Putin Demands To Stop Mass Flight Of Russians Abroad: About Million Citizens Have Already Left Country

The president of the terrorist country of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has demanded action in response to the mass emigration of citizens, which swept the country after the outbreak of war and the declaration of mobilization. On Friday, May 12, Putin signed a decree on changes to the Concept of State Migration Policy of the Russian Federation. The document, published on the legal information portal, notes that the migration outflow of the population abroad "increased" in 2022 "under the influence of changed socio-economic conditions."

"In this regard, it is necessary to take additional measures to create attractive financial, social and other mechanisms for preserving human capital, reducing the outflow of the population of the Russian Federation abroad," the decree says.

Demographer Alexey Raksha estimates that last year from 550,000 to 800,000 citizens could leave Russia, and Alfa Bank analysts estimated the wave of emigration as a million of people. This made it the largest since at least the collapse of the USSR, and possibly the fall of the tsarist regime - then 1.16 million Russians fled from the red terror of the Bolsheviks, according to international organizations.

The Ministry of Economic Development of Russia estimated the reduction in the labor force - citizens aged 18 to 65 years - at 600,000 people in September last year. Russia lost more than 23% of top programmers, public and private clinics recorded the departure of the most highly qualified doctors, and a survey of the Gaidar Institute conducted among top managers and owners of industrial enterprises showed personnel hunger on a scale that statistics have not seen in the entire modern history of the country.

A source of The Moscow Times in the Russian government, familiar with the course of meetings held in the fall and winter, said that the wave of emigration "personally affected" Putin. Those whom he instructed to mobilize did not hesitate to leave the country, and the authorities, watching what was happening in real time, had no legal opportunity to put a barrier.

"The escape outraged the chief (thus among Russian officials, according to Soviet tradition, it is customary to call Putin among themselves - ed.). It was instructed to stop this in the future and begin to educate patriotism in people," the official said.

The immediate answer was a law on electronic summons, which was prepared in secrecy, and then was expediently passed by both houses of parliament and signed by the president.

The law de facto creates a register of citizens in the Russian Federation not allowed to travel, and also introduces significant defeats in the rights for "evaders,” up to the ban on disposing of property and driving.

Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said that the status of "enemies of society" should be extended to all citizens who have left the country, even if criminal or administrative cases have not been initiated against them. He also called for their entry to be closed without prior remorse or amnesty.