People leaving Russia after Putin’s announcement?

Moscow

The stir there has intensified since Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the mobilization of troops. Since Putin’s announcement, people are trying to leave Russia. Those who are getting flights are going from it, but there are hundreds who are preparing to leave Russia by road.

According to the news agency, hundreds of people from Russia are fleeing to neighbouring Georgia. The news agency quoted local media as saying that on Sunday, more than three thousand vehicles were parked on the border to go to Georgia.

Thousands of people have left Russia and moved to Georgia since the declaration of war with Ukraine on 24 February this year. According to government figures, more than 40 thousand Russian citizens have arrived in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, since February 24.

Russian citizen Dmitry Kurilyunok, who arrived in Tbilisi, told the news agency that as soon as he came to know about the mobilization of soldiers, he left Russia after packing his belongings and came here. Dmitry has come to Tbilisi with his wife Irina and younger daughter. He said that we are against this war. It is either to kill or to die. So we ran away from there.

There is no exact figure of how many Russian citizens have left the country after President Putin’s announcement of mobilization of troops, but pictures of an exodus from Russian borders are emerging. The kind of view that is on the Russia-Georgia border, is the same is visible on the border of Kazakhstan, Finland and Mongolia.

Not only this, tickets for flights flying directly from Moscow have either been booked or are being sold at expensive prices.

Ivan Streltsov, a reserve soldier in the Russian army, told the news agency that he had come to Tbilisi a month and a half ago because he did not support the war with Ukraine. He was afraid that if he did not run away from there, then he too would be put in this war.

He told that when the war with Ukraine started, he took part in the protests against it. He claimed that people were being monitored there.

However, Russian protests in Tbilisi have intensified. In Tbilisi, Ukrainian flags have been raised over shops, buildings, parks and museums in support of Ukraine. Some posters-banners have also been put up, in which Russian citizens have written about going back home.

What was Putin’s announcement?

The war with Ukraine has been going on for 7 months, but till now no big success has been achieved. In such a situation, Russia is preparing to prolong this war.

Last week Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a mobilization of 300,000 troops. This mobilization will be done by reserve soldiers. Russia has more than 2 million reserve soldiers. These are people who have taken military training under compulsory military service.

Russia can mobilize about 25 million people for military service. However, Putin has made it clear that people who have taken military training under compulsory military service will not be sent to Ukraine. Still, the people there are afraid of being forcibly sent to this war. This is the reason why people are running away from Russia.