Dimitri -not his real name- was difficult, that he did not know at first, that it was difficult for him to decide, leaving his wife and breaking up was complicatedscared, but now, seeing it from a perspective, happy because wise decision.
And it wasn’t just him, she says: the vast majority of her friends did the same. get rid of Russia after the call was announced on September 21 To fight in the Ukrainian war. “My friend group is now completely divided. I am in Antalya, [en el sur de Turquía]And I have friends in Istanbul, Dubai, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Georgia. Those who are still in Russia will probably try it soon.Dimitri explains.
His decision was quick. A day after Vladimir Putin’s announcement, Dimitri bought his ticket to leave. He went from Moscow to Dubai and from there he arrived in Antalya via Istanbul on September 24. Dimitri for a trip that usually costs 500 euros paid 1,500. And he was lucky: in the following weeks, flights from Russia reached 5,000 euros and more.
journalists and activists
Dimitri is one of many. Specifically, about one in a million: This is the estimate of Russians who have left their country since the end of February, when Putin decided to reactivate the military campaign in Ukraine.special operation”.
In the first weeks, those who fled were above all journalists and activists: people whose lives were in danger if they stayed. After that young people began to leave liberal professionals, people whose tech-related jobs – restricted by Western sanctions – require relocating abroad from Russia’s major cities.
But now, the people who run away are different. First of all, men between the ages of 18 and 60 and escape from military service From the end of September. Kazakhstan, the only country to provide clear figures, said about 200,000 Russians have entered through its land border since the start of Russia’s forced conscription. 200,000 people in just three weeks.
“Even people who support the war who believe what state propaganda tells them are leaving. They do not want to support this war with their own lives. Nobody wants to go to war. The chances of returning alive or without serious injuries or trauma are very slim, so many people are leaving,” explains Eva Rapoport, a young Russian woman who founded an organization to help Russians fleeing their country.
“There are many people who contact us online for help on the way out and have the letter ‘Z’ in their profile – the symbol of Russian ‘special operations’. And I think they deserve some kind of help and understanding because repeating official propaganda is not a solution. punishable crime Go to war with death and to die,” says Rapoport.
A story that repeats itself
On these autumn days, Russian is heard everywhere in the central streets of Istanbul. Most tourists; People who will return to Russia in a few weeks. However, others With nowhere to turn, threatened, they will stay.
It is a repeating date; full hundred years. In the 1920s, Istanbul was filled with White Russians, former aristocrats, wealthy, bourgeois and tsars who sympathized with the old Russian regime and fled the new and unknown red future created in Moscow. Those who have fled now, on the contrary, fleeing a future that looks more and more like the past.
“People who left, when they manage to cross the border, are relieved that they are not in Russia. there talk about many people stress and panic This is what has been created among the population since the call was announced,” explains Rapoport, continuing:
“A lot of people say they have to pay bribing the police to cross the border. I think the police and guards are trying to take advantage of the situation. But right now, anyone who wants and can pay can get out.”
Meanwhile, Dimitri decides what will happen to his future. His wife will be leaving Russia in a few weeks – women are not hired – and during this time he tries to help his friends left behind. “They’re trying to get out, but it’s getting harder and harder,” says Dimitri. Y they are afraid if they are summoned and sent to war. They don’t want. Nobody wants it. If called, they will leavethey will run away. I don’t know what will happen to them, but they will not go to war.”