Forty-two percent of senior managers want to emigrate from Russia, a poll by headhunting company Agentstvo Kontakt revealed Tuesday.
Almost one-sixth (16 percent) of respondents said that they intended to move to a different country within the next two years, the RBC news website reported.
The three most popular potential destinations were the United States, favored by 22 percent of participants, followed by Germany with 17 percent and Britain with 11 percent.
Forty-eight percent of those planning to move said that they would find work in a new company, while 31 percent planned to start their own business. Another 20 percent said that they would live off money they earned from leasing property in Russia.
The poll was conducted in May among 467 Russian high-level managers working in local or international companies.
Those wishing to move said that they were motivated by more favorable conditions for developing private businesses, better prospects of finding investors, and a higher quality of life.
Meanwhile, the number of foreign specialists working in Russia has been dropping since 2014.
In the first 10 months of 2015, the number of work permits issued for highly qualified EU specialists fell by 57 percent compared to the same period in 2013, RBC reported, citing data from the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA).
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