For growing numbers of Russians, it’s time to man the lifeboats
With the ruble now worthless, their economy in severe recession and their freedoms severely restricted, there is more reason than ever for Russians to try to leave for a better life abroad.
Russia’s long-standing brain drain is well-documented, and has worsened since Vladimir Putin came to power in 1999: between 1.6 and two million people have left in for the West, most of them from the well-educated middle classes, working in academia and the financial and technology sectors and for whom the Kremlin’s populist, nationalist rhetoric holds little appeal.
Russia’s education system is still strong in quantitative and technological areas, but the country offers fewer and fewer opportunities, and the flight of young talented people has long been seen as one of the main problems facing the Russian economy, a trend that will only increase as international sanctions bite harder in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine and the country is further isolated.
Russia’s worsening crisis contrasts with China, where isolation has been used to nurture a whole series of companies that have copied Western ideas and benefited from a huge domestic market protected from foreign competitors. Instead, in Russia, there are few alternatives for talent beyond a handful of players like as VK or Yandex. Despite the…
