After A Tech Exodus, Russia Is Wooing International Talent.

After an exodus of workers from the industry as a result of the crisis in Ukraine, Moscow said on Wednesday that it was easing the requirements for international IT professionals to get Russian work licenses.

Since the Kremlin sent soldiers to Ukraine in February of last year, tens of thousands of Russians have left the nation; a surge of young men left once Moscow started mobilizing in September 2022.

“The procedure of being hired and acquiring a residence permit in the Russian Federation has been eased for foreign residents who are professionals in the area of information technology,” a spokesperson for the interior ministry stated.

The announcement comes after a Russian official acknowledged that up to 100,000 workers from the country’s IT sector had left the country in the previous year.

Maksut Shadayev, Russia’s minister for digital development, said that roughly 80% of people who left were still working remotely for Russian businesses.

The Ukrainian crisis has sparked a surge of economic sanctions on Russia, isolating its IT industry at the same time that Russian IT firms have been taken over by the government.

Applications for foreign employees in the IT industry will be taken into consideration within three months, according to the streamlined processes Irina Volk, a spokeswoman of the interior ministry, announced on Wednesday.

The visa will be valid for an extended period of time and will also let the authorized IT sector employee to move their close relatives to Russia.

Many Russians who emigrated during the fierce uprising in Ukraine last year have settled in nearby former Soviet nations including Armenia, Georgia, and Kazakhstan.