Vladimir Putin's war mobilization has led to an exodus of tech workers, which has further put stress on the Russian economy, leading Russians who have not fled the country to tighten up their spending.
"People weren't working," MarketGuru.io co-founder and CTO Dmitry Sizon told The Wall Street Journal. "They were either on the road, or in the four-day traffic jam at the Georgia border, or they were in the office, listening to the girls in the office cry."
Even of those workers who have stayed on at Sizon's company located just 30 miles from the Ukraine border, a large portion are now working remotely and business has slowed considerably, according to the report.
"There are clients who changed their minds because they are afraid, afraid of what tomorrow will bring," he told the Journal.
Polls show that 25% of IT workers in Russia have considered fleeing the country and 6% had already left, the Journal reported.
"There are really very few top IT specialists left in Russia," HR Luna Park founder Nadya Petrova, who business helps companies hire in Russia, told the Journal.
The war in Ukraine and economic woes stemming from it have the Russian economy expected to contract by as much as 3.5% this year, the largest recession in the world, according to the report.
"I would estimate that around one in five developers is now elsewhere," Vienna University of Economics and Business professor Johannes Wachs told the paper.
Russian rideshare startup inDrive CEO Arsen Tomsky might be going out of business, because of lack of workers and lack of business, having had 1,200 workers before the war in Ukraine began Feb. 24.
"We'll have zero by the end of the year," Tomsky told the Journal. "People are in danger. It's better to be outside of Russia."
"The local economy is heavily dependent on oil and gas. I tried to convince everyone that we must make a bet on the intellectual sphere.
"That has become difficult and impossible."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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