Russian Tech Industry Faces ‘Brain Drain’ as Workers Flee

“We don’t have enough quality apartments for highly educated people with high salaries and high standards,” said Aram Shahbandarian, a former Google employee in Yerevan who has helped many Russians move to the city. “Yerevan is crackling.”

Armenian Economy Minister Vahan Kerobyan said in an interview that as a country with strategic relations with Russia, Russia is not marketing to try to pull companies out of Russia, but if companies decide to relocate, they will work to accommodate them. .

“The Armenian tech community is supporting their Russian friends, and the government is very concerned about giving Russian companies a nice place to work that isn’t too expensive,” he said. Mr. Kerobyan estimates that 43,000 people, half of whom have Russian and half Armenian passports, have moved from Russia to Armenia.

Mr. Kerobyan said Miro, a US software company, chartered planes to Yerevan for Russian employees and placed them in two hotels in the heart of the city. X-tensive, a software development company in Russia, said it has also shifted its employees to the Armenian city because its main customer, ServiceTitan, was established there.

Miro publicly said that he was removing his workers from Russia. X-tensive did not respond to a request for comment.

Many of these workers may eventually move to other places, as visa restrictions require them to leave their current home after a certain number of days. Many are not sure where to go. Others plan to move to promising tech hubs further afield, such as Dubai and Lisbon.

Artem Taganov, the founder and CEO of a Russian startup called HintEd, said that he knew the founders of 70 Russian companies who fled to Armenia, like himself. He said that if entrepreneurs stay in Russia, their company will only be able to serve the local market.