They opposed the war for months. They protested, sometimes publicly, often privately. By the thousands they were imprisoned. And now they are massively fleeing their country. Since the call for mobilization launched by President Putin on September 21, some 700,000 Russians of fighting age have left the land of the tsars. The duty spoke with some of them. Third portrait in a series of four.
From the first days after the start of the mobilization of Russian army reservists, state officials visited 28-year-old Vasily to hand over his letter of conscription. “But I wasn’t home to receive it,” the man says through his computer screen. And as long as the letter is not hand-delivered to the conscript, it does not take effect. Viscerally peaceful, Vasily says he had no choice but to take the road to exile.
A path he had never imagined one day climbing. “But I don’t want to participate in any way whatsoever in the war against Ukraine,” insists the Russian, who describes himself as a humanist. I am against all armed conflicts. I believe there is nothing more precious than human life. »
In a mixture of anger and resignation, Vasily set off for Georgia. From Moscow, he flew to Mineralny Vody in the south of the country. The reservist then received a call from a soldier asking him to go to a conscription office as soon as possible. “But I didn’t go there,” he blurts out.
The young man instead boarded a taxi to cover the remaining 250 km to reach the gigantic line of Russians who were trying to cross the Georgian mountains through Verkhni Lars, a hamlet in the Republic of North Ossetia- Alania. A line stretching chaotically for about twenty kilometers, reports Vasily.
“A lot of people were selling bikes or offering to take people to the border post on motorbikes,” he recalls. With his luggage and his saxophone under his arm, the man made it through the last few kilometers on foot — and at times by riding a quadricycle, in exchange for a few rubles — to get to the line of passengers who were trying to cross the border on foot.
No toilets and food
From there, he only had a final 500 meters to go to reach the checkpoint, a distance that Vasily took 14 hours to cover. To pass the time and brighten the atmosphere, the young man brought his saxophone to his mouth. “But people yelled at me, they told me that people are dying right now while I am playing music,” reports the musician who, reluctantly, put away his instrument.
A real humanitarian crisis was taking shape before his eyes, he said. In Verkhni Lars, there is virtually no access to toilets, very little food available, and brewing comrades arise at times amidst the stress and anxiety brewing among people who sometimes wait for days before ending up in front of a customs officer.
Faster options do exist, however. “People were offering to drive us across the border to Georgia for 20,000 or 30,000 rubles [450 $ à 660 $], says Vasily. But it’s not something I could afford. »
After a night of waiting, Vasily entered the border post. And the ax fell. “They took my passport,” he says. And with another man, we were given a letter saying that we have no right to leave the country and that we must go to a conscription office. »
However, many men manage to get through, Vasily laments. “It would be the mood of the customs officer that determines whether you receive this paper or not, he denounces. And I didn’t see any of the people who were paying to drive by turn back. »
hide in your own country
Regretfully, therefore, Vasily retraced his steps. “I warned guys in line that it could happen to them, he reports. But I didn’t go to the conscription office. Since September 28, the Russian has therefore been hiding, with bitterness and desolation, in a Russian town which he did not want to name at the time. To have to.
“I feel depressed,” he says. I never thought I would find myself in this situation where I have to hide like a criminal. For now, the man is able to continue working. “But employers are under a lot of pressure right now,” he says. They may be required to issue conscription letters to their employees themselves. »
Vasily does not plan to attempt to cross the border again. “If I do, I will receive a letter again,” he said. And the noose could close even more tightly around him. “Right now, in general, I don’t feel like I can publicly oppose Putin’s regime in any way,” he said. Dialogue is suppressed in society [sur l’enjeu de la guerre en Ukraine]. »
With Vlada Nebo