All employees living abroad will be dismissed from the presidential academy

The Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of Russia (RANEPA) will terminate employment contracts with employees who do not live in Russia, the agency writes, citing sources at the university.

“This order came from above, the vice-rector was ordered to fire all foreign employees by June 15,” said one of them. The reduction should take place before the end of June.

In 2022, RANEPA collected lists of all employees working abroad and then found out when they intended to return to Russia, the source said.

Those who choose to stay abroad have not yet been informed on what grounds they will be released, but it is likely to be “voluntarily” or “by agreement of the parties”.

In January this year Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin fired the rector of RANEPA, Vladimir Mau, who headed the university for 13 years, and last year was accused of embezzlement of budget funds. The court placed him under house arrest, but then the case was dropped, and Mau left Russia for Israel. Other defendants were still under investigation.

RANEPA supervises the so-called “school of governors” – a program for the development of the Russian personnel reserve. After the start of the war with Ukraine, the Kremlin became concerned about the mass exodus of Russians from the country, including officials, legislators and the top management of state-owned companies. The trend intensified after the announcement of the mobilization. In this regard, the Kremlin introduced controls over their trips abroad.

The teachers of the University of Economics were also under pressure – the management of the university started calling them asking if they had gone abroad, wrote Proekt. As a result, dozens of employees were dismissed or transferred to GPC contracts – according to former HSE professor Konstantin Sonin, the university has lost at least 150 teachers since the beginning of the war.

Also, St. Petersburg State University lost about 50% of teaching staff at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, said Yelena Bunina, former CEO of Yandex, who immigrated to Israel herself in February last year.

Work from abroad has been banned by VK and MTS. Yandex canceled remote work and introduced hybrid mode – now employees must appear in the office at least 2 times a week. Earlier, the company asked them to return to Russia. Forbes wrote that many companies, including Sber, Kaspersky Lab and T1 Group, did not allow employees to relocate from the start.

Against the backdrop of war and mobilization from Russia, according to various estimates, from 500 to 800 thousand people left and did not return. Alfa-Bank analysts estimated the wave of emigration per million citizens. Three-quarters of Russian companies faced the problem of staff departure.

Among the departing guests were outstanding scientists and lecturers from leading universities, including world-renowned specialists and winners of numerous awards. The Scholars at Risk organization alone took 200 people from Russia, another 62 scientists were helped in their departure by the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the project states. At the end of March, more than 6,000 people participated in telegram chats for scientists who need to be relocated.