Over 660 Thousand People Left Russian Federation For Good During War

Statistics from 70 countries have been studied.

At least 666 thousand people left Russia after the start of a full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022 and did not return. This was reported by м with a reference to The Bell, publishing the results of its own study.

As The Bell notes, the figures obtained are more than 150 thousand higher than the approximate estimates of this publication made at the end of 2022.

The current study was based on an analysis of officially published information, statements by officials and diplomats, as well as statistical data from each of the host countries. To obtain them, journalists sent requests to migration and statistical authorities of almost 70 countries.

At the same time, the researchers noted a number of difficulties that they encountered. Thus, some countries (Thailand, Indonesia) did not respond to requests, others (Cyprus) do not keep records of Russians who have moved to them or have not yet published immigration data for 2023 (Portugal). In addition, it is impossible to know how many Russians who received a residence permit or a work or study permit abroad ultimately decided to return to the Russian Federation.

Where do Russian relocators go

— Among the leading countries in terms of the number of Russians who moved there, as expected, were visa-free destinations such as Armenia (110 thousand people), Kazakhstan (80 thousand), Georgia (74 thousand), — The Bell points out. The publication calls it unexpected that the United States (48 thousand) was in the same row in terms of the number of those who left.

Israel was also among the top in popularity — about 80 thousand Russians repatriated there. However, the authors of the study stipulate that not all of them remained in the country, and it was not possible to establish the exact number of those who returned.

According to statistics, Russians most often left for Germany (36 thousand), Latvia (18 thousand), Spain (16 thousand), and the Netherlands (12 thousand) from the EU countries. About 30 thousand Russians moved to Serbia.

It is impossible to rely on Russian data in such an analysis, since Russia, as The Bell writes, does not officially disclose how many citizens left after February 24, 2022 and have not yet returned. The information from various departments does not reflect the real picture — for example, the FSB border service data only shows the number of border crossings, of which one person can have several, and the figures from the Ministry of Internal Affairs reflect only those cases when Russians themselves reported the foreign documents they received, which is not required to do for those who left and did not return to Russia.

You can support the website Charter97.org

MULTI-CURRENCY ACCOUNT FOR ASSISTANCE:

Bank's name: Bank Millennium S.A.
Address: ul. Stanislawa Zaryna, 2A, 02-593, Warszawa
IBAN: PL97116022020000000216711123
SWIFT: BIGBPLPW
Name of the account holder: Fundacja “KARTA ‘97”
Purpose/title of payment: Donation for statuary aims

You can contact us by the e-mail charter97@gmail.com