As someone who left, I think it’s net-positive to leave even from selfish perspective: you would be able to use the internet and buy things like a normal human being. And you wouldn’t need to think and worry about ethics or possibility of being drafted. I don’t think I ever thought that it was rational to stay—it was mostly the inconvenience of moving things.
The main long-term costs are that Moscow is a decent city and, yes, friends and family. But you either can visit them, or things are so bad you’ll be glad you left anyway. And you can come back—the worst case is not much worse than a vocation.
As someone who left, I think it’s net-positive to leave even from selfish perspective: you would be able to use the internet and buy things like a normal human being. And you wouldn’t need to think and worry about ethics or possibility of being drafted. I don’t think I ever thought that it was rational to stay—it was mostly the inconvenience of moving things.
The main long-term costs are that Moscow is a decent city and, yes, friends and family. But you either can visit them, or things are so bad you’ll be glad you left anyway. And you can come back—the worst case is not much worse than a vocation.