Shunned by the West, deserters from the Russian army live in constant fear

Last year, the country’s National Asylum Court (CNDA) threw a lifeline to military deserters

Astana:

Russian officer Farkhad Ziganshin prepared for a life of military service from a young age. He could never imagine that one day he would become a deserter and flee the country.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed everything.

“I don’t support what’s happening in Ukraine, I don’t support the government we’ve had for so many years,” Ziganshin, 24, told AFP in Kazakhstan, where he fled in September 2022 after Vladimir Putin ordered the first military strike. from Russia. mobilization since the Second World War.

Faced with the choice between participating in a war of aggression or going to prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine, hundreds of deserters and draft dodgers have fled to neighboring ex-Soviet countries, where they are now trapped in limbo.

Russian authorities opened a criminal case against Ziganshin for abandoning his unit. He doesn’t feel safe in Kazakhstan and fears being deported to Russia.

But it is difficult for men like him to seek refuge in the West because many Russian soldiers do not have a Russian passport that allows them to travel to Europe and only have documents that allow them to reach neighboring countries such as Kazakhstan or Armenia.

Anti-war activists are calling on European and North American policymakers to do more to help men like Ziganshin, who are hunted in their countries and viewed with suspicion in the West.

While in Kazakhstan, Ziganshin was briefly arrested twice, most recently in June.

He’s not giving up, however. He openly talks about his opposition to Putin and the war in Ukraine with foreign journalists.

Along with other opponents of the war, he recorded videos to encourage Russians to flee the battlefield as part of an initiative called “Farewell to Arms.”

In one of these videos, a soldier sets fire to a uniform with the letter “Z”, a symbol of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, before heading into the nearest forest.

“Nobody attacked their homeland,” says a message at the end of the clip. “We already refuse to participate in a criminal war. You should too.”

‘Living with dignity’

Ziganshin went to a military boarding school at age 10 and graduated from a military academy that prepares Russian tank commanders.

He describes the Russian military as a “great school of life.” But when Russia invaded Ukraine, he realized that this was not the army he wanted to dedicate his life to.

He managed to resign, only to learn the next day that a military mobilization had been declared and that he would be sent to Ukraine, along with around 300,000 other men.

Ziganshin hurriedly packed his bags and fled to neighboring Kazakhstan. Afraid of being sent back to Moscow, where he will face criminal prosecution, he has been trying to get a visa to travel to France.

Kazakh rights activist Artur Alkhastov said Russian defectors have virtually no chance of receiving refugee status in the Central Asian country.

“We have very strong diplomatic ties with Russia,” Alkhastov said.

Activists also accused local authorities of facilitating the arrests of Russians who sought refuge in Kazakhstan.

Mikhail Zhilin of the Russian Federal Guard Service fled to Kazakhstan to avoid conscription by illegally crossing the border. He was sent back to Russia and last year sentenced to six and a half years in prison.

Russian contract soldier Kamil Kasimov, who also fled to Kazakhstan, was detained this spring and taken to a Russian military base in the city of Priozyorsk in central Kazakhstan, according to activists.

Ziganshin shudders at the thought of being sent back to Russia, where he will face a long prison sentence. Your residence permit in Kazakhstan has expired.

“I’m young, I want to do something with my life, I want to live with dignity,” he said.

Other deserters from the Russian army fled to Armenia in the South Caucasus. But like Kazakhstan, activists say the country hosting a Russian military base is also not a safe destination. Two Russian defectors have been detained by the Russian military in Armenia in the last two years.

European countries remain off limits, said Ivan Chuviliaev, spokesman for the Russian anti-war project Idite Lesom (“Get lost”), which has helped Russians defect and leave the country.

“They don’t have documents to apply for a visa,” he said.

‘Absurd death’

Andrei Yuseinov, who served in the 39th Motorized Rifle Brigade on Sakhalin in Russia’s Far East, was lucky to escape to Georgia.

He said he “forged his story” and posed as a civilian in his hometown of Orenburg to obtain a passport that allowed him to travel to Georgia with his wife and son.

The 24-year-old said he refused to die “an absurd death” in Ukraine.

