https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/technology/russia-tech-wo…
**Russian Tech Industry Faces ‘Brain Drain’ as Workers Flee**
**Since their country invaded Ukraine, Russian tech workers have left by the thousands. They appear intent on rebuilding their lives and businesses in other countries.**
**By Cade Metz and Adam Satariano, The New York Times, April 13, 2022**
**...**
**By March 22, a Russian tech industry trade group estimated that between 50,000 and 70,000 tech workers had left the country and that an additional 70,000 to 100,000 would soon follow. They are part of a much larger exodus of workers from Russia, but their departure could have an even more lasting impact on the country’s economy....**
**An industry once seen as a rising force in the Russian economy is losing vast swaths of its workers. It is losing many of the bright young minds building companies for the future....**
**The Russian government wants to keep tech workers in the country, offering lower tax rates, preferable mortgages and even the promise that they will not be conscripted into the army, according to state media. ...** [end quote]
Many fled to Yeravan, Armenia. Thousands more flew to Georgia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and other countries that accept Russian citizens without visas.
I think this would be a good time for the U.S. to extend a special visa to Russian tech workers the way that defectors were automatically welcomed during the Cold War. Maybe after a background check to weed out the FSB plants. (How could that be done?)
Wendy