The Russian wave of emigration. The extent of departure from the country over the past five years compared with those that were in the early 90s. These data lead experts of Committee of civil initiatives Alexei Kudrin, who prepared the analytical report: “Emigration from Russia in the late XX – early XXI century”. Departure of Russian citizens abroad, they believe, will increase. Over the past 26 years, Russia has left about 4.5 million people, according to the OIG. And this is only the data of Rosstat, and “to get a real idea of the scale of emigration data of Rosstat need to increase three or four times”.
The results of the study OIG commented managing partner Kirikov Group Daniil Kirikov:
“The key point in the report of the Committee of civil initiatives is the conclusion that the wavy growth of emigration began in 2011, this means that the increase in the scale of “brain drain” does not stop with the completion of the economic recession. To reduce the flow of both business owners and skilled professionals who are serving abroad, the government will need to revive the institutions responsible for ensuring personal and business safety of citizens, and also to begin to systematically fight corruption.
It is also clear that government needs to balance the structure of the economy, give people space for self-realization through the development of small and medium businesses. Today, the share of SMEs in Russia’s GDP is about 20%. For comparison, in the US the figure is 60%, in Italy – more than 80%. Great attention should be paid to the fact that the foreign lifestyle has kept its high appeal for the educated and wealthy Russians, even despite the rise of anti-Western sentiment in the Wake of the Ukrainian crisis. In the case that the society will continue to escalate the hostile attitude to everything connected with Europe and the United States, it may not only increase the number of immigrants, but also to contribute to a further outflow of capital”.
