Russia maintains one of the world's most liberal immigration policies; anyone who works in Russia for five years and develops fluency in the Russian language can become a citizen, provided he or she has not committed a crime. Almost anyone who is hired by a Russian firm can stay in the country and work indefinitely [4] This reflects a policy change on the part of the government of Vladimir Putin from the more restrictive policy enacted after the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, in response to declining birth rates.[5] The large non-Slavic immigrant populations arriving in response to Putin's liberal policy have sometimes been met with xenophobia.