Thomas Gür on FB: "What Russians are googling: "A survey conducted between February 17th and 21st—that is, in the week before Mr Putin’s invasion—by the Levada Centre, an independent Russian pollster, found that 43% of Russians between the ages of 18 and 24 wanted to leave the country for good. And 44% of those who hoped to emigrate cited the “economic situation” as their motivation.

That situation is likely to get a lot worse. Western sanctions have created an economic storm: rising inflation, a crashing currency, and imports that are expected to dwindle. Many Russians will soon struggle to afford what they need to survive.

Eagerness to leave seems to be mounting. Data from Google Trends, which tracks how often particular words are entered into its search engine, show that Russian-language searches for “political asylum”, “emigration”, “flights” and “visa” all leapt in Russia in the days leading up to the invasion on February 24th..."