Living as a journalist in Russia

I am a Georgian in London, for some of you who do not know where Georgia is, it is located on the this map.  Until 1989 Georgia was part of the USSR amongst other countries such as the Baltic states, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and many more. I wonder why people of former USSR countries are immigrating to the western countries? Is it because they are suppressed in some way? maybe their sexual orientation or there is a fear of the lack of free speech? see this link. BBC new writes "Russian journalists run the risk of attack or even murder if they delve too deeply into sensitive subjects such as corruption, orginsed crime or rights abuses. Russia is a regular target for criticism and condemnation from media frrdom watchdogs." A recent example of the lack of freedom of speech is what happen to British Moscow correspondent Luck Harding of The Guardian