Russians are increasingly searching for ways to leave the country amid internet outages
Interest in emigration is on the rise again in Russia amid problems with mobile internet and a deteriorating economic situation.
This is evidenced by data from Google Trends.
Following the wave of mobilization in September 2022, the number of searches such as “how to leave Russia” gradually declined: while interest was estimated at 100 points in January 2023, it had fallen to 31 by February 2025.
However, in late 2025–early 2026, the trend reversed, and search activity began to rise again. In January of this year, the index rose to 75 points, and by March—to 88, approaching peak levels.
At the same time, no such sharp increase was recorded in the Yandex search engine. According to Wordstat, the lowest number of queries occurred in September 2025—about 44,000—after which the figure rose, reaching nearly 60,000 in January.
For comparison, in January 2023, the number of such queries on Yandex was about 234,000.
Earlier, the St. Petersburg authorities officially announced the introduction of restrictions on mobile internet access, citing security measures as the reason.
Internet access disappeared in the building of the Russian State Duma amid large-scale network restrictions in Moscow.
