I wonder why smart and competent-seeming people who can get out of Russia stay in Russia. For most of the last 200 years, if not longer, the smartest thing anyone in Russia could do was (and today is) get out of Russia. Staying seems to have limited upside compared to these very significant downsides.
Have you ever faced the decision to leave your "home"? There are many variables to consider that question the very existential beliefs of a person. "Smart" means different things. Furthermore, the outside environment as well as the inside world of a person is always plastic so the threshold between staying and leaving is very murky. By the time, it is "obvious" to leave, it is often too late.