Russia: The Russian Autocrat’s full scale-invasion of Ukraine has not only damaged Kyiv but also vandalized Moscow, resulting largest exodus since the October Revolution of 1917. Besides this, the invasion has also created division in the Russian community.
The Russia-Ukraine war left the common people of both countries in a devastating situation, forcing Russians to voice against President Vladimir Putin’s acts by taking to the streets. The impact on Russia has been evidently witnessed as the official statistics published by Russia’s internal security service outlined that nearly 4 million Russians left the country in the first three months of 2022.
Various findings, data, researchers and immigration figures clearly shed light on the fact that people do not want to live in Vladimir Putin’s Russia and are looking for ways to flee the country amid the political crackdown at home.
Russians denounced Putin’s invasion act and called it unprovoked and unjustified aggression. People who are standing in solidarity with Ukraine criticized his ideology which further drives the division between the people who support President and who are not.
With the war, Russia has been hit by severe Western sanctions that cause incredible inflation, a crashing currency, and uncertain imports and exports.
Moreover, to suppress people’s voices who are protesting against Russian authorities, Moscow implemented a censorship law against those who were speaking against the government about the war, including the imprisonment of 15 years.
The plenty of reasons, such as the autocratic nature of Russian authorities, uncertain financial future, and punishments, are dragging their people away from the motherland.
Besides this, President Vladimir Putin recommended his own people as traitors for not supporting him and speaking out against the war. So, due to these mishaps, Russians are facing severe violations of their human rights in the countries as they feel that the country is fully occupied by the dictator who forced them to live under a huge threat.
The entire situation made a lot of Russians to be concerned with their future, their career and safety. They have a lot of fear to live in the situtaion of the tumbling economy of the country and the authroitaria policy of the Russian government.
So, people are looking for several ways to escape their own country in the hope of starting a new life. According to the information provided by OVD-info, the government of Russia has put more than 75,000 people behind bars due to the anti-war protests across the nation.
Further, political persecution has also emerged as the big reason behind the exodus of the Russians. In addition to that, people have lost their faith in the government of the country and believe that the situation inside the country will never improve. Due to the huge violation of human rights and a forcible ban on the right of freedom of speech, people are witnessing a huge threat and a suffocated-centric environment.
So, in a large number of Russians have decided to migrate to other countries such as Georgia or Armenia. Georgia alone has received more than 100,000 refugees from Russia, and Armenia has recorded similar data.
Although, due to the tarnished image of the country across the globe, the Russians are facing territorial or entry restrictions.
Besides this, countries such as U.K., U.S., E.U., and Canada have closed their airspace to Russian flights, so they are goings for countries where flights are still permitted and where visas are not required, including Turkey, Central Asia, and the South Caucasus. Russians have faced political repression, forced military service, and closed borders. However, despite clearing their stand, they are being bullied because of their nationality.
Russians are facing great isolation across the globe as they are seeking humanitarian assistance from other countries, but facing huge rejections as most of the asylums declined to give shelters to the people from Russia due to their country’s torn image.
Russians are facing worst situation that could be witnessed in their words of them. Russian citizens named Oleinikova outlined the entire situation and asserted that this is very difficult for them to survive as their birth place has become a suffocation to their living beings and other countries are putting restrictions on them.
He stated that this is a great injustice to their human rights as they don’t ask President of Russia to start war aganist Ukarine. What is their fault for being citizens of the country that becomes the real cause for the destruction? Oleinikova emphasized that they just want to live happily and peacefully.
Due to the various sanctions of the Western governments, Russian oligarchs are flocking to the countries to get economic citizenship. In the worst situation, economic citizenship emerged as the only way out for the people of Russia.
Russians prefer economic citizenship to lead peaceful and free life. They want to have access to several other countries where they can live their life without any pressure and threat.
Artuz- a citizen of Russia showed his great disappointment over the restrictions put on them for being only Russians by the world. He stated that this is totally unethical and violated their human rights. He also urged the countries to enbale them to get the economic citizenship so that they could peaceful and successful life.
He asserted, “Sanctions imposed by the European countries and the U.S and the entire Western region that has triggered them to look for alternative options like Citizenship by Investment Programme.”
The Citizenship by Investment programme offered by Caribbean countries stood out as a viable option with its geographical location and benefits such as numeours buisness opportunities in various countries and their neutral stand between Russia and Ukraine.”
