Moscow is looking into what extra incentives it can utilize to persuade highly-skilled workers who have relocated abroad to return to Russia, the country’s Industry and Trade Ministry said on Monday. President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” in neighboring Ukraine has prompted a mass exodus of Russians who oppose the conflict or fear that life may become harder under the strain of multiple Western sanctions. Since the Moscow-led invasion on Feb. 24, as many as 200,000 Russians have left their country, according to one estimate by Russian economist, Konstantin Sonin, at the University of Chicago, although the official figures are unknown. However, prior to the invasion, Russia was already trying to counter an influx of highly-skilled workers—including some of its brightest scientists—from leaving the country under Putin’s regime. A 2019 report compiled by the Atlantic Council, a think tank in Washington, D.C., called “The Putin Exodus: The New Russian Brain Drain” estimated that between 1.6 and …