Recent Russian Emigres to the West Don't All Oppose Putin - Bloomberg

Recent Russian Emigres to the West Don't All Oppose Putin - Bloomberg



...The Atlantic Council puts the size of the post-2000 Putin Exodus at 1.6 million to 2 million. 



...Beyond the small group of highly educated and politically aware people surveyed by the Atlantic Council, the bulk of Russians moving to the West aren’t anti-Putin exiles. On average, like in the 1990s, they are people seeking better opportunities for work, business and study (the number of Russians coming to Europe to study has been pretty constant so far this century). Many of them don’t end up in big cities like Berlin and New York, and most can’t afford London or Silicon Valley; they are ordinary people with above-ordinary, in-demand skills who speak foreign languages and can make it in the West, or at least try.



They represent a steady brain drain, which is a persistent problem for Russia since the last years of the Soviet Union. ...



... I suspect, however, that most of the Russian community would prefer to be left alone – to integrate peacefully into the receiving countries without being reminded of what they left behind or asked to take geopolitical sides.