Russia tries to persuade emigrants to come home

RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS - In Brief 12 Jul 2023 by Alex Teddy

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In 2022 over 700,000 Russians emigrated. There were others who left and have already returned to Russia. Most of those who left the country were young men seeking to evade conscription. The men who emigrated are mostly highly educated. They can easily work abroad and are more likely to be anti-war. Putin has long said that boosting the birthrate is a major goal of his. By any measures he has failed. But the emigration of so many youngsters is exacerbating Russia's demographic decline. In some cases women and children left, too. Moving the whole family suggests that emigration is for the long term. The Speaker of the Duma has called on emigrants to return. He is trying to persuade them that life is better in Russia. Pro-Kremlin media is eager to highlight anti-Russian bigotry in the West. The two major waves of emigration were March 2022, when the war began, and then September 2022, when there was a mobilization of men. The government said that half the emigrants have already come home of their own accord but there is some skepticism about this claim. Those who returned are mostly from the second wave (September 2022). These men fled to avoid conscription. Some of them left without much money or a way to earn it. When they ran out of money and the threat of conscription subsided they went back. The government is anxious because many of those who left the country are IT specialists. Russia can ill afford to lose such people. IT workers can defer military service.  In June 2023 the head of the Federation Council's commission on protecting state sovereignty said emigres should be investigated for treason. This is making some people reluctant to return but the government do...