“I was running out of money”: After quitting Russia in wartime, some return Russia-Ukraine, news war

Arsini, a young man in information technology from Moscow, left Russia in September 2022 on the day when President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of young people to work on the front lines of Ukraine.

“On the day of packing, my mother called around 12 o’clock,” remember.

“I woke up late and did not go to work yet. Everyone was reading the news: On the border with Georgia, for example, there was a long waiting list and people were selling their cars. There was general panic, and I fled to Yerevan.”

Estimates are different from the number of Russians who left their country after the full invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but now, they failed to build a new life abroad or maybe missing the familiar amenities, it is clear that many of them have returned home.

Arseny returned in December 2023 after spending more than one year abroad.

Anastasia Burakova, human rights lawyer and founder of the War Control Initiative, Kovchaig (Astronomy), Al -Jazeera told that although the group does not have accurate numbers, “perhaps about two million people have left the country.”

She said: “But many of them return because it is really difficult for people without experimenting with international cooperation or knowledge of foreign languages, etc.”

Burakova Group provides legal and psychological assistance, language courses, and temporary residence of Russian Bigs. It also organizes opposition activities from exile.

She said: “At the present time, I can say that nearly a million people since the beginning of the war have been abroad,” she said.

There were huge waves of immigration. It was the first one immediately after the beginning of the war – most of them were people who wanted to speak publicly and risk political persecution were in this wave. The second wave was announced after the layoff. The second wave was not a pro -war (but most of them are non -political, survival outside politics, not following news, etc. “.

Many of those who left well and relatively distinguished learners, and thus are able to continue working remotely. The flow represents the depletion of minds on their homeland.

Artur (not his real name), another information technology factor from St. Petersburg, left immediately after Putin announced what Russia describes its own military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

“The war started unexpectedly, and it was very difficult to predict what the direct consequences would be,” he said.

“Since I have an open Schengen visa, the border has not yet been closed with Finland, it seemed to me that this was a general good strategy: leaving the European Union and knowing what was happening from there. Fortunately, I had a distant job and savings in the cryptocurrency, which which I allowed me to leave literally in one day.

Within a few months, Artur returned to Saint Petersurg to prepare his papers for a more permanent departure. Then the packing was announced, so he left again to Belgrade, the Serbian capital. Although he could not open a bank account, he had access to enough money to get it.

But for this new diaspora, there were immediate challenges.

Many countries closed their borders to Russian citizens, except for exceptions such as humanitarian visas or asylum, which were a stressful process.

“Many people who have an anti -war position in the two countries have remained other than Visa as in the southern Caucasus, the Black Sea and Balqan region, and unfortunately, the situation there is worse,” said Burakova.

“The Kremlin is now completely active in countries like Georgia and in Serbia and certainly, in Central Asia. In these countries, I cannot say that he is 100 percent safe for Russian exiles.”

Burakova said that the complexity of the situation is that the majority of the Russians do not have internal and external passports, which need to travel outside.

An internal passport, such as the national ID card, works, and with it, travel is limited to a handful of other former Soviet republics.

Those who travel have suffered further than other problems, such as linguistic barriers, employment and discrimination. Those who moved to Armenia or Israel found themselves close to another ingredient area, where these countries participate in conflicts with Azerbaijan and Gaza, respectively.

After heading to Armenia Yerevan, Arsini moved to Serbia, where the locals generally carry a positive vision of the Russians. But he finally lost his job.

“I did not work for six months, and I was running out of money,” I explained.

“When I started looking for a job, there were some personal factors. It turned out that I could find a job somewhere in Europe, but perhaps in a bad company. In Russia, it was very easy for me to find a job.”

He returned in September 2023.

Meanwhile in Belgrade, Artur missed his friends, family and cat. He said he found the cost of living difficult, and when his other friends in Belgrade noticed, he slowly returned to Russia one by one, and he decided to join them.

“I had a lack of belief that Putin would end the conflict due to a short wave of migration, and began to understand that the Russian economy is much stronger than expected, and that the war could continue for years under the sanctions that were imposed, without any great danger to the regime.

The first fear of persecution in the homeland calmed down.

“For a non -general person, there is no special risk of repression,” Artur argued.

“This, it exists, but there were not many show experiences to believe seriously that it will affect you in one way or another. Of course, I will not shout my views at every corner, but I did not abandon my views at all, and I can always claim that I was always against the war and I do not see Anything in it needs to be disrupted. “

Artur admitted that some of his friends support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and talking to them, he became embarrassing, but he is still trying to find a common ground unless they publicly support war crimes.

“In general, I can say it is possible. Prices have risen sharply in recent years, as is the case everywhere, and even more, but it has become more comfortable in daily life than it was in Serbia.”

“You have to pay the price of this comfort by being unable to publicly express your point of view. But it seems that Russian society has tired of war; there are fewer posters with Z symbols in the streets. Among the vast majority of people around me, there is a consensus However, the war must end; there is no feeling that you are swimming against the current.