Demographics will play an outsized role in shaping Russia's economic and military future, with the number of people it has determining everything from the size of its labor force to its tax base to its armed forces. Moscow's long struggle with low birth rates and high mortality rates is well known. Less well known is the impact of immigration and emigration on Russian demographics. Over the five years leading up to and including 2018, migration numbers , too, trended in an ominous direction for Russia's demographic future. But now, early data for the first four months of 2019 has brought better news for Moscow. According to a study produced by experts at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, migration from January through April in 2019 showed anomalously high immigration to Russia.