What should we think of Russians fleeing Russia?
211 days after the start of the war that pushed millions of Ukrainians to flee their country, karma seems to have made its voice heard.
On 21 September 2022 Putin declared the mobilization, for now partial, at least on paper. In reality, the eligibility criteria are somewhat nebulous. So at the same time when the news of what’s going on in Iran inspire us, it’s the Russians turn to flee and seek asylum from neighboring countries. But should these people be welcomed or not?
The heart would say yes. All those fleeing war (in one way or another) should be welcomed, even the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says something about it.
Rationality, thugh, would be more like well, maybe?
What makes reason doubt
Once again, as a general rule refugees should always be taken it, but one is still allowed to have a doubt. Or three.
1. According to polls, 80% of Russians, until last week, declared themselves in favor of Putin and therefore of the war. I know that speaking openly against a totalitarian regime is not safe, but it’s as easy to find interviews in which people of Russia expressed themselves with particular fervor in favor of Putin, as it’s hard to believe the feeling wasn’t real, no matter what they might say now. Remember what happened in Germany right after the end of WWII? Apparently nobody had ever been a Nazi fan, it was always somebody else’s fault.
2. Many, many Russians are truly convinced that Russia is denazifying Ukraine, but indoctrination makes not much sense, not in a country where social media, until a few months ago, were fully accessible. That is to say, many peole believed what they chose to believe.
3. Finally, many Russians blatantly said that what was happening in Ukraine was not their problem. Until it was, on September 21st. Only then did the Russian people take to the streets to protest (after a first wave in February, which however didn’t last long) and now nearly 200,000 Russians have fled the country. A cruel irony that there are more Russians fleeing the country in one week, than those who were sent to attack Ukraine in the first place.
These people have so far found refuge mainly in Finland, Kazakhstan and Georgia. Many others are still trying to leave Russia, between borders that are too far away and extremely overpriced flight tickets that are sold out anyway.
As for Russia’s borders, the Kremlin makes it known that a decision on the total closure and the ban on leaving the country has not been taken yet. One is still allowed to doubt: there are precedents, after all. Anyone familiar with the history of the Soviet Union (of which Putin is a well-known fanboy) knows that DDR built the Berlin Wall in one single night, between August 12 and 13 in 1961. On that same night two hundred streets and 12 train stations were closed. Where there’s a will…
The problem with integration
So, it looks like now the Russians are the new Ukrainians, the question therefore is: is it right to ask neighboring countries, which for months have been living in fear of “being denazified” as well, and which have already made enormous efforts to welcome the Ukrainian people, a further effort to welcome Russians too?
How will the integration of new refugees work, when they are fleeing the country not because they are against the war, but because they just want others to fight it? Among them there will be those who consider the Ukrainians (and all the peoples of the former Soviet bloc) to be inferior. There will also be those who asked their soldier relatives for a “souvenir” from Ukraine, in the form of items stolen from the homes of people tortured, killed and thrown into mass graves. There will be those who have seen and applauded the videos of the rapes of Ukrainian women and kids.
It’s possible an integration between these people and the Ukrainians currently in the countries where the Russians are now fleeing? And is it right to ask host countries to deal with the social tensions that could derive from it? The Ukrainian community in Germany is already opposing the entry of refugees from Russia. Do we have any right to blame them? I’m not so sure, not while Russians are still destroing their country and obeying a president who threatens to nuke the world every other day. Distrust, and even rage, are entirely understendable. I hope and believe there will be peace among those two countries, but it’ll take a lot of time.
In the meantime we should also worry about what could happen ten years from now. Maybe the Russian community in Finland will be exploited by the next dictator to annex Finland with one of those democratic referenda. I know, I know, it’s so unlikely it sounds like a joke, and yet…
