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Russian Physicist Sentenced to 12 Years for Treason over scientific cooperation with Dutch colleagues
(www.themoscowtimes.com)
this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2023
236 points (97.2% liked)
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Sons and daughters of Russian oligarchs will.
It was always hard and expensive to leave Russia for a first world country, and right now most of those countries are making it even harder and even more expensive than before.
For example Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, (most of which share a border with Russia) banned Russians from entering the countries outright, regardless of purpose, greatly limiting options for leaving Russia via land.
Other countries introduces other restrictions, like directing anyone wishing to get a visa to their embassies in Moscow exclusively. Which is a bit of a problem, considering the size of the country.
Oh, an of course there are inherent restrictions due to the visa facilitation agreement being suspended.
The article above makes it pretty clear Russia is interested in preventing international cooperation. So I wouldn't expect things like joined research endeavors or exchange programs to be common, if allowed to happen at all.
So, how does any of that facilitate brain drain, exactly?
It doesn't. They still leave.
It is not like the border is a wall or something like around north Korea. If they want to leave, they will.
You do realize that crossing a border is illegal, even if there's no wall, right?
First: leaving Russia without a permit is illegal and punishable by fines and/or prison.
Second: Entering any country without a permit is illegal and will get you deported and banned from entering it ever again.
Merely being Russian does not grant anyone asylum rights. Poland and the Baltic states, for example, won't consider any asylum requests, even from persons who are being conscripted. At most, the process can be slowed down with appeals to last a year or more, but it will, almost certainly, end up in deportation back to Russia, followed by Russia prosecuting the deflectors.
Even North Koreans get deported back to NK, despite the fact that the country is considered to be hellhole by pretty much everyone, everywhere.
Oh no it is illegal! Just like any form of draft evasion. Well then just stay and go to the front, the legal way to do things. Much better option.
What a great set of options!
Either become a criminal by deflecting and crossing the border illegally, only to face constant fear of being caught, deported and prosecuted for deflection, illegal border crossing, and treason... Which is basically, a life sentence.
Or become a criminal in the eyes of the civilized world by participating in an attack on a sovereign country. Which, honestly, will most likely result in death.
So, basically: being a Russian, who can't afford to leave the country via the convoluted and expensive ways that are still available, is a crime. Got it! Nice!
There is no legal way, that was the point. You can not just evade getting drafted and expect that to be legal.
Yeah. Yet, meanwhile, a lot of people are talking about some mystical "brain drain". That's not "brain drain", that's a world-sponsored Iron Curtain 2.0. Literally the opposite of that.
No, it really is a brain drain. More so than the "usual" brain drain from poor to rich countries due to the additional stuff in Russia. Unless they close down like north Korea there is no way to stop that.
Maybe instead it'd be better to make the process legal and easier from the outer side so more russians leave and 1) dont get drafted and 2) dont pay taxes to russia?
The risk of letting in a spy or terrorist is too large. No thanks.
It's not hard to get from Russia to any other country, assuming you have enough money. The current sanctions aren't, exactly, stopping Russian oligarchs from having vacations in Europe, for example. Or sending their kids off to colleges there. So, if Russia wanted to send "spies or terrorists". it absolutely would.
And how do you think spying works, exactly? Real life isn't Team Fortress 2, you don't just "get behind the enemy lines", put on a uniform and march into the middle of a military base to pick up some magical briefcase of intel.
Nobody, anywhere, would hire an immigrant to do any sensitive government work. It's easier to find sympathizers among the native citizens of any given country that are already in positions that grant them access to intel. Which is exactly how it's usually done. Same goes for terrorists.
No exchange of information between peers will not exactly help common research, no?