The paper analyzes the contemporary demographic situation in Russia in the context of major trends – emigration, depopulation, brain drain, the repatriation of Russian compatriots, labor migration. The current public policies are aimed at solving two fundamental problems: increase in child births and mortality reduction, and optimization of migration policy. It is noted that it is in the migration that many politicians see a panacea to solve the major problems with the reproduction of the population in the country. However, in the opinion of the author, the migration policy of Russia, especially in view of its qualitative structure, is highly unlikely to compensate for the continuing depopulation of the country and reduction in the quality of its human resources and requires a substantial improvement on the experience of other countries.