The first alarms about the cyber flight came already at the end of February last year. When Putin then ordered a "partial mobilization" in September, the stream of information technology employees took off further.

In December, Russia's Minister for Digital Development Maksut Shadayev was quoted by Russian media as saying that the number of IT specialists who left during the year reached 100,000 – a figure described as on the low side by experts.

The fact that employees in the IT sector choose to leave to a large extent is no coincidence. Through their work, many have made international contacts, while salaries are often higher than average.

Civil society is hardest hit

According to Shadayev, the dropout corresponds to around 10 percent of the industry, which even before 2022 sounded the alarm about staff shortages. Then add that Western companies have left the country and sanctions on technology imports and a dark picture of Russian development are emerging.

The biggest loser looks set to be civil society. When competence is lacking, Russia has a tradition of prioritizing defense, explains Carolina Vendil Pallin, research leader at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI).

" When it published its National Security Strategy in July 2021, it had a goal of balancing security needs with socio-economic development. It's completely disappeared, I'd say. The whole of Russian politics is now dominated by the warfare in Ukraine.

Defence industry unattractive

But even if the message from Putin is that the armed forces will get everything they need, there are apparently problems there too. Russian IT specialists with whom SVT has been in contact testify that the defense sector is seen as an unattractive employer associated with low wages and "Soviet-like" working methods. Vendil Pallin chimes in.

"If you work in the defence sector, you can't travel abroad in the same way. You can't even have the network of contacts that many have become accustomed to in this sphere. The fact that Russia is cut off from a large part of the world also has negative consequences.

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"No matter where I work, I'm developing Russian technology — so I guess I'm already an asset to the state," Dima said. Hear the engineer talk about remaining in Russia against his will in the clip. Photo: Filip Brusman