Among the things Russia inherited from the USSR was the image, enduring in western media to this day, of being a place everyone just can’t wait to get out of. This hasn’t been true for many years.
In January 1991, The Washington Post published an alarmist op-ed: the Russians were coming! Millions of them. In reality, the opposite happened: 1991 ended up being the inspirational year of new opportunities in Russia. By year’s end, the USSR had fallen, and newly independent Russia was receiving more migrants than it produced. This continues to be true today. Yet, The Washington Post continues to perpetuate this false alarmism: it claimed in August 2019, that “a staggering 44 percent of young Russians want to leave”. Really? Let’s dig deeper.
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