Today the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it would exempt Russian men from the draft, if the men are college-educated and hold white-collar jobs in banking, information technology, communications, or Russian state media. This announcement was made shortly after the Russian business newspaper Kommersant published a report (in Russian) saying that Russian businesses were complaining that losing up to 50% to 80% of their employees could be bad for business, and said that losing even a few people could “seriously complicate or even paralyze” their work.
Although Russian airlines are particularly hard-hit by the draft, the Ministry of Defense did not exempt airline employees — presumably because they’re worried that functioning airlines would help more draft-age men flee the country.
In “Russia Announces Exemptions to Draft After Widespread Complaints”, the New York Times reported today that Russian businesses already had problems with IT specialists leaving the country after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine began in February. The NYT article also contradicted Russia’s announcement Wednesday that only “those who served in the army” will be called up, and wrote that many men who are lacking even basic (and normally-mandatory) military service are being drafted.