and immigration flows. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, on the one hand, Russia has experienced the arrival of immigrants from former Soviet republics in search of work and better living conditions, notably from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Ukraine and Georgia; on the other, an important number of people from former Soviet republics having long or permanently lived in Russia but only having old Soviet passports are being considered as illegal migrants. According to the Ministry of Interior, there are around 500,000 legal migrants and between 5 and 15 million undocumented migrants in Russia.