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Dozens of Russians with anti-war prospects fled the country in the months following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order to invade Ukraine, and journalists, activists and citizens joined in making a decision to leave in a second after learning their country had entered crisis. it was dark
But now, after uprooting their lives in an effort to protect themselves and their families, some are returning to Moscow after suffering abroad, despite the threat of facing criminal prosecution for their anti-war sentiments at home.
Moscow journalist Alina Danilova and her family circle panicked after the Kremlin passed a law on March 2 that threatens anyone who publishes so-called “fake news” about the war in Ukraine with 15 years in prison. Before the Kremlin shut it down in August, she immediately bought plane tickets to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, for her family, in addition to her husband and two children.
“It’s a choice between publishing and feeling loose and remaining mute,” Danilova told The Daily Beast. “We were convinced that this was the beginning of a new 1937. My mother made us cry when we left Russia, we didn’t know if I would ever come back. “
After she left, Danilova and her circle of relatives traveled for two months in search of a position to settle down. They flew from Bishkek to Istanbul, where they stayed for a few weeks in March while waiting for EU visas. They then went to Lithuania, where they tried to find affordable housing. Danilova and her husband desperately searched for paintings in Lithuania and Germany in April, but to no avail.
“We had the idea that we were starting from scratch in the United States or Europe. We sat down and wrote down all our pros and cons, feeling like the wrong pieces of a strange puzzle,” Danilova told The Daily Beast on Monday. “But as soon as I started applying for work, I learned that there were a lot of experienced journalists to compete with [and] my husband didn’t speak any foreign languages. “Danilova said she and her husband panicked after spending their savings and suffering to pay rent. Two months later, they were still unemployed and didn’t know how to continue with their two young children.
Tired of uncertainties and failures, the circle of relatives returned to Moscow earlier this month. Referring to her life in Russia, Danilova said that “even if we don’t see any symptoms of war in Moscow and on the surface life seems exactly the same, we can’t breathe. There is no freedom,” he added, “the worst thing is that the catastrophe, the massacre, is being committed in Ukraine in its call, in the call of the Russians. We can no longer accept as truth with our country.
An independent political analyst, Aleksandr Kynev, also recently returned to Moscow after being absent from Russia for a few months. He explained that sanctions opposing Russia have made things difficult for him abroad. “I booked my hotel in Turkey with my Russian bank card. however, when I arrived, it turned out that my reservation had been cancelled,” Kynev recalls.
Kynev says that when he returned, he learned that everything he enjoyed in life in Russia before the war was gone. “All the platforms, where I spoke as an expert, Echo from Moscow, TV Rain or Radio Liberty have closed,” Kynev told the Daily Beast. “But I came back here anyway. At least in Moscow, I have a sleeping position at home. “
Russian President Vladimir Putin will roll out the red carpet for returning exiles.
Russian citizen Olga, who did not need her last call published, worked for a foreign-owned NGO before the war and fled Moscow to Georgia on March 2. Recently, he says he learned he still had no options to return to Russia later. this month, either for monetary reasons and the circle of relatives. “I’ll be going home in two weeks; my husband tells me we will only stay together if I come back,” she told The Daily Beast.
“This is a tragic moment, but we all perceive that Ukrainians suffer much more than we do, Russian exiles, our homes in Russia have not been destroyed, members of our family circle have not been killed,” Olga added. provincial city and continue running for your NGO. ” We are doing everything we can to [work] quietly, given the circumstances. “
A new meme that has become popular among Russian exiles in Georgia is a photo of a bunch of kittens in a box with the title: “Torent in Tbilisi. “Rents in the small country, hit by an influx of Russian immigrants since the war began, have risen by a hundred to two hundred percent, according to Yekaterina Nerostnikova, who runs a shelter for suffering Russian exiles in the capital.
Nerostnikova told the Daily Beast that 23 news hounds and activists stayed at her shelter this week. “At least two of our citizens have returned to Russia, despite the grim truth there, without oxygen to breathe,” Nerostnikova said. paintings like waiters and chefs for 50 to 60 lari a day, so they can buy eggs for 10 lari or spend 6 to 7 lari on a taxi ride. “
Despite the tribulations of exile, some Russians are determined to stay out of their home countries, adding journalist Aleksey Golubkov, who left Moscow in March via Central Asia for Tbilisi, and now lives in the Nerostnikova shelter.
“Even if I have to sweep the roads, I will try to stay here and not return to Russia, where the majority supports the war in Ukraine,” he told the Daily Beast. “It’s disgusting. “
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