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The Great Stampede: Hundreds of Software Developers Leaving Russia

That the Russian invasion of Ukraine is taking its toll on the entire planet is a fact. And it is that, despite the fact that the Putin government tries to show strength and play down the consequences that the sanctions that come from the West may be having, the truth is that The panorama of the Eurasian country is complicated.

The flight of professionals to other parts of the world could be more pronounced than government sources claim. And among them, hundreds of software developers on the run of a country that has almost become an international pariah.

At least this is what can be seen in the GitHub coding platform where 23% of Russian developers have changed their physical location and even deleted their profile from February 2021 to the last analyzed date, June 2022. Almost four months after the last update, the figure could be much higher.

The stampede began even before the Russian president announced a partial military mobilization in September. Which caused some 200,000 men to flee amid the prospect of being recruited to join the war.

Exodus of Russian tech talent

It is therefore about an unprecedented exodus of Russian tech talent in the history of the country. It is important to note that the technology sector is currently in serious trouble in Russia. The lack of Western technology, the arrival of innumerable defective Chinese chips as substitutes, the closure of companies and the flight of many others, have placed many professionals in no man’s land and with a future full of chiaroscuro.

Giants such as the internet company Yandex NV (YNDX) have assured that they are having great problems to work given the shortage of key equipmentgovernment censorship, and foreign markets’ animosity toward economic activity with Russia.

And where is a good part of this talent migrating? Georgia is one of the most benefited countries. In fact, in statements to Bloomberg, government sources have come to ensure that “if more professionals with a technological profile arrive, we could become the Portugal of the East.”

It should be borne in mind that many of these emigrants are professionals in the technology sector and that can work remotely. Given the closure of flights from Russia as a result of Western sanctions, they leave via Georgia, another ex-Soviet Russian neighbor and with a clearly Europeanist vision. In fact, in the public service hall of Tbilisi, the country’s capital, newcomers are registering companies or applying for residency.

A tech entrepreneur from Moscow, Lev Kalashnikov, has claimed in an interview that Georgia will undoubtedly benefit from “the biggest brain drain in modern Russian history”. In fact, Kalashnikov himself opened a group for expats on the Telegram messaging app as he queued to sign up upon arrival, “there were 50 people in front of me and 50 behind me. They became my first subscribers and now we have almost 4,000 members”

In recent decades, Russia has been characterized by having a large niche of technology professionals that, in one way or another, have helped the country’s economic prosperity. Meanwhile, other countries lack these highly trained professionals, something they could benefit from with this technological exodus.

In fact, in Spain the digital sector has always warned of the shortage of tech talent. Last May, at a meeting of the Cercle d’Economia de Barcelona, ​​representatives of the tech ecosystem highlighted the difficulty of finding local professionals in this sector. “Signing experienced technology talent has been one of the main obstacles to our growth. The competition between companies is very great”, commented Oscar Pierre, co-founder of Glovo.

A situation that could be mitigated the great stampede of technology professionals of Russia as a result of the war launched against Ukraine.

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