CNN
—
For Andrei Soldatov and his friends, February 24th marked the end of Russia as they knew it.
Earlier in the day, President Vladimir Putin announced that he had sent Russian troops to Ukraine. Soldatov,Russian investigative journalist He told CNN that he lives in self-imposed exile in London.
Life in Russia has become increasingly difficult over the years for dissidents, independent journalists and those who speak out against Putin’s regime, but Soldatov said people like him will still survive. He said he has hope. War changed that, he said.
“Living under Putin was terrifying and far from the idea of democracy, but there are still some established institutions that we almost took for granted to exist no matter what. And then all of a sudden it all collapsed,” he said, noting that the remaining independent media, civil society and human rights groups were almost completely eradicated.
The woman, who CNN calls Olga, who still lives in Moscow, said she could never go back to February 24th. She said, “Her life turned into a nightmare, she couldn’t wake up, read the news 24 hours a day, protest There were more security forces than civilians,” she told CNN via an encrypted messaging service, describing the shame and despair she feels. “The aggressor is our country. On our behalf, on my behalf, this terrible massacre is being carried out,” she said.
CNN has not released the woman’s name and has used a pseudonym at her request to threaten her safety. Speaking to foreign journalists about her involvement in demonstrations, and even using the word “war” as opposed to the Kremlin-approved term “special military operations” put her at risk of arrest. may be sentenced to lengthy imprisonment.
Meanwhile, Russian state media make an impression All Russians support the war, and many of the more liberal, educated, and well-traveled Russians, including President Putin, have spent the past nine months horrified by the violence their country has wreaked on Ukraine. I spent my time.
But as increasingly repressive regimes crack down on signs of opposition, those who oppose have very limited options.
Hundreds of thousands of Russians have left Russia, some of them deviating from principles, some facing persecution, others to avoid Western sanctions and the risk of being drafted into the armed forces. There are also things. Human rights groups say thousands have been detained. After hundreds of Western companies withdrew from Russia and many domestic and foreign NGOs and campaign groups were shut down, many others were forced out of public life or lost their jobs.
The crackdown on dissent was brutal.According to an independent human rights monitor OVD informationMore than 19,400 people have been detained in Russia protesting the war, and dozens are prosecuted each week under a new law that makes it illegal to spread “fake” information about aggression.
A Moscow court used the law earlier this month when it sentenced a Kremlin critic. Ilya Yashin He has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for speaking out about alleged killings of civilians by Russian troops in the Ukrainian town of Bucha outside Kyiv. The Kremlin denies involvement in the genocide, but repeats unsubstantiated claims that images of civilian bodies are fake.
Soldatov told CNN the day he received an official letter in London from Russian authorities detailing the criminal charges against him.
Like Yassin and hundreds of others, he has been accused of spreading false information about the Russian military and law enforcement agencies and is currently on Russia’s wanted list. He denied the accusations and said he had only reported the truth about the actions of the Russian government just before and during the invasion of Ukraine.
Since the war began, any vestiges of press freedom have been wiped out. Western publications and social media sites have been blocked online, and Russians seeking an alternative to official propaganda are launching virtual private networks that allow people to browse the internet freely by encrypting their internet traffic. I am forced to go underground using a network (VPN). According to data from app market research firm Sensortower, Russia’s top eight VPN apps have been downloaded nearly 80 million times in Russia this year, despite government efforts to crack down on their use. .
The repression forced many to rethink their future in Russia. According to official statistics released by the Russian government, in his first 10 months of this year he left Russia more than 500,000 people. This is more than double his for the entirety of 2021.
The actual number is likely much higher, as many have likely left unofficially.
About 50,000 Russian citizens have applied for asylum in other countries in the first six months of the year, according to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, although it is unclear how many have left the country for political reasons. That’s more than any other year in the last 20 years.
of us border patrol recorded 36,271 encounters with Russian citizens between October 2021 and September 2022. This number includes people arrested or deported by border agents and is significantly higher than the 13,240 and 5,946 recorded in the previous two fiscal years.
OK Russians, a non-profit organization that helps Russian citizens flee persecution, said research shows that those who leave Russia are, on average, younger and more educated than the general Russian population.
