After 2022, a significant number of Russian entrepreneurs and senior managers found themselves in a situation where continuing their professional activities within their original jurisdiction became difficult or, in some cases, impossible. Restrictions on international operations, sanctions pressure and the disruption of established economic ties forced many businesses to reconstruct their processes outside Russia. This phenomenon is often described as a “drain of expertise” — not merely the physical relocation of individuals, but the transfer of managerial, investment and professional skills to other countries, where they continue to operate within a different institutional environment.
The Relocation Showcase: Mobile Sectors as an Early Signal
The most visible examples in the public domain have come from the technology and financial sectors. These industries have formed a kind of “relocation showcase”, illustrating how businesses can change jurisdiction while preserving scale and operational control. High workforce mobility, the digital nature of products and a relative independence from physical location allow such companies to adapt comparatively quickly to new legal and regulatory frameworks.
Following his exit from the Russian segment of the business, Arkady Volozh focused on developing international technology projects aimed at foreign markets. Nikolay Storonsky continued to build fintech company Revolut as a global business operating entirely outside the Russian economic jurisdiction. Oleg Tinkov, after leaving Russia’s banking sector, shifted his attention to private investment and entrepreneurial ventures abroad.
Against this backdrop, the relocation process in infrastructure-related sectors — where it is also taking place — appears fundamentally different. Development, in particular, stands apart.
Why Development Is a Special Case
Unlike IT or fintech, development businesses cannot simply “move” together with their operations. Projects in this sector are tightly bound to specific locations — land, urban planning regulations, regional politics and long investment cycles. What relocates here are not assets as such, but managerial and project expertise.
This includes the ability to design large-scale concepts, work with municipal and regional authorities, structure long-term financial models, oversee projects over many years and navigate complex regulatory environments. These are precisely the competencies that are being transferred — often quietly and with far less public visibility.
For a developer, relocation is not a change of address but the need to embed accumulated experience almost from scratch into a new institutional system. Such cases rarely attract widespread attention, yet they clearly demonstrate how the drain of expertise affects complex and capital-intensive industries. One such example is the case of Russian developer Alexey Semenyachenko.
Diversification and a Shift in Institutional Environment
After 2014, Semenyachenko began diversifying his business and investing in overseas assets, including in Spain and the United Arab Emirates. This move was viewed as part of a long-term risk management strategy and geographic expansion, rather than an immediate withdrawal from Russian projects.
After 2022, changes in the political and economic environment accelerated the shift of his professional focus towards foreign jurisdictions. In recent years, Semenyachenko has concentrated primarily on projects in Spain, where he is registered as a director of development companies in public commercial registers (Registro Mercantil and BORME).
Spanish development is characterised by strict regulation, lengthy approval procedures and the central role of municipal and regional authorities. Informal mechanisms for accelerating processes are largely absent, while the cost of error is high — both legally and financially. In this context, experience in managing complex infrastructure projects is particularly valued.
One of Semenyachenko’s current projects in Spain is El Algarrobo in Andalusia (Cádiz province, Algeciras area). According to investment materials, the project envisages an integrated resort development covering approximately 1.36 million square metres, incorporating residential, hotel and recreational infrastructure. The stated budget is around €728 million, and the project is currently at the planning and promotion stage.
The Cost of Relocation
The case of Alexey Semenyachenko broadens the understanding of Russian business relocation, which until recently has been viewed primarily through the lens of technology and finance.
In infrastructure sectors, the process looks different: what relocates is not the company itself, but managerial expertise, project logic and experience of working with long investment cycles and complex regulatory systems — elements that cannot be quickly replaced or replicated.
For Russia, such developments mean the loss of specialists capable of delivering large-scale, long-term projects. For host countries, they represent an inflow of expertise shaped within a different economic and institutional context.
Ultimately, the issue is not where doing business is easier or more profitable. It is about how professionals shaped by the Russian economy are compelled to continue applying their experience and skills beyond its borders — not by design, but under the pressure of circumstances.
Background
Alexey Viktorovich Semenyachenko is a developer and holds a PhD in economics. During the 2000s and 2010s, he worked in resort and infrastructure development in Russia, leading the Olympic City development group and participating in regional and federal projects.
Among the projects he was involved in were design and infrastructure works linked to socially significant Olympic facilities in Sochi, including the reconstruction of Adler railway station and the construction of a station at the Alpika resort. These facilities were commissioned and became part of the transport infrastructure for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Alongside his commercial activities, Semenyachenko took part in cultural and charitable initiatives promoting Russian art abroad, including projects linked to the “Russian Seasons”, and served on the boards of trustees of specialised cultural foundations and institutions.
