The country last saw a major wave of emigration in 2022, when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia expert René Andrejs said that most Russians still see emigration as a temporary arrangement, which also explains their reluctance to learn languages and integrate in host countries.
Sociologists in Russia are noting a growing interest in emigration among the population there, according to the Russian-language version of the Deutsche Welle (DW). The number of queries about moving from Russia to other countries reached in the Yandex search engine the highest since the mobilization in the fall of 2022.
The demand for travel abroad at that time led to a sharp rise in airfares. "A ticket to Yerevan in September 2022 cost me 75,000 rubles (about twenty-one thousand crowns, ed.)," Dmitry (name changed), whose wife and children later moved in with him, told ČT24.
The surge in interest in emigrating from Russia has been evident since March this year - against a backdrop of regular internet outages, increased government blocking of chat groups and VPN services.
"According to the latest data, the government is struggling with the fact that the familiar pattern of bans no longer automatically translates into a social consensus," political analyst Graschenkov told The Moscow Times (MT). "Society is not getting tired of strictness as such, but rather of the feeling that restrictions are multiplying while the hope for improvement is in sight. (...) This is a growing conflict between a repressive model of management and society's demand for a normal, peaceful life," he added.
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin says shutting down the country's internet is necessary for security reasons - he says Ukraine, now in its fifth year of resisting full-scale aggression from Moscow, is using the network to direct drone attacks against targets in Russia.
Putin said that "when it comes to operational activity to prevent 'terrorist attacks', the priority will always be to ensure people's safety", while admitting that Russian security forces are getting away with attacks. Meanwhile, reports of Ukrainian hits on civilian infrastructure in Russia are less frequent than those of Russian hits on Ukrainian civilian targets.
Even if the mobile internet is restricted, Putin said it is necessary to ensure the operation of services that provide the basic necessities of life. These include access to the official government portal Gosuslugi, payment systems and apps that allow people to make appointments with doctors, he said. He said that security forces and state authorities should cooperate in finding a solution to the issue.
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Meanwhile, the state sociological agency VCIOM notes a decline in Putin's popularity. Putin's popularity has fallen for the seventh week in a row, according to the latest weekly poll released Friday, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reports.
A 1.1 per cent decline to 65.5 per cent was recorded last week. A lower figure was recorded only before Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. As recently as February this year, Putin enjoyed a popularity rating of 74 percent.
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Even people loyal to the Kremlin chief have joined in the criticism of the government. For example, Z-blogger Ilya Remeslo, who used to write denunciations of oppositionists, shocked the media space by calling for Putin's arrest.
The "leader" of the protests unexpectedly became the influencer Viktorija Bonjová. She has been stirring strong emotions in her homeland for several days after she told Putin that he is detached from reality and does not see the problems in Russia - from the floods in Dagestan to the cattle culling in Siberia.
Several businessmen and bankers then unofficially appealed to Putin to ease the internet blocking, which is having a negative impact on a business sector already suffering from tax hikes and a slowing economy, Reuters sources told MT.
Bloomberg sources close to the Kremlin claimed that because of public discontent, the authorities might stop restricting the internet and even allow the Telegram communication app to continue operating in the country. Meanwhile, however, the blocking of Telegram, which had around 100 million users in Russia at the beginning of the year, continues, MT reports.
According to political analyst Graschenkov, the authorities are unlikely to relinquish control over society, but they will try to make everything less traumatic for everyday life. "They will seek a balance between security and irritation, between repressive inertia and the need not to damage the mood of society," he estimates.
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However, the current situation is leading some residents to think about emigrating. "Many Russians, who are not indifferent to the fate of the country, see emigration as a last resort - they leave the country only if they face a direct threat or if they could endanger their loved ones. But then there is a large group of people whose main motivation for leaving the country is to preserve their living standards, to continue working and to live in safety," René Andrejs, a Russian scholar at Palacký University, told ČT24.
In the latter group, according to Andrejs, there are people who are truly indifferent to the political situation and have exaggerated demands on their host countries, but also those who find it unacceptable to remain in a country fighting against a neighbouring state.
Since the October Revolution in 1917, there have been five waves of emigration in Russia - the last one is connected with the Russian aggression in Ukraine. Andrei sees some parallels between them all. "In the current one, there is certainly a renewed exodus of educated and highly qualified people, democratically minded leaders of the Russian political representation, but there is also (a) recurring problem with the integration of the Russian community in the host countries," he noted.
The current wave of emigration, according to Andrejs, has been fundamentally influenced by the experience of working online and remotely. "Many Russians living in emigration still work for Russian companies and are in much closer contact with the local environment than in previous waves. It is a pity that Czechia did not make use of the historical experience of the so-called Russian Relief Action, i.e. systematic assistance to democratically minded Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians in the 1920s," the expert believes.
The Russian Relief Action was an aid programme announced by the Czechoslovak government in 1921 for refugees from Russia who were forced to leave their homeland after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.
The contribution of President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the then Foreign Minister Edvard Beneš and the Prime Minister Karel Kramář to this programme was extraordinary.
The programme of the Czechoslovak government was aimed not only at the assimilation of Russian emigrants in Czechoslovakia, but also at the preservation and further development of their own culture and science.
Most of the people from previous waves of emigration were united by a strong desire to return to their homeland as soon as possible, but that often did not happen, said Andrejs, a Russian. "From my own experience, I know that most Russians still see emigration as a makeshift, which also stems from a reluctance to learn local languages and integrate. For this reason, I think that in the event of a regime change, which will not happen overnight, Russians will be more likely to return," he believes.
"Now we have made an important decision - the children have started going to kindergarten and school in Armenia, we have chosen them very carefully. We want them to be safe," said Dmitry, who emigrated from Russia four years ago.
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