State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said that 60% of Russians who left the country returned back.
“Those who left have made their choice. In our country, by the way, more than 60% have returned since their departure [abroad] and are working again at the enterprises where they used to be,” said the speaker of the lower house of parliament.
Volodin did not specify what time period he was talking about, but the context suggests that he means people who left the country since the beginning of the war with Ukraine, that is, since February 2022. Where the figures came from, he also did not explain.
There is only one source that can accurately calculate how many citizens crossed the border with the Russian Federation back and forth – this is the FSB border service. However, it does not divide Russians into those who simply went on vacation or on a business trip, and those who emigrated from the country in order to arrange their lives elsewhere. So it is likely that Volodin wrote down as "returnees" people who spent their holidays abroad or went on a business trip.
The Bell edition at the end of 2022 tried to figure out how many Russians left the country and did not return, with the proviso: “It is almost impossible to calculate exactly how many people have left the country since the end of February. This is recognized by both economists and demographers.” According to the minimum estimates of journalists, at least 512 thousand people emigrated from the country. This number includes those who have "established themselves" in another country – for example, they went through the repatriation procedure in Israel, applied for asylum in the United States, received a residence permit in Turkey.