“Take the example of the liberal intelligentsia of Moscow, if, of course, I am talking about people I know and only people I know, then probably 70% have left. People at school, artists, people with clubs, [foundations] In closed Moscow,” Soldatov said.
Numbers that make Russia pale in comparison 4.8 million Ukrainians Registered as refugees all over Europe because of the war, the vast outflow of mostly educated people has had a significant impact on Russian society.
“If you’re losing an educated middle-class share of the population, it’s important to your economic prospects, but it’s also important to the country’s potential for political restructuring. The United States.” He cited the exodus of liberal and educated Iranians after the Iranian revolution as an example of what could happen if large numbers of such demographics left the country.
“You don’t have to have a completely radical population to support a radical regime,” she said.
Maria has only one friend left in Moscow. Everyone else fled after President Vladimir Putin made the decision to launch an invasion of Ukraine.
“They all left at the beginning of March,” she said. “[For them] It is impossible to live in a country that has started a war. ”
Maria has asked CNN not to release her full name or employer details due to personal safety concerns. The NGO Maria works for is considered a foreign agent under Russia’s recently expanded law on foreign agents, which means she is at risk of persecution. To do.
“Everyone who opposes war has seen their lives simply destroyed,” she told CNN. They are quick to say they are not interested.The ones who have suffered the most are the Ukrainians.Of course, they are in a much worse situation now.But that does not mean that we are all right.”
Maria said she was determined to stay in Russia, even if all her friends and sons left. Her elderly mother cannot and does not want to travel abroad. “I could probably have left the country easily if I knew that the borders would never be closed and that my mother could come whenever she needed help. It scares me to know that things can happen,” she told CNN.
She still believes her work is important, but said she struggles to see hope for the future. He described it as a constant cycle of shame and self-doubt.
“You’re constantly torn apart. Is it your fault? Did you fall short? What else can you do, what you can’t do, and how should you act now?” she said. “No prospects. I’m an adult and didn’t know everything in life exactly, but on the whole I knew what was going to happen next. Nobody understands anything now.” People don’t even understand what will happen to them tomorrow.”
Soldatov said he began to question his identity. “Things we cherished, like our memories of World War II, for example, were completely tarnished,” he said. Putin’s baseless claims The Russian military is “de-nazy” Ukraine.
“It is part of the Russian national identity that the Russian army contributed to the victory of the war (against Hitler’s Germany) and is now completely false as this message was used by Putin. You start questioning history,” he said, adding that the positive reaction of some parts of Russian society to the invasion prompted him to study pre-war rhetoric in Germany.
He said he began to feel that it was wrong to speak of Russians as “we” because he was so deeply opposed to Russia’s actions. “Of course, I’m Russian, so I’m also partially responsible for what’s going on. I don’t want to hide it.”
A trained historian, Maria has been involved in anti-government protests for years and describes herself as a liberal who is deeply opposed to former KGB agent Putin. “I’ve always known that no KGB person should be leading this country. It’s deeply rooted in fear, death, and everything else,” she said.
She said that when the war broke out, she became more apprehensive about attending demonstrations and quit when it became too dangerous. She said she did not see a scenario in which the Russian regime would be overthrown any time soon, pointing out that all opposition leaders were “imprisoned or killed.”
Belgina said the expectation of some in the West is that “when people start feeling that their leaders are doing something wrong, there will soon be waves of protests in the streets, and they will see government changes that actually make an impact.” I am not asking for it,” he said. It reflects the realities of life in Russia.
“The Putin regime has done a very good job of kicking out or imprisoning all viable alternatives in a more democratic way, but on the other hand, it refuses to take to the streets if there is no clear path. I am afraid,” she said. she said.
Olga, who lives in Moscow and regularly participates in anti-war demonstrations, has also lost hope.
“Almost all opposition leaders and opinion leaders are now in prison or out of the country. will not oppose armed police, the National Guard and other security forces.
“For people in democracies, it’s probably hard to comprehend the realities of life in a powerful dictatorship,” she said. “It’s a terrible feeling to feel helpless and helpless in front of a gigantic machine of death and madness.”
