If the US is able to attract the majority of that (as it most likely will), while keeping out the Putin-aligned plants and/or otherwise mentally deficient factions (which remains to be seen), that will definitely be huge gain for them.
That remains to be seen. There is a huge undercurrent of Russophobia, and potential takers will have observed the FBI-led harassment of Chinese scientists (not too long ago a Tennessee jury refused to convict a Chinese national on account of the threadbare evidence), already these factors would make anyone coming from an enemy country hesitant. Combine that with funding and employment issues in the physical and life sciences - anyone young and ambitious would be well advised to settle in China instead.
I personally wouldn't count on China, an ethno-nationalist country that does not offer a pathway for naturalization for people who are not Chinese-passing, to provide a safe place for me or my family to reside. Not to mention the enormous scale of abuse of power the current Chinese government is engaging in.
Where? The highly skilled Russians part of the brain drain will most likely go to big cities, full of high earning and/or well educated people, not in hick towns full of xenofobic loonies.
Russians brain drain to the US is not something new, but has been going on for several decades and it seems to have worked fine for them.
Make sure that source shows that this hatred/dislike is against regular russian citizens and not the russian government.
I'm sure there are plenty of folks who are against regular russians, but I want evidence that it's some sort of major concern.
Anyway, take a look at reddit, which is full of highly-educated baristas from large American cities. A common sentiment is that the "average Russian citizen" should be out protesting, and that if they aren't, then they support the evil nazi leadership.
give me a break - chinese students with USA sponsorship write reports back to their sponsors, and some of them do grab data and code, by the thousands.. I have seen it on networks and I believe in person at University.. one line about alleged harassment is equivalent to nothing without that context
Right now the federales are coming after a mathematician from Southern Illinois University: https://www.science.org/content/article/trial-mathematician-...
Dude is interested in control theory and had a joint appointment at two Chinese universities. You do ask - what does the government hope to achieve?
Having said that, I can imagine that there would be (already is a) proxy brain drain from Russia to Dubai but catering to the Western customers.
I doubt this occurred at very many places, but anecdotally Poland gained a meaningful number of highly skilled tech workers. I haven't worked with any of the Russians, but many of my Polish counterparts hold the belief that the US is largely responsible for the invasion of Ukraine. I will be very interested to see immigration numbers of where Russians end up.
America doesn't need political purity tests, let them all come. If the concern is espionage, that's the FBI's concern to worry about. If the concern is them sending money back to Russia, simply forbid that. If the concern is their influence on American politics.. well that's a non-issue because native born Americans sympathetic to Putin far outnumber all the PhDs in Russia. And besides, American society can and should be able to tolerate dissent. A small number of wackos are outnumbered by reasonable people and aren't a realistic threat to the system.
hmm - working people usually send money to those that need it, whatever the language spoken...
because I could see gains for both US and Putin. US obviously gains with more smart people here working for the US and paying taxes. Putin gains because he remove smart people from Russia, making it easier to keep hold on power.