Russian banks went down en masse, the spread of foreign currencies was larger than the official numbers, and people were queuing outside the banks to withdraw money.
Of course, the Russian narrative is that this will hurt the west more than it will hurt Russia...
Huh? In what world?
> the Russian narrative
Dont say such things after saying stuff like you just did above. You people live in such a delusional false reality propagated by your establishment that its worse than 2003. Ukraine is 'winning' despite losing, Russia is sinking despite becoming the 4th largest economy and having major increase in real wages, US economy is 'doing fine' even as the number and size of the sunken US banks eclipse 2008.
1) Everyone I personally knew in Russia has left, and every international collaboration in science I have seen seems to have ended.
2) People I know who are full time online teachers report that Chinese have virtually overnight lost their spot as the most numerous students, replaced by hordes of Russians seeking to emigrate.
3) Indisputable military points of clarity from global news are that Russia failed to capture Ukraine's capital after planning and attempting to do so, lost much of its Black Sea fleet, and suffered from a brief internal military uprising.
4) Russia's petro-diplomacy clearly backfired: the entire world has pivoted away from fossil fuels and the IEA just announced peak oil will occur this decade.
I think any summary version of reality that includes Russia 'winning' at this stage is probably more stage-managed than the alternatives. Yes, they can grind people to death more than the Ukraine because of their larger population. No, that doesn't mean they 'win'. Both Russia and Ukraine will suffer long term macro-demographic structural issues from this war, however it ends. The people of Ukraine have greatly suffered. The Chinese will suffer too, because this aids Xi Jinping's narrative of resisting the west during a period in which he is asserting authoritarian nationalism and increasing financial, economic and cultural controls.
Few people are making money. Certainly not Russia.
Unfortunately west do nothing to deprive Russia of it's human resources. If only EU and US offered easier path for immigration there would be literally 100,000 of IT personnel who would happily left the country.
Lont-term country is gonna be in terrible conditions, but not because of people leaving.