Mr Vladimir Barbashov travelled for 24 hours by train to Moscow from the western Russian city of Kaliningrad to seek work in Ireland.
Tired-looking after his 1,200 km journey, he queued on Saturday to attend an on-the-spot interview with an Irish company at the Jobs Ireland fair hosted by FAS, the State training and jobs agency.
With briefcase in hand, the 30-year-old electronics engineer said he learned of the event only on Thursday. While he had never been to Ireland, he believed it would be similar to Scotland, which he had visited once. His wife would prefer to move to the United States but Mr Barbashov was not convinced.
"I want to gain some European experience," he said. "Mostly I am looking for jobs related to my skills."
Well qualified and with good English, he seemed typical of the thousands who attended the weekend event. With monthly wages averaging £270 to £360 in Moscow, and rates as low as £150 per month outside the capital, a number said the prospect of life in Ireland was attractive.
Millions of Russians are unemployed or underemployed and few believe the official unemployment rate of 10 per cent is a fair reflection of the real situation. As the vast country's slow recovery from the collapse of the rouble in 1998 continues, those with high qualifications - and there are many - are often confined to low-skilled jobs.
The Minister of State for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Tom Kitt, who is in Moscow for the fair and an associated trade mission, said the issue of encouraging a "brain-drain" from Russia was a sensitive one.
"I'm very conscious that one wouldn't want to walk in here and plunder their workforce," he said.
Potential employers at the exhibition centre in central Moscow reported strong interest from good candidates. Among those represented at the fair were IT groups such as Microsoft and Logica, recruitment agency Ark Personnel, and Superquinn.
Ms Jean Byrne of Superquinn said the company received a lot of interest in sales assistant positions. She was more interested in finding highly qualified bakers - but none turned up.
