Russia is literally bleeding money. One of President Putin’s great achievements was to create a wealthy elite who were loyal to him, but the wealthiest Russians are now fed up with the pariah nation.
New data released by the UK Ministry of Defense on Friday shows a shocking number of Russian millionaires are trying to get the hell out of the country this year.
“Migration requests suggest that 15,000 Russian millionaires are probably already trying to leave,” the ministry said, with most heading to the United Arab Emirates and Australia.
The news aligns with a study carried out earlier this week by London-based Henley & Partners, which facilitates residency and citizenship applications and which has apparently seen an increase in Russian requests to get out of the dodging since the Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 this year. .
Putin’s child protection lawyer steals directly from children in Ukraine and the UK
The group’s private wealth migration dashboard keeps tabs on some 150,000 super-rich and monitors movements to and from 62 countries, including Russia and the United Arab Emirates. Some of the wealthy people’s movement was expected after a shutdown at the height of the pandemic, but the group says geopolitics is playing a bigger role than ever.
The exodus of 15,000 of the wealthiest Russians is part of a huge movement of people who do not want to live under Putin’s increasingly messy autocracy. It is unclear whether those fleeing will be able to take their possessions with them or whether Putin has complicated the process.
The Russian economy is in danger of collapsing as sanctions bite and restrictions from abroad cease to exist. The European Union is threatening to cut off oil and gas imports and growing numbers of individuals, businesses and banks are cut off from international markets.
Dissent has been crushed, and Russia’s middle classes and wealthy businessmen feel unable to openly discuss their concerns about Putin’s war in Ukraine.
For many of them, the only answer is to start a new life abroad.
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