Six people who had previously lived in Australia and Kyrgyzstan moved to the Altai Republic. Among the new citizens of the Russian Federation is the Ovchinnikov family from Australia. Their ancestors were among the Old Believers, who emigrated first to China and then to Australia in the 1920-ies.
One of the representatives of that Old Believer family, Nikolai Ovchinnikov, noted that he was always drawn to his historical homeland, that is why he decided to move to Russia:
— We still have the culture from our grandfathers and fathers. We were taught in Russian. There is a large diaspora in Australia; there were six Russian schools there. We are glad that we no longer just recognize ourselves as people with Russian roots, but are now Russians ourselves.
New Russian citizens became the participants in the State Program of assistance to the voluntary resettlement of compatriots living abroad to the Russian Federation, which helps citizens living abroad return to their historical homeland.
