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Home » Putin delivered another blow as almost 200,000 IT workers flee Russia

Putin delivered another blow as almost 200,000 IT workers flee Russia

by Sam Kayum tech journalist
31st Mar 22 1:16 pm

Tens of thousands of worker are fleeing Russia as 70,000 have already fled and a further 100,000 are expected to leave their homeland in April.

Vladimir Putin’s invasion on Ukraine has seen many more tens of thousands of families flee Russia who have headed to the US, Mexico, Sweden and many other countries around the world to escape poverty and conscription into the Russian army.

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French news channel CNews said, “IT professionals are in a hurry to leave the country as soon as possible, not wanting to put up with a sharply deteriorating economic situation and not paying attention to the numerous measures to support the IT industry from the state.”

The Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC) described the “first wave” of IT professionals have fled Russia which they estimate to have been between 50,000 and 70,000 people.

Sergey Plugotarenko, head of RAEC said, “There will definitely be a second wave, according to our forecast, from 70,000 to 100,000 people will leave in April.

“These are just IT people.”

Plugotarenko added that there are many more tens of thousands people wanting to ditch Russia but are unable to do so at the moment as flights are so expensive and as a result of Western sanctions Russian citizens are finding it hard to make any financial transactions.

Samuel Bendett, a research analyst and AI specialist, told Express.co.uk, “The IT workers’ exodus is associated with the massive pulling out of Western and global high tech giants from Russia.

“Many of those who left actually worked in those companies and for those companies, so they are trying to essentially save their career but going to those markets where their skill can be in demand.

“There’s definitely going to be an impact on many sectors and industries in the country because of the global IT companies’ departure from Russia.”

The defence and technologies expert added, “With approximately 200,000 people who left, this represents a smaller fraction of the larger Russian IT workforce.

“So there are plenty who still remain either because they cannot leave or because they may not want to leave.

“There are many Russian IT companies which are now stepping up and stepping in to fill the void left by those international companies that have left, offering their own solution to replace the global IT brands.”

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