Russia loses over 70K tech professionals
Up to 70,000 computer specialists have left Russia due to the economic sanctions made on the country since it invaded Ukraine.
According to Russian Association for Electronic Communications head Sergei Plugotarenko, only the high cost of flights out of the country prevented an even larger mass exit of tech workers.
Nevertheless, he is expecting that another 100,000 talents would leave Russia in April.
As the war continues, Russian tech firms with international customers are forced to move and distance themselves from Russia for fear of economic consequences.
Konstantin Siniushin, a managing partner at venture capital fund Untitled Ventures, said that most businesses “had to leave the country so their business could survive, or, in the case of research and development workers, they were relocated by HQs.”
As the mass exodus of tech talents is happening in Russia, nearby countries have taken this opportunity to bring fresh expertise to their high-tech industries.
An elite crowd furnished with European Union visas has relocated to Poland or the Baltic nations of Latvia and Lithuania. A larger contingent has fallen back on countries where Russians do not need visas: Armenia, Georgia, and the former Soviet republics in Central Asia.
This could be proven beneficial as according to a 2020 Global Skills Index, Russian workers scored highest for skill proficiency in technology and data science.
