Kathrine Frich
Planning ahead has become almost impossible.
Packing up your life in a hurry leaves a mark that takes years to fade.
When a sudden crisis forces thousands of people across borders, everyone assumes those who leave and those who stay behind will quickly grow to resent each other.
Five years after a massive wave of departures, a major new survey reveals what actually happened to those divided lives.
Myth of mutual hatred
In July 2026, independent sociologist Anna Kuleshova and her team polled more than 4,000 readers of the news outlet Meduza to see how Russians feel in the fifth year of the Ukraine war.
The group included 2,922 people still in Russia, 857 living abroad, and 359 who left but later came back. State propaganda often claims that Russians at home despise those who fled.
The numbers tell a very different story. According to Meduza, 87 percent of respondents inside Russia hold warm feelings toward emigrants, while only 5 percent feel negatively. Even so, nearly half of those living abroad still worry that society back home views them with suspicion.
Instead of creating brand new rifts, the war simply exposed value clashes that already existed. As one survey respondent told the researchers: “Everyone already knew what they could say and who they could say it around. Not much has changed in that respect.”
Planning ahead has become almost impossible for both groups. While just 0.2 percent of all participants are happy with current conditions in Russia, 83 percent of those inside the country cannot picture their lives more than a year ahead. Even among emigrants, 63 percent struggle to plan beyond twelve months.
Forced to return home
For most who crossed the border in 2022, it was their first time living in another country. Most fled in an emergency without job contracts or preparation.
Because of visa hurdles and money problems, 18 percent of the early 2022 wave and 38 percent of those who left during the autumn mobilization eventually went back to Russia.
Most did not go home by choice. Meduza reported that 77 percent of returnees would have stayed abroad if they had found legal status and steady work. Today, 65 percent of them want to leave again.
Meanwhile, respondents inside Russia said that half of those hoping to emigrate rate their chances of getting out within a year at two out of 10 or lower.
Divided in exile
Those who stayed abroad have not formed a single united community. Instead, Meduza noted, emigrants split into separate circles based on job fields, religion, or ethnic roots, such as Tatar, Bashkir, and Jewish networks. Earlier waves of emigrants even looked down on newcomers who arrived later.
Money and career networks now draw the sharpest lines. While tech workers in Kazakhstan talk about investments and moving to Italy, a waitress at the same party realizes those dreams are out of reach, and cafes in Serbia charge Moscow prices that many exiles cannot afford.
