Vladimir Chukardin is the deputy head of the social welfare board for the Leningrad administrative region, which includes Saint Petersburg. The list of jobs available for women is very short. It's almost impossible for women with small children to find a job at all. Natalya Khodyreva is the director of the Institute for Non-Discriminating Gender Relations, located in Saint Petersburg. She says that visa restrictions make it almost impossible for young Russian women to find legal work abroad.
Women looking to work abroad are in a very difficult situation.
The major problem, in our opinion, is the absence of detailed bilateral agreements, between Russian and other countries, regulating immigration and work issues. In many cases, Khodyreva says, Russian women turn to so-called recruiting agencies, which arrange travel visas and promise employment opportunities once the women are abroad. Instead, most women, upon arrival in the West, have their documents confiscated by their handlers and are sold to bordellos with no remaining connection to the outside world. Khodyreva says that in most instances, trafficking rings specializing in Russian women are operated by former Russian citizens themselves. Traffickers go largely unpunished in Russia, which unlike many Western countries has no special legislation on trafficking in its criminal code.