Some 10% of Russian IT Professions Working from Abroad Since the Ukraine War

Around 100,000 IT specialists left the Russian Federation in 2022, comprising 10% of the total IT workforce, said the head of the Ministry of Statistics of the Russian Federation Maksut Shadaev.
While not referring directly to the Ukraine war, he mentioned the year 2022 as when the exodus of IT professionals occured.
"Indeed, if we take two waves of departure of IT specialists, then up to 10% of employees of IT companies left the country and did not return. If we take a sum, about 100 thousand IT specialists are outside our country," Shadaev said at the "government hour" in the State Duma on Tuesday.
He noted that 80% of those who left continue to work for Russian companies.
The minister said that the government opposes restrictions on remote work for such specialists: it is "premature to raise the question of this now."
"The key measure that we are now proposing to discuss is not to impose strict restrictions on the possibility of remote work for such employees, because this, of course, will encourage them to get a job in foreign companies," Shadayev said.
He however said that such a format of work is unacceptable for developers of state information systems.
Russia is considered an IT powerhouse developing much of it information products within the country. With stricter sanctions since the start of the war in February 2022, the demand for locally-made software and systems has grown expenentially.