Leonid Bershisdky writes: Corruption and weak institutions are major reasons that East Europeans leave home to seek their fortunes. In developed countries, the public often sees them as economic emigres or even “benefits tourists” leeching off their hosts’ welfare systems. It would be more accurate, however, to see them as refugees from hopelessness. Had their motives for emigrating been purely economic, they wouldn’t be voting in such large numbers, and would have no interest in their home countries’ politics.

The way the emigres vote is telling. In the 2012 Russian presidential election, President Vladimir Putin lostt to billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov in France, Canada, Australia, the Czech Republic, Holland and Switzerland. In several other developed countries, Putin’s lead was narrower than in Russia. In the May 2014 Ukrainian presidential election, pro-Western billionaire Petro Poroshenko Ukrainian got 62.3 percent of the diaspora vote.