[aeblyve]

I am ethnically Russian, although spent virtually my entire life in the US. My father went to a special grade school for English in Russia when he was younger there. Presumably, there was some state-sponsored idea that its graduates would become diplomats and leaders and enrich Russia itself.

He reports that some 80% of his class have left the country. I would say that his generation (i.e., some of the first to come of age in the post-communist period) especially were very eager to find lucrative work in the states and elsewhere. The capitalist structure of early capitalist Russia was quite unstable, not offering good pay, or in many cases even consistent pay, and that's if you could find a professional opportunity.