20% Of Russians Want To Leave Russia

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 6, 5:37AM EST · Published Apr 7, 7:59AM EDT

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20% Of Russians Want To Leave Russia — © Savushkin / Getty Images

Russia is vast, the largest country in the world by land mass. And, it is also one of the world’s largest nations by population, with almost 150 million people. It is also a nation which is controlled by one leader, and essentially one political party. The government system, among other things, has led 20% of Russians to say they want to leave Russia.

According to a new Gallup poll, the 20% figure is a record. Among the major reasons is Putin himself. Of those who approve of his job as president, only 12% of those questioned said they would like to leave Russia. OF those who don’t approve, 40% would like to migrate out of the country. As Putin’s job approval rating has slipped, the percentage of people who would like to leave Russia has risen. According to Gallup: “Looking back over time, between 2008 and 2013, Russians’ desire to migrate slowly increased, while approval of Putin’s job performance slowly decreased.” Gallup says the Sochi Olympic Games and sanctions by the West drove Putin’s ratings back up. However, that was temporary. Gallup researchers wrote:

This enthusiasm about Putin and the country lasted for a couple more years, and then desire to migrate started to go up, and in 2018 it reached the highest point in the last 11 years — 20%. At the same time, Putin’s approval started to go down — dropping in 2018 to 63%, which is the lowest level in the past five years.

Where do Russians want to go? The research shows mostly to strong democracies. In rank order, Germany 15%, the U.S. 12%, Japan 5%, Canada 5%, Spain 5%, and France 4%. Notably, these are all relatively rich nations.

Gallup says there are essential “implications” to the study. Russia’s workforce is shrinking, and its population is aging. Putin needs to keep more people happy about staying in Russia, or he will run short of the people required to run a robust economy.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.