SSince the beginning of the Russian “special operation”, as the war against Ukraine is officially called, many Russians have left their homeland. Tips for possible controls at the borders are exchanged on social media. Because sometimes the border guards ask Russians who want to leave the country about the reasons for leaving the country, demand access to chats on their mobile phones, threaten those who refuse that otherwise the plane will take off without them.
The few seats for flights to Istanbul or Dubai are rare and expensive. Anyone who makes it abroad is not safe from problems – also because of the steps taken by Western companies, which are supposed to be directed against Russia. As a young Moscow doctor writes on Facebook, by blocking the use of credit cards issued by Russian banks abroad by Mastercard and Visa, “they leave people who have taken their families away from Russia without funds”. This applies to Russians who have fled the regime. “The regime did not suffer much. Sometimes it would be better to think before you act.”
Many independent journalists are also fleeing. Because they are the primary targets of the attempt by those in power to defend their version of what is happening in Ukraine by all means. Accordingly, the neighboring country was freed from “Neo-Nazis” and the Western yoke, with regrettable but limited losses of soldiers and material. To maintain this version, recent independent media outlets have been banned as “undesirable” or otherwise, their websites have been blocked, social media appearances have been deleted. Universities and media representatives make statements of support for the leadership. According to Novaya Gazeta, the journalists’ association of the north-western republic of Karelia was the only such association in all of Russia to oppose the de facto military censorship.
Persecuted Russians prevented from entering Georgia
Those who use sources other than “official sources” can be severely punished under the new law against “misinformation” about the Russian armed forces, which was passed in summary proceedings last Friday, signed by President Vladimir Putin and entered into force. It is also directed against foreign correspondents, many of whom, like now those of the FAZ, are no longer in Russia. But the first targets are the Russian journalists.
A frequent destination for them now is Georgia. But the country, which has been applying for EU membership since last week, is not open to everyone. For example, the well-known Moscow journalist Mikhail Fischman – he had a program on the independent channel “TV Dozhd”, which stopped working last week – reported that he was turned away at the border control and with the younger of his four and 14-year-old daughters, who refused to leave her father, was deported. Fischman is the latest in a string of Russians who are being persecuted at home and turned away by Georgia for no clear reason. In a video interview, Fischman fears that the new military censorship law will also become retroactive, for example on programs that refer to the war as such and not as “special operations”.
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