A spokesman for the Federal Migration Service was fired Wednesday hours after he declared that uncontrolled migration threatens "the survival of the white race."
Konstantin Poltoranin, speaking in an interview with the Russian BBC Service, criticized the EU's immigration policy for accepting migrants from the Middle East and North Africa who, he said, have largely failed to integrate into European society.
"Relations must be built differently to ensure blood is mixed in the right regime," he added, when speaking about why Russia does not accept migrants from these regions.
The country needs primarily "people of the Slavic group" to compensate for a natural decline in the population, Poltoranin said.
Poltoranin, a lawyer by education who had served as spokesman since 2005, explicitly denied being a racist in a later interview with Rusnovosti.ru.
Nevertheless, he was fired shortly afterward for making "unacceptable" media statements, said Federal Migration Service head Konstantin Romodanovsky, Interfax reported.
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