Russia is experiencing a shortage of 170,000 IT specialists who left the country en masse due to the sanctions imposed after the start of the war in Ukraine, Igor Zubov, deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, admitted. He is quoted by RIA Novosti.

“We have a large outflow of IT specialists due to sanctions, the need is about 170 thousand people ... A million people are employed in the industry.”

He clarified that the return of IT specialists depends on the attractiveness of "today's measure." It is assumed that the average salary will be 140 thousand rubles.

At the end of March, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a government decree on the procedure for deferment from military service for IT specialists. Under the new rules, men under the age of 27 who have a higher education and at least one year of work experience in the IT field will be able to receive a deferment from service. The deferment procedure also applies to specialists with less than a year of experience, but on condition that they graduated from a university a year before being appointed to the position.

According to the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC), in February and March 2022, on the wave of mass emigration that began after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, about 70,000 IT specialists left the Russian Federation and this number will only grow in the future. The organization predicted that another 70,000-100,000 IT employees would leave the country in April.