Russia’s space programme apparently prohibiting employees from leaving country

Border guards are allegedly instructed to stop computer engineers and IT specialists from leaving

Russian President Vladimir Putin (C) listens to head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin (L), as they visit the Vostochny cosmodrome, Amur region, on 4 September 2021 (Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

In an effort to curb brain drain amid growing sanctions on Russia, the country’s space programme Roscosmos is reportedly prohibiting its employees from travelling abroad, “even to Russia’s allies”.

Kamil Galeev, a Moscow-based journalist and Galina Starovoitova Fellow on Human Rights and Conflict Resolution at the Wilson Center, says Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, forbade agency employees from being able to travel abroad.

“Consider this executive order by Rogozin, the CEO of a state-owned Roskosmos aerospace company. He prohibited his employees to go abroad, correctly understanding they might not return,” Mr Galeev tweeted, sharing an alleged copy of the order.

Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, Rogozin has actively tweeted in support of President Vladimir Putin, and has also engaged in online feuds with US and Nasa figures such as astronaut Scott Kelly.

“People are leaving en masse wherever they can. The most popular destination of emigration is Tbilisi, all the flights are booked. So people fly to Yerevan, Baku instead, just to get out,” the Moscow-based journalist said.

Mr Galeev tweeted that among those leaving the country are dissidents as well as those with marketable skills in fields such as “tech, IT, engineering, hard sciences,” which make them employable on the international market.

“State-owned companies use the stick directly and prohibit their workers to leave the country,” he tweeted, adding that border guards in Russia are instructed to stop computer engineers and IT specialists from leaving the country.

Eric Berger, senior space editor at Ars Technica also shared on Twitter that “a huge brain drain” is happening in Russia with the space agency’s employees prohibited from traveling abroad, “even to Russia’s allies.”

In the long run experts, including Nikolai Roussanov, an economics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, say brain drain might be the “most important” problem for Russia’s economy.

While the country has seen a “slow trickle over the last decade of people leaving,” Mr Roussanov told Insider that the brain drain would “accelerate, especially as foreign academic institutions break off their relationships with Russian ones”.

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