But expats from the West working in Russia can breathe easy for the moment, as highly skilled foreign professionals like business managers, bankers and journalists will be exempted from the new government proposal.

Those that will be affected by this proposal are so-called visa-free workers from former Soviet and CIS countries like Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

The government says that the idea behind this is to keep an eye on the foreign labor force, as at the moment there are a lot of illegal foreign workers in Russia.

“The permit system allows foreign workers to do their job legally and also their employers avoid problems with the Russian authorities,” said Konstantin Poltoranin, a spokesperson for Federal Migration Service. “All one has to do to get the work permit is to present their passport and immigration card.”

The fee for the work permit can be seen as an attempt to protect the Russian labor market in the private sector, and the foreign labor market cut from 2 million to 1.3 million in the public sector announced for 2010 as a way of getting unemployed Russians back into work.