{"id":48409,"date":"2022-05-23T13:22:11","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T13:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=48409"},"modified":"2022-05-23T13:22:11","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T13:22:11","slug":"criminal-adventure-ukraine-war-fuels-russias-brain-drain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=48409","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Criminal adventure\u2019: Ukraine war fuels Russia\u2019s brain drain"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If a country\u2019s strength is its people, then Russia might be in trouble.<\/p>\n

According to official\u00a0statistics, nearly four million Russians left the country in the first three months of 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very afraid of being questioned at the Russian border as we heard they didn\u2019t want to let IT specialists leave the country, so we erased the messengers on our phones,\u201d Marina, a 25-year-old IT professional from Moscow, who recently left for Cyprus with her boyfriend, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at Vnukovo airport, they didn\u2019t ask us anything, except for the amount of cash we were carrying,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Although some had been planning to travel for work or personal reasons after COVID restrictions were relaxed, a substantial number<\/a> appears to be connected with the invasion of Ukraine, sanctions or fears of conscription and martial law.<\/p>\n

Among them are some of Russia\u2019s best and brightest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, this is a criminal adventure that occurred because in this country, all the most important decisions are made by one person completely out of touch with reality,\u201d said 32-year-old Artur from St Petersburg, a software developer and online instructor who is now in Germany, referring to President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

In March, Sergei Plugotarenko, head of the Russian Association for Electronic Communications, a non-profit group, told a parliamentary committee that as many as 70,000 IT professionals like Marina and Artur emigrated since the start of the \u201cspecial operation\u201d in Ukraine, as the invasion is officially termed in Russia.<\/p>\n

Many of these younger specialists are relatively well-off, tech-savvy, and are able to work remotely.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/img>
The war in Ukraine has been ongoing for three months [File: Alexander Ermochenko\/Reuters]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAt the start of the war, I was in a very advantageous position: working remotely with my salary paid in foreign currency, a new Schengen visa, a European vaccine and a repaired laptop,\u201d Artur told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of February, when the war began, all this helped me a lot in terms of mobility \u2013 since I planned to go to friends in Berlin in mid-March, my suitcases were already packed, so to speak.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe day before my departure, it was announced that our Visa and Mastercards would stop working abroad. In my case, I was lucky that most of my savings were in cryptocurrency and it was enough to take a flash drive with me to solve the issue of cashing out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inna Pomorina, an economist at Bath Spa University in England, said the mass departure of skilled and educated Russians reminds her of her experiences in the fraught period after the collapse of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt brings to mind a comparison with emigration in 1918 [during the Russian Civil War], and the 1990s,\u201d she told Al Jazeera, \u201cWe left Russia because our salaries were not being paid, so it was difficult to live. Although in the nineties it was mostly for economic reasons, now it seems mostly political.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many leaving now are IT specialists, journalists, researchers and analysts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will have a long-term impact on the economy, as any \u2018brain drain\u2019,\u201d said Pomorina. \u201cBut as it happens during a period of economic crisis it will be difficult to calculate its direct impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

The political and business climate in Russia is becoming more difficult, as tech firms lose access to services, customers and payments.<\/p>\n

Some tech companies with headquarters in other countries have chartered planes to airlift their employees and other specialists.<\/p>\n

The destinations of these talented exiles are the Baltic states \u2013 Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania \u2013 if they have EU visas.<\/p>\n

Those who do not have the visas travel to Turkey, Israel, or the former Soviet republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia.<\/p>\n

While migrants from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan typically moved to Russia for work, now, to a degree, it is the other way round as young, professional Muscovites seek their futures in Yerevan and Tashkent.<\/a><\/p>\n

Uzbekistan has simplified the visa process and residence permits for IT professionals. Kazakhstan, too, is offering tax breaks and loans to tech entrepreneurs willing to relocate.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, the brain drain benefits the countries to which they are coming,\u201d said Pomorina.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe level of education of migrants from Russia has always been among the highest, according to the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development], and these nations are getting very skilled specialists without paying for their education.\u201d<\/p>\n