Prediction record

Hitsociety

More than 500,000 skilled Russians will flee Russia by the end of 2022.

A scored record for Peter Zeihan, made on .

VideoPrimary sourcesocietygeopolitics

Scored record

Hitsociety

if by the end of the year it's under a half a million people i would be very surprised

More than 500,000 skilled Russians will flee Russia by the end of 2022.

Made on
2022-03-17
Outcome
Hit
Importance
3 / 5
Contribution
+2.94

Criterion

Resolution status
resolved
Resolved on
2022-12-31

By 2022-12-31, more than half a million skilled/educated Russians have emigrated/fled the country.

RESOLVED; the half-million numeric threshold for 2022 is comfortably met (500k crossed by ~end of August 2022; full-year 2022 cumulative ~700k-900k across the spring/summer and post-mobilization waves). One measurement caveat for the quantify stage on the word 'skilled': total-emigration counts are not a pure 'skilled/educated' tally, but the documented 2022 wartime émigré population was heavily skewed toward educated, professional and IT/tech workers (the canonical 'brain drain' framing), and the raw headcount exceeds 500k by a wide margin even before any skill filter, so the threshold is met under any reasonable reading. Estimates aggregate independent sources (Forbes Russia, The Bell, OK Russians, destination-country arrival data) rather than a single official Russian statistic — exact totals vary by source, but all credible estimates place 2022 emigration above 500k. No outcome value (o) assigned.

Sources

  • Demographics, and The Ukraine War

    YouTube ·

    Source

Outcome evidence

  • Wikipedia 'Russian emigration during the Russo-Ukrainian war (2022–present)', aggregating multiple primary estimates: 'at least 500,000 [had left] by the end of August 2022', i.e. the half-million threshold was crossed roughly four months before the 2022-12-31 deadline. A further large wave followed Putin's 2022-09-21 partial-mobilization announcement (nearly 300,000 fleeing before 2022-09-27, approaching 400,000 by 2022-10-04), pushing the cumulative 2022 total to roughly 700,000-900,000.

    Evidence

  • The Bell (independent Russian outlet) / bne IntelliNews: an estimated 666,000 Russians emigrated since early 2022, with ~650,000 assessed to remain abroad — independent corroboration that the 2022 emigration wave was well in excess of 500,000 (described as Russia's largest emigration wave since 1917).

    Evidence

Corrections

No public corrections.

Score contribution

+2.94
Confidence
90%
Outcome
Hit
Importance
3 / 5
Contribution
+2.94

This page displays the scored record as published; the website doesn't recompute or adjust the score.

Provenance

More than 500,000 skilled Russians will flee Russia by the…
Methodology version
v1.0.0
Last computed
July 4, 2026
Made on
2022-03-17

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