Vadim says he plunged into depression last month after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military draft to send hundreds of thousands of recruits to fight in Ukraine.
“I was silent,” says the 28-year-old engineer, explaining that he simply stopped talking while working. “I was angry and afraid.”
When Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February, Vadim says he took to the streets of Moscow to protest — but Putin’s September 21 order to call up at least 300,000 men to fight seemed like a point of no return.
“We don’t want this war. We cannot change something in our country, although we have tried”, says Vadim.
He decided he only had one option. Several days after Putin’s recruitment application, he said goodbye to his grandmother with tears and left his home in Moscow – potentially for good.
Vadim and his friend Alexei traveled as fast as they could to Russia’s border with the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, where they waited in line for three days to cross.
“We run away from Russia because we want to live,” says Alexei. “We are afraid that we might be sent to Ukraine.”
Both men asked not to be identified, to protect loved ones left behind in Russia.
Last week, in Kazakhstan’s commercial capital Almaty, they queued with more than 150 Russian newcomers outside a government registration center – part of an exodus of crooks.
More than 200,000 Russians entered Kazakhstan after Putin’s recruitment announcement, according to the Kazakh government.
And it’s not difficult to spot the new Russian arrivals at Almaty’s main railway station. Every hour, it seems, young Slavs emerge from the train wearing backpacks, looking a little stunned as they consult their phones for instructions.
They arrive from cities all over Russia: Yaroslavl, Togliati, St. Petersburg, Kazan. When asked why they left, they all say the same thing: mobilization.
“It’s not something I want to be a part of,” says a 30-year-old computer programmer named Sergei. He sat on a bench outside the train station with his wife, Irina. The couple, clutching rolled-up backpacks and sleeping mattresses, said they hoped to travel to Turkey and, hopefully, apply for Schengen visas to Europe.
*From Ivan Watson, Rebecca Wright, Tom Booth and Dinara Salieva
Source: CNN Brasil
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