There's a sense among the liberal community that their battle for a different kind of Russia is lost
To flee or not to flee? That has always been the question for a certain stratum of Russian society, from Tsarist times through the Soviet period and the chaos of the 1990s, and up to the present day. People have left Russia in various waves of emigration for political, ethnic or economic reasons.
In recent weeks, the topic has yet again become ripe for discussion. As opinion polls suggest that President Vladimir Putin's approval ratings among Russians are higher than ever, there is a sense among the urban liberal community that their battle for a different kind of Russia is lost.
The Russian journalist Leonid Bershidsky, who recently left Moscow for Berlin, wrote a piece that was much discussed on Facebook in which he said that his decision to leave was part of a new wave of emigration.
In one of a multitude of recent articles in the liberal press about the dilemma of emigrating, columnist Zoya Svetova recalls arguments in her parents' kitchen during the late Soviet era, when people quarrelled over whether emigration was heroic or traitorous. Now, she says, emigration is certainly not traitorous, but it is "giving up".
"I am completely against the heroisation of leaving, saying: 'We are so great, we can't live here any more, we'll come back when Russia becomes more European.' Of course, Russia will become more European. But for that to happen, we need to live here, now."
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/25/russia-new-wave-emigration-annexation-crimea
Liberals discussing leaving Russia sounds like liberals talking about leaving the US. Do you leave for a better, more liberal life somewhere else if you can or do you stay and work to make your country what you want it to be. 
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