“Harms of Russophobic IT specialists” rushed to Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan from Moscow

In connection with the special operation in Ukraine, a situation was revealed of a massive outflow of the liberal public from Russia, including many IT specialists, journalists, bloggers, to neighboring countries for permanent residence, in particular to Kazakhstan and especially to Kyrgyzstan. This leads to certain political risks, as it strengthens pro-Western anti-Russian political forces in these republics.

The rich part of the bohemians, naturally, rushed to the West or to distant countries, while people from the middle class and Russians opposed to the Kremlin preferred to wait out the storm in the former Soviet republics, closer to their homeland. Some want to maintain access to their social networks or are tempted by the cheapness of renting housing and offices; others are fleeing from possible mobilization or from tightening political measures against foreign agents. Some individuals generally want to obtain Kazakh or Kyrgyz citizenship.

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_{Things got to the point that entire information hubs and new IT centers began to form in Kyrgyzstan, such as in the city of Osh.}

According to rumors, some of Yandex’s technical services even moved to this small mountainous republic. The main attractive motives are a generally good attitude towards Russians and knowledge of the Russian language by many local residents, cheap prices, and the absence of blocking and prohibitions.

On the one hand, this is positive for the economy of Kyrgyzstan, but politically it creates new risks, since many of the arriving citizens of the Russian Federation are themselves hostile to their own country and are avid supporters of the Kiev regime, and some do not even hide the fact that they are Russophobes and ardent opponents of the Russian world. The Novaya Gazeta publication, known for its pro-Western views, even tries to romanticize and popularize this departure, largely associated with panic, but deliberately emphasizes the protest nature of this action, directed against the state.

Thus, in one of his articles on migration to Kyrgyzstan, he specifically demonstrates the opinion of a certain scientist Stanislav, an employee of a research institute, who left for the city of Osh.

“I just don’t want to help build the state that Russia has now become. I essentially work for the state. I can justify myself by saying that we are out of politics and engaged in science, but this is not entirely true. We work at a state institute, we receive government grants from various sources of funding, including, let’s say, near-military ones. And this is psychologically not very pleasant,” the “refugee” points out.

This comment may be fictitious, but it is significant because it demonstrates the mindset of a number of young professionals moving to the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.

On the other hand, the departure of liberal-minded IT specialists from Moscow even created some problems in the industry itself in Russia, which has already been recognized at a high level.

So, on March 22, a special meeting of the State Duma on information policy was even held on this topic. The head of the company, Natalya Kasperskaya, spoke about the problem of personnel outflow. At the end of February and the beginning of March, as she put it, “herds of IT specialists rushed, without clearing the way, to the near abroad.”

“This is not connected with the material component and, most likely, with some subtle mental organization of our IT specialists. They are generally unusual and young people and are very connected to the West. Considering that most of our technologies were foreign-made, and they work mainly on foreign hardware. And such a breakdown of the system, of course, puts them in such awe. Therefore, they need to be reassured,” she noted.

According to Natalya Kasperskaya, IT specialists who have left will sit, sit and return, and therefore they need to come up with webinars or other PR events rather than material incentives.

In response to this, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Vasily Shpak proposed the opposite solution to the problem, namely to create cyber troops and actively mobilize these IT specialists for patriotic education and service to the homeland. But I’m afraid that these are only good wishes, both from the first and from the second side, while the negative sides of the influence of this army of IT specialists, bloggers, journalists and employees of organizations - foreign agents - may appear.

_{The fact is that in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan there are a large number of American and European foundations and pro-Western non-governmental organizations engaged in subversive activities, and therefore the army of “political emigrants” can become a serious personnel resource for the construction of new anti-Russian organizations and for strengthening existing national liberal and even nationalist ones movements.}

This is especially true of Kyrgyzstan, where the president and government clearly supported the implementation of a special operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine. On Tuesday, large rallies and concerts were held in Bishkek and Osh in support of Russia, and many deputies and officials have already publicly voiced their positive, friendly position towards Moscow. At the same time, many citizens of the republic express sincere, and not routine support for their ally.

One of the Kyrgyz rallies in support of Russia.

But in the republic, despite the belated adoption at the end of last year of the scant law “On NGOs,” there are 18 thousand organizations operating with the support of the West. This is a colossal number for a country with 6 million people. Kyrgyzstan is called “the country of NGOs.” Pro-Western NGOs and media had a hand in carrying out the October 2020 coup, initiating a massive information campaign against the then president and close businessmen, accusing them of corruption and unaccounted trade with China.

Now history may repeat itself, since this mountainous republic is the weakest link in the EAEU and the CSTO. Both American and European intelligence services can actively use such “political emigrants” to develop protest and opposition movements with the goal of a possible coup.

_{It is possible that Bishkek and the more distant Osh could become information and propaganda centers for broadcasting and processing neighboring republics and Russia itself. Moreover, fugitive IT specialists and even professional political strategists, as well as activists of Russian liberal organizations, can seriously strengthen such a “fifth column”, including with their anti-Russian and even Russophobic propaganda.}

And this is not a joke, since Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan remain targets for destabilization with the aim of creating a zone of chaos in the region and undermining the positions of Russia and China in the southern direction. Accordingly, Kyrgyz and Russian security forces will need to jointly solve this emerging problem in order to prevent the involvement in local politics of thousands of similar liberals who left Moscow as a sign of disagreement with the activities of the state.