President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman informed Russians this week that the “special military operation” that Putin launched in Ukraine in February 2022 was set to go on much longer because it is now “a war against the collective West.”
That’s right: a war.
It was remarkable to hear that word from Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Journalists were explicitly banned from using it as the invasion began and thousands of Russians have been detained, fined and imprisoned for telling the truth about a war which has now been raging for almost two years.
“Moscow deputy Aleksey Gorinov was sentenced to seven years in prison for saying ‘war,’” Sergey Davidis, head of the Political Prisoners Support group, told The Daily Beast. He said over 20,000 Russians have now been detained and punished for protesting against the war. “That includes 131 Russians who have been sentenced to long prison terms in punishment for peaceful or for more radical anti-war actions,” he said. “I don’t think punishments against the war will now be milder after the Kremlin openly says ‘war.’ Putin will be next to declare it.”
What’s to stop someone from leaving? Are they North Korea like that?
Emigration is really hard, both emotionally and financially, regardless of where you live.
That’s a really good point I hadn’t considered in passing, moving to a whole