Nearly One Third of Moscow Officials Have Fled Russia

Nearly a third of Moscow officials in the mayor's office has reportedly fled Russia in the space of a month, joining a mass exodus of Russians who have sought to escape being drafted as part of President Vladimir Putin's partial mobilization order.

Male employees left en masse from some of the largest departments, including housing and communal services, health care and education, and IT specialists, local news outlet Nestka reported, citing sources familiar with the situation.

Many of these officials reportedly left without officially resigning and notifying relevant authorities, while others fled without taking their personal belongings.

"They leave, leaving things at the workplace, without washing their mug," a source told the news outlet.

Putin announced on September 21 that as many as 300,000 reservists would be called up to fight in Ukraine. In the two weeks that followed Putin's decree, more than 370,000 citizens fled to neighboring countries, including Georgia, Finland, Kazakstan and Mongolia to avoid being conscripted.

News of the departure from Moscow also comes less than two weeks since government officials quit in droves after a colleague who was conscripted died in Ukraine.

Russian journalist Roman Super, citing Kremlin sources, said on his Telegram channel on October 14 that government employees began handing in their notices following the death of Aleksey Martynov, the head of a department within the Moscow city government.

Martynov, 28, was reportedly conscripted on September 23 despite having no combat experience. He was killed on October 10 while fighting in Ukraine.

"We have a mass exodus—employees leave, leaving notes in the nightstands. IT people, advertisers, marketers, PR people, and ordinary civil servants. A real mass exodus," a government source told Super.

"Let me remind you that yesterday it became known about the death of a mobilized employee of the Moscow government Aleksey Martynov," Super wrote.

Natalya Loseva, the deputy editorial director at RT, a Russian state-run media broadcaster, said on her Telegram channel that Martynov was killed in Ukraine just days after joining Putin's army.

"In his youth, he served in the Semyonovsky Regiment," Loseva said in a statement on Telegram. "He had no combat experience. He was sent to the front after basically a few days. He died heroically on October 10."

According to Meduza, a Latvia-based Russian language independent news outlet, the Semyonovsky Regiment provides security to the Russian president and the Kremlin.

Prominent Russian journalist and former presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak also fled Russia to Lithuania, as police raided her Moscow home on Wednesday morning, intelligence services in Vilnius said.

According to the Russian state news agency TASS, security services were ordered to arrest the 40-year-old as a suspect in the same criminal case as her media director, Kirill Sukhanov.

Sobchak has yet to comment on the case, and on her whereabouts.

Newsweek reached out to Russia's foreign ministry for comment.