RUSSIA: ‘Brain Drain’ Threatens Nations’ Scientific Heritage

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Dmitry Chelyshev

MOSCOW, Nov 21 1994 (IPS) - According to Moscow newspaper reports some 70-90,000 Russian scientists and academics left the country in 1993 to emigrate or simply to take up highly paid contractual positions overseas.

The European Council’s Commission on Education has estimated that the cost to Russia of losing these intellectual assets in what has become a veritable ‘brain drain’ could be as high as 60 billion dollars a year.

To make matter worse for the former communist state the situation could worsen before it improves. The state committee investigating the problem says that a recent opinion poll among Russian scientists says 80 percent would emigrate if they could.

The ‘brain drain’ applies primarily to academics in the scientific fields as some 75 percent of those who do emigrate have scientific degrees.

The leading countries for attracting Russian scientists are Germany and Israel. High paying Germany has attracted 60 percent of the total with Israel having 25 percent.

At the same the Russian scientists have also started to emigrate to Australia, Latin America and the booming countries of South East Asia.

Ominously Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein also has joined the market for Russian specialists having offered to pay nuclear scientists some 300,000 dollars annually — or three times as much as they would hope to earn in the West.

Pure scientists inside Russia are also turning away from their academic pursuits to industry where there are higher salaries to be obtained. Available statistics show that 150,000 former academics are already working in a commercial environment.

Of those scientists working in academic institutions more than 90 percent have a second job or consultancy work to make ends meet for their families.

The reasons given by the scientists for leaving include the ongoing political instability, economic chaos and extremely low salaries.

The average monthly salary of senior researcher in the Russian Academy of Sciences is equal to 200,000 roubles — or approximately 70 dollars.