Since the beginning of 2022, at least 666,000 people have left Russia and have not yet returned, says the Russian publication The Bell (in the register of "foreign agents"), based on its own calculations, Paralel.Az reports.

According to the publication, the leaders in the number of new emigrants from Russia are the countries with which Moscow has a visa-free regime. Thus, about 110 thousand people went to Armenia, 80 thousand to Kazakhstan and 74 thousand to Georgia.

About 80,000 Russians have gone to Israel since the beginning of 2022, according to calculations by The Bell. In addition, Russians began to apply for asylum in the United States en masse – taking into account "long-term visas", 48 thousand Russians went there.

About 30 thousand Russians have moved to Serbia in the last two and a half years. But Germany became the leader among European countries in terms of the number of Russian arrivals – 36,000 Russian citizens settled there, and 16,000 Russians left for Spain, the publication estimates.

The journalists used data on migration from about 70 countries to which Russian citizens went. Russia does not disclose data on the number of citizens who left the country after February 24, 2022. However, Russian authorities claim that many of those who left after the Russia-Ukraine war started later began to return to Russia.