The L.A. Times reports from Moscow about the growing trend of young, entrepreneurial Russians looking for opportunities outside of the Motherland. According to the head of the national audit chamber, 1.25 million Russians have left the country in the what is being called the “Putin decade exodus.”
Experts believe “100,000 to 150,000 people now leave the country annually,” warning that “the exodus reached dangerous dimensions in the last three years,” writes L.A. Times reporter Sergei Loiko.
For many…economic strictures are the prime motivation. With inflation on the rise, and the country’s GDP stuck at an annual 3% growth rate the last three years — compared with 7% to 8% before the global economic crisis — Russians are feeling pinched.
According to Dmitry Oreshkin, a political analyst with the Institute of Geography, “The intellectual potential of the nation is being washed away, as the most mobile, intelligent and active are leaving.” While Levada Center head Lev Gudkov says, “It appears that the Kremlin couldn’t care less if the most talented, the most active Russians are emigrating, because their exodus lifts the social and political tension in the country and weakens the opposition.”