“I used to see mothers crying in front of unresponsive police officers, even though they knew their children were dead,” Yuseinov said.

Activists and Western governments have been concerned about Georgia’s recent pro-Russian trend and Yuseinov believes he is not safe there.

He had hoped to travel to France, but in May the French embassy in Tbilisi refused to issue him a visa.

‘Resistance fighters’

Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, many Russians have sought refuge in France, which has a long tradition of welcoming political exiles.

Last year, the country’s National Asylum Court (CNDA) threw a lifeline to military deserters and draft dodgers alike, ruling that “Russians fleeing mobilization for war in Ukraine and those mobilized who deserted can obtain refugee status.”

According to the CNDA, 102 Russians fleeing the mobilization have already obtained refugee status in France. There are no army deserters among them.

Obtaining refugee status or even obtaining a visa to travel to EU countries is difficult for many Russians, and activists are calling on European governments to do more to help.

“They are real resistance fighters, they are not just soldiers who refused to risk their lives,” said Olga Prokopieva, head of Russie-Libertes, an association based in Paris.

“We would like France to get more involved, in particular with the defectors who were trapped in Armenia and Kazakhstan.”

Artem Klyga, a lawyer who works with the Conscientious Objectors Movement, has been lobbying the French and German governments to help Russians flee the battlefield.

He said both countries understand the scale of the problem, but are also wary of receiving military personnel who may have committed war crimes.

“I often hear that all these Russians are war criminals, so they need to be blocked in Russia,” he said.

The German Foreign Ministry said anti-war Russians who are “particularly at risk of persecution” may be welcomed on humanitarian grounds.

‘Harassed’

Vladimir (not his real name) is one of the war refugees who managed to obtain asylum in France.

The 30-year-old reservist said he was “harassed” in the early months of the war, with Russian military personnel arriving first at his home, then his workplace and his mother’s house, in an effort to enlist him.

“The fear grew,” said Vladimir.

In May 2022, he left for France to avoid being called up. Soon after, his mother received his military call-up. The CNDA granted him refugee status in April, after two years of procedures.

Dmitry (not his real name), a 30-year-old dance teacher, said he did not want to “take up arms to kill other people.”

He fled Russia in September 2022, just days after receiving a military conscription notice. He was granted asylum in April.

Oleg (not his real name), a combat sports instructor in his 40s, said he was “always against Putin.”

He said his wife took part in protests organized by allies of Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader who died suddenly in an Arctic prison in February. Oleg participated in a fundraising campaign for a Ukrainian friend whose home was destroyed as a result of the Russian invasion, he said.

‘I saved my family’

After Oleg received his summons, he, his wife and their two children left for Georgia in September 2022.

He was granted refugee status in France in April.

“If we hadn’t left, I would be in prison or on the battlefield,” said Oleg.

Alexander, 34, his wife Daria, 37, and their two children are still waiting for French authorities to decide their fate.

The family fled St Petersburg in March 2023 after Alexander, who is an engineer, received his conscription notice.

Their car and the front door of their apartment were vandalized due to Daria’s anti-war activism.

The family, who live in a city in northern France, left a comfortable life behind.

Alexander said he had no regrets. “I saved my family and didn’t become a murderer,” he said.

‘Support defectors’

Activists say that if Western countries want to better support Ukraine, they should offer asylum to Russian defectors.

“If we want the Russian army to be weaker, we have to support the defectors,” Chuviliaev said.

Independent Russian-language media outlet Mediazona has recorded around 8,600 cases of AWOL since the mobilization began in September 2022. By comparison, just over 600 such cases have been brought to court in 2021. Accusations of desertion have also skyrocketed, with more than 300 cases have been brought to court since the project began, according to Mediazona. This compares to 33 such cases in 2021.

Russian defectors should be welcomed in the West and not stigmatized for having served in the Russian army, said a spokeswoman for InTransit, an organization that helps men flee war.

“If you are just an activist and went to some demonstrations, you can receive a humanitarian visa. But if you were in the army, shot yourself in the leg and ran away,” she said, “then you don’t get any visa.”

(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)