Russians who fled the country are returning and contributing to the growth of the economy: “Putin was not so wrong. I really hate us”

Russians who initially fled the country but are now returning from abroad have helped boost Russia’s economic growth in the face of unprecedented Western sanctions, Bloomberg reports.

An estimated 1.1 million people left Russia in 2022 after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Between 40% and 45% have returned since then, according to customer data from Finion, originally based in Moscow, cited by Bloomberg.

Repatriates contributed between a fifth and a third of Russia’s 3.6 percent GDP growth in 2023, Bloomberg Economics estimates.

It appears that these Russians have chosen to return home after facing difficulties in renewing their residence permits abroad and facing personal and institutional discrimination, even in countries that are considered friendly to Russia and which did not impose sanctions on Moscow.

“They came back with resentment and the impression that «Putin was not so wrong. They really hate us»“said Anna Kulesova, a sociologist at the Social Foresight Group, which interviews Russian emigrants, quoted by Bloomberg.

Political analyst Tatiana Stanovaia said Russian propaganda is using the comeback stories as evidence of widespread “Russophobia” in the West. Of Putin, who praised the return of Russian entrepreneurs and highly skilled workers as a “good trend”, Stanovaia said the process “fuels him, gives him further evidence that he is right”.

The sense of insecurity felt by Russians living abroad suggests that the repatriation process is likely to continue as the war drags on, according to Bloomberg, which cites a study by the European University Institute in Florence on Russian migrants.

Russia saw two waves of emigration in 2022 – one initially after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the second in the fall, when the Kremlin announced a “partial” mobilization. Many fled in opposition to the war, due to fears of economic collapse or refusal to be sent to the battlefield.

Putin initially described this exit as a “natural and necessary cleansing of society” of “traitors”. But by last summer, the Russian leader had changed his tune, describing those who remain abroad as “an additional element that binds Russia” by its foreign partners.