At least 650,000 Russians have permanently moved abroad since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to data revealed by The Bell, a Russian media outlet, whose founder Elizaveta Osetinskaya has been recognised by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation.
The Bell has also unveiled that among those who moved out of Russia are also people who do business and want to circumvent the sanctions, Schengen.News reports.
The report’s findings reveal that the majority of Russians moved to the following countries, a significant number of them to EU countries as well:
- Armenia (110,000)
- Kazakhstan (80,000)
- Israel (80,000)
- Georgia (73,562)
- USA (48,033)
- Germany (36,000)
- Serbia (30,000)
- Türkiye (28,308)
- Austria (3,406)
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, EU countries imposed sanctions on Moscow, among them the closure of its border with Russia.
As a result of this decision, the number of war refugees who have fled to Europe was low.
Even though there is no official data in this regard, Bell says that it has secured the data from the migration authorities consisting of data from over 70 countries.
However, some countries that are popular with Russians, such as Thailand, Cyprus and Azerbaijan did not respond to inquiries, according to the media outlet.
At the same time, other countries such as the United Arab Emirates were not included, in spite of the fact that a large number of Russians also moved there when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.
Up to this point, authorities in Russia have not provided any official figures regarding the total number of citizens who left the country, in spite of the fact that since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, some Russians have now returned to their home country.
Harsh Sanctions as a Response to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
Recently, Finland approved a new law that allows the Finnish border guards to deny entry to asylum seekers who cross over from Russia.
The Ministry said the main goal of the law is to ensure the country has effective means to combat situations where instrumentalized immigration is used to put pressure on Finland.
In addition to the closure of borders to Russia, recently, Norway and Finland imposed restrictions on non-essential travel by Russian citizens.
As a result, foreign travel for Russian passport holders has become more difficult.
According to the Passport Index of the VisaGuide.World, which ranks passports of 199 countries in terms of the strength of their passport, Russia’s passport is ranked in the 94th position, with a score of 48.16.
While nationals of Russia are eligible to travel visa-free to 84 countries, visas are required when planning to travel to 94 destinations worldwide.
