Demand for seats on private jets has boomed in Moscow after Vladimir Putin ordered the first mobilisation since the second world war and wealthy Russians look for a way out of the country amid reports that authorities plan to close the borders to men of mobilisation age.

They are paying between £20,000 and £25,000 for a seat on a private plane, while the price to rent an eight-seater jet ranges from £80.000 to £140,000, which is many times more expensive than the normal fare.

“But we simply cannot find enough spots for everyone,” he said, adding that the cheapest seat on a chartered commercial plane to Yerevan was priced at about 200,000 rubles (£3,000).

FlightWay, which offers private jet flights, said it was experiencing an increase in requests for one-way flights to Armenia, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Dubai.

“The demand has increased by 5o times,” said Eduard Simonov, the company head.

“We are getting a completely new client base, companies as well as people who never flew private before,” Simonov said.

“Most of our male younger clients left when Putin announced the mobilisation last week,” said one staffer at a luxury concierge service company in Moscow.

“The great escape,” said one Snapchat story sent to a private group by the son on the plane to Turkey