By Sultan Musayev | 2026-07-22

Igor Pavlov never marched in the street. He filled out a university application instead.

Pavlov, from Orenburg, enrolled last year at Kazakh-British Technical University in Almaty. He plans to finish his degree and move to Europe. He considers the entire exercise a form of protest.

"We can't go out and demonstrate, but we can leave the country so the higher-ups hear us," he told Kontur.

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, adults packed their bags. Four years later, their children are leaving through admissions offices, and they do not plan to come back.

'Normal life' lives abroad

Young Russians have wearied of the country they are inheriting. The war shaped their adolescence: draft bureaus, burials, bad news. Then the government began blocking the internet services they used daily. VPNs went from a geeky tool to a standard smartphone attribute for any teenager.

In May, the Center for Analysis and Strategies in Europe (CASE) published a survey of 64 Russians ages 18 to 30, drawn from eight focus groups. The findings were consistent. Urban youth equate "normal life" with the West. They see careers, income, freedom of movement and travel as things the West offers and Russia withholds. They regard those who have already left as ordinary people, not traitors.

None of the 64 participants expressed a willingness to fight in the war. Propaganda and military-patriotic education appear to have little grip on this generation.

Education as exit visa

Many young Russians want to leave. Few have a legal way to do it. Foreign countries rarely grant Russians residency status now, which leaves education as the only realistic route. A student visa provides legal residence. University study buys time to learn the language and build connections. A diploma opens the local labor market.

The decline of Russian education pushes in the same direction. Meduza reported that Russia's withdrawal from the Bologna Process, the cancellation of Erasmus+ and the designation of several international educational institutions as "undesirable" ended student exchanges and much else.

"Since Russia was excluded from the international community, the educational foundation of a number of subjects is objectively becoming outdated here," a career consultant named Arina told Meduza. "Universities are being excluded from research projects."

Diana, 20, of Moscow, enrolled at Tilburg University in the Netherlands in 2024 in a program related to neurobiology. Like most of the students Meduza profiled, she intends to stay.

"For me it's the most comfortable country in Europe in terms of standard of living, work, education, and comfort in general," she said. "And the passport. I'd like to get citizenship here."

Meduza also published instructions for applying to foreign universities. The central advice: start at least two years early. Take international exams. Study admissions criteria and the grant and scholarship programs that many Western universities extend to foreign students, including Russians. Draft the personal essays with care.

Mentors say early starters have time to find affordable schools, learn their requirements and assemble a portfolio -- the projects, olympiads, volunteering, creative work, research and leadership experience that show who an applicant is beyond grades.

Vadim, an admissions consultant, said the portfolio matters most in the United States.

"In Europe the system is more focused on tests. There they look at your exams and academic achievements. In the United States they evaluate your portfolio more -- who you are as an individual."

Applicants should target several universities, pick a country suited to their field and confirm they can legally work there after graduation.

Artificial intelligence is rewriting the process. Ulzhan Sarsenbayeva, manager of the Almaty travel agency Traveloperator.kz, said some schools now request a video in place of a personal statement, so applicants should sharpen their public speaking.

"These days anyone can send any personal statement written by a chatbot, but a video can tell more about you -- or more accurately, show more about you," Sarsenbayeva told Kontur.

Diplomas that carry risk

Fear sets the timeline. Applicants dread forced mobilization, and enrollment at a Russian university can end in the so-called special military operation. Authorities tacitly ordered universities to send 2% of their students to the war to supply fresh troops, according to reports. Valery Averin, 23, of Buryatia, was one of them. He died at the front.

A Western diploma carries its own hazard. Russia's list of "undesirable organizations" names at least 19 universities, including Stanford and Yale. Russian law allows up to four years' imprisonment for people connected to an undesirable organization and up to six years for organizers. The rights group Liberty Forward estimates that 2,000 to 3,000 Russians face legal risk over ties to "undesirable" schools, and puts the real figure higher. Authorities treat even a call for applications or attendance at an alumni reunion as distributing an undesirable organization's materials, the group said.

The West keeps its pull anyway. When CASE asked respondents about their futures, they described careers, housing and travel. Politics and patriotism barely surfaced. They raised the war only as an interference with a normal life.

"I just want to live like a normal person: go to school, work, talk freely about what I think and not be afraid every day of what will happen next," Pavlov said. "That's impossible in Russia."