what is the situation on the roads of exile, where thousands of citizens rush to escape mobilization?

They left in a hurry, caught up in a war that their government had until then refused to name as such. Two days after the announcement of a partial mobilization by Vladimir Putin, many Russians are trying to flee the country. Nearly 300,000 reservists are concerned. Those who have decided to leave borrow in particular land routes, to reach certain neighboring countries such as Georgia or Finland. Other countries, such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania closed their borders on Monday, September 19, to most Russian citizens, including those with a visa for the Schengen area. Another possible way: the air, trying to reach nearby countries by plane. Franceinfo takes stock of the situation at the borders of the main thoroughfares.

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To Georgia

Since February, about 50,000 Russians have already arrived in Georgia, according to the count of local authorities. A queue formed again on Wednesday at the only border post between the two countries. Videos sent by witnesses on site to The Echo of the Caucasus, Russian-language media funded by the US Congress, show cars lined up as far as the eye can see in Verkhnii Lars, on the Russian side of the border.

«Granitsa stitoit». Ситуация на “Верхнем ларсе” – По словам очевидцев, очереди как С российской, так и С гузинской Стоны. pic.twitter.com/1LYqjRXUMe

— Эхо Кавказа (@ekhokavkaza) September 21, 2022

22 сентября, очереди на расийско-гузинской границе После оъявления частичной Военной мобилизации В pic.twitter.com/R960vVaGQf

— Эхо Кавказа (@ekhokavkaza) September 22, 2022

Россияне Пытаются Въехать В гузию на Велосипедах и Самокатах – очередь машин у “Верхнего ларса” ли videq.#georgia #russia #northossetia #mobilization #грузия #россия #mobilization pic.twitter.com/7MPGfBe7p4

— Эхо Кавказа (@ekhokavkaza) September 23, 2022

“Last time we crossed the border in about an hour, and this time it took us about twelve hours,” said Thursday evening a Russian met by the BBC (link in English) at the exit of the border post, Georgian side. The British media estimates the length of the line of vehicles seeking to leave Russia at 6 kilometers. Georgia is the closest exit from the big cities of Rostov-on-Don (1.1 million inhabitants) and Krasnodar (950,000 inhabitants). The influx at the Russian-Georgian border has revived the debate between the ruling party in Georgia and the opposition, which calls for restrictions on the entry of Russians. No count of the number of arrivals since Wednesday has been communicated by Tbilisi.

To Mongolia

Further east, Mongolia shares a border of more than 3,000 km with Russia, towards which some inhabitants of Siberia have turned. Local Russian channel Arigus TV reports on Telegram that a queue appeared at the Kyakhta border post in Buryatia. She evokes, video in support, the presence of a hundred vehicles.

AFP interviewed a person who came to Mongolia from Russia, who said he waited “for 12 hours” to cross the border.

To Kazakhstan

In Kazakhstan, which has just over 6,500 kilometers of border with the southwestern part of Russia, queues of cars probably formed on Thursday, September 22, the day after Vladimir Putin’s announcements. ZTB Qazaqstan, a local online media, relays a video showing the tail “at the Bugristoe border post, in the Kostanai region”.

Friday, September 23, at 4 p.m., the real-time traffic layer available on Google Maps reported some congestion near this border post.

That same day, the acting chairman of the Interior Ministry’s Migration Service Committee Aslan Atalykov, relayed by several Kazakh online media (video in Russian), announced that 4.3 million foreign people had entered the country since the beginning of the year, including 1.6 million Russians, with an increase in arrivals in recent days.

To Finland

To the west, on the border with Finland, the situation is more nuanced. According to the Finnish Border Guard Service, which speaks via an official Twitter account, the arrivals of Russian citizens “continue to rise” but do not explode, contrary to what seems to show videos of queues at the border which circulate in large numbers on social networks. videos in reality “taken out of context and filmed upstream” Russian government announcements, according to Finnish authorities.

An updated version of the chart we published earlier today. Exits of Russian citizens via land border have been added. Incoming traffic is now greater than outgoing traffic. Some of the arrivals return to Russia, some also travel onward to other countries. #finnishborder pic.twitter.com/IPBg5nzisc

— Rajavartiolaitos (@rajavartiolaitos) September 23, 2022

Thursday, September 22, “6,470 Russian citizens entered Finland through the Russian-Finnish land border. 3,227 left. This figure corresponds to the traffic that can be observed on weekends”, made a point of specifying Matti Pitkäniitty, head of the international unit of the Finnish border guards. However, the Finnish government decided at the end of the day on Friday to limit “significantly” the entry of Russian citizens on its soil, after having already divided by ten the number of tourist visas granted.

By air, to Turkey, Armenia, Serbia…

Flight reservations from Moscow to countries geographically close to Russia have exploded following the announcement of mobilization by Vladimir Putin. Among the destinations that Russian citizens are trying to reach as quickly as possible: Turkey, Armenia, or even Serbia… countries that do not require visas from those wishing to land on their soil from Moscow. Some 400,000 Russians have already fled to Turkey since the start of the war.

Friday, September 23, flights from Moscow to Belgrade (Serbia) and to Antalya (Turkey) were almost all sold out on the Air Serbia website.