[ad_1]
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Russia’s tech workers seek safer and more productive professional pastures.
By one estimate, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine five weeks ago, up to 70,000 computer professionals fearing the sudden frost in the business and political climate have eroded the country. Many more are expected to follow.
For some countries, Russia’s loss is seen as potential gains and an opportunity to bring fresh expertise to their high-tech industries.
Even in the throes of war, Russian President Vladimir Putin noticed the brain drain. This week it reacted to the exit by passing legislation that would abolish income taxes for individuals working in information technology companies between now and 2024.
Many people in the huge new pool of hi-tech shoots are in no rush to get home. Equipped with European Union visas, an elite crowd settled in Poland or the Baltic states Latvia and Lithuania.
A larger contingent fell on the countries where the Russians did not need visas: Armenia, Georgia and the former Soviet republics in Central Asia. In normal times, millions of less skilled workers immigrate from these economically weaker countries to the relatively prosperous Russia.
Anastasia, a 24-year-old IT analyst from Novosibirsk, Siberia, chose Kyrgyzstan, where her husband’s family is.
“When we heard about the war on February 24, we thought it was probably time to leave, but we can wait and see. We bought our tickets on February 25 and set off,” said Anastasia. “There wasn’t much thought to do.”
Like all Russian workers contacted for this story, Anastasia asked to remain anonymous. Moscow was suppressing opposition even before the invasion of Ukraine, and people living outside Russia still fear reprisals.
“As far as I can remember, there has always been a fear in Russia of expressing their views,” said Anastasia, adding that the war made the situation more difficult. “I left the day before I started searching and questioning people at the border.”
The scale of the apparent brain drain was revealed last week by Sergei Plugotarenko, president of the Russian Electronic Communications Association, an industry lobby group.
“The first wave – 50,000-70,000 people – has already left,” Plugotarenko told a parliamentary committee.
Only the high cost of flights abroad prevented an even greater mass outflow. Still, Plugotarenko estimates that 100,000 tech workers could leave Russia in April.
Konstantin Siniushin, managing partner at Untitled Ventures, a Latvia-based tech-focused venture capital fund, said Russian tech firms with international clients had no choice but to act as many foreign companies hastily distanced themselves from anything Russia-related.
“They had to leave the country for their business to survive or, in the case of research and development workers, were relocated by headquarters,” Siniushin said in emailed statements.
Untitled Ventures helps the transition; Siniushin said the firm plans two flights from Russia to Armenia carrying 300 tech workers.
Some nearby countries are keen to collect the dividends.
Russian talent is poaching ready. The 2020 Global Skills Index report by Coursera, a leading provider of open online courses, found that people from Russia scored the highest for skills proficiency in technology and data science.
As soon as the war in Ukraine began, the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan radically streamlined the process of obtaining work visas and residence permits for IT professionals.
st. Anton Filippov, a programmer from St. Petersburg, and his colleagues moved to Tashkent, the Uzbek capital where he grew up, even before these incentives were made public.
“It was like we woke up to this different terrible reality on February 24,” said Filippov. “We’re all young, under 27, and that’s why we feared being called to join this war.”
Diasporas are like a traveling caravan as in-demand tech workers explore their options. Some countries, such as Uzbekistan, are chosen as a stepping stone because Russian citizens do not need a visa for short stays. But young professionals like Filippov do not plan to stay where they first came.
“If the conditions they find are different from what was promised, they will continue,” he said.
In most cases, all companies are trying to relocate to avoid the effects of international sanctions. A top diplomat from another Russian neighbor, Kazakhstan, made a bare call this week for fleeing foreign companies to come to his country.
As Kazakhstan seeks to diversify its oil-export-based economy, it pays special attention to high-tech investors. In 2017, the government established a technology park in the capital, Nur-Sultan, and offered tax breaks, concessional loans and grants to anyone preparing to open a shop there.
Uptake has been moderate so far, but the hope is that the Russian brain drain will give this venture a big shot up the sleeve.
“The accounts of Russian companies have been frozen and their transactions are not taking place. “They are trying to keep customers and one current opportunity is to go to Kazakhstan,” said Arman Abdrasilov, head of Zerde Holding, an investment fund in Kazakhstan’s commercial hub Almaty.
Not all countries are so keen, though.
“Russian companies or startups cannot move to Lithuania,” said Inga Simanonyte, adviser to the Baltic nation’s Minister of Economy and Innovation. “We are not working with any Russian companies regarding their possible relocation to Lithuania, and the ministry has suspended all initial visa applications since February 24.”
Security concerns and suspicions that Russians may spy or engage in cyber mischief abroad make some governments wary of welcoming the country’s economic refugees.
“The IT sector in Russia is very closely connected with security services. The problem is that we risk importing parts of Russia’s criminal system without an extremely robust review process,” Lithuanian political analyst Marius Laurinavicius told The Associated Press.
Siniushin, managing partner of Untitled Ventures, urges Western nations to open their doors so their employers can take advantage of the extraordinary hiring opportunity created by the war.
“The more talent Europe or the United States can get from Russia today, the more these new innovators will benefit other countries, whose potential will be fully realized abroad,” he said.
[ad_2]
Source link