Thirteen Percent of Russians Want to Move Abroad – Poll

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 15, 2015)

Thirteen percent of Russians would like to move abroad, while 17 percent of Muscovites would like to do so, a poll revealed Monday.

Almost half of those who want to leave Russia for good – 38 percent – are young people between the ages of 18 and 24, research by the state-run pollster VTsIOM showed.

Twelve percent of those who said they wanted to emigrate would like to move somewhere with a better climate.

Eleven percent would choose to live in a country with a higher standard of living, and another 11 percent would move because of an unstable political and economical situation in Russia.

Ten percent consider dissatisfaction with the government a good reason to emigrate.

Forty-five percent of Russians and 59 percent of Muscovites who want to move abroad have taken action to actually make it happen, such as learning a foreign language, collecting information about their potential country of residence and consulting with friends who have already emigrated, the pollster said.

The poll was conducted on July 4-5 among 1,600 respondents in 46 Russian regions and on July 23-26 among 1,200 respondents in Moscow. The margin of error did not exceed 3.5-3.7 percent, according to VTsIOM.