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Russia's 'Brain Drain' Might Be Its Biggest Economic Sanction

Russia's 'Brain Drain' Might Be Its Biggest Economic Sanction

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By    |   Sunday, 06 March 2022 08:55 AM EST

With the world isolating Russia, while cutting off flights out of the country, only those who can afford to leave make it out and that usually means the educated.

But the problem of a "brain drain" is not new, as 2 million had fled Russia under Vladimir Putin as of 2019, according to the Atlantic Council think tank.

"In the long run, brain drain might be the most important problem for Russia," University of Pennsylvania economics professor Nikolai Roussanov told Business Insider.

"We've seen a slow trickle over the last decade of people leaving," he continued, adding he expects it to "accelerate, especially as foreign academic institutions break off their relationships with Russian ones — tech, finance, too."

The mass exodus will sap Russia's already struggling economy of more highly trained, highly educated citizens, including entrepreneurs, the think tank report found.

"Human capital is fleeing Russia," it read. "Since President Vladimir Putin's ascent to the presidency, between 1.6 and 2 million Russians — out of a total population of 145 million — have left for Western democracies and some new destinations where they can be freer with their skills put to a better use. This emigration sped up with Putin's return as president in 2012, followed by a weakening economy and growing repressions. It soon began to look like a politically driven brain drain, causing increasing concern among Russian and international observers.

"There is a distinct disparity between those who emigrated before 2012 and those who left later: among other things, the latter demonstrate a growing pro-Western and liberal orientation and greater politicization in general, including stronger support for the anti-Putin 'non-systemic' opposition."

The departures of the educated is only a matter of when and how, not if they will leave, according to University of California-Los Angeles economics professor Oleg Itskhoki to BI.

"People want to leave in mass quantities now, but there are severe restrictions on mobility as a result of sanctions," he said, noting the "closed embassies, closed skies for flying."

"So, in fact, fewer people will be able to leave even if more people are trying harder to leave now. This is particularly relevant for educated, informed people."

Education tends to lead young brains to be more indoctrinated against Putin's Russian vision.

"Educated people do not like living in a dictatorship with censorship and other limitations of basic human rights, and this results in brain drain," Itskhoki told BI.

"There was zero economic growth on average over the last 12-plus years, and fewer and fewer opportunities for young people," he added. "Younger cohorts were being disproportionately squeezed out and did not have the opportunities that people did during the first decade of the 2000s."

Eric Mack

Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.

© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


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With the world isolating Russia, while cutting off flights out of the country, only those who can afford to leave make it out and that usually means the educated.
economics, braindrain, refugees, migration, putin
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2022-55-06
Sunday, 06 March 2022 08:55 AM
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