Maybe our company is not representative, but the only engineers I know of who left Russia (about 5 people out of ~150) - I wouldn't say they were the best engin

Maybe our company is not representative, but the only engineers I know of who left Russia (about 5 people out of ~150) - I wouldn't say they were the best engineers at the company. They only left after the mobilization started (feared of being drafted) and they already were a minority group of vocal Putin critics before. So to say that the best engineers left Russia is not true, from my perspective: it looks like it better aligns with people's political views, not their expertise. Maybe it's different in Moscow, which is less conservative (we aren't Moscow-based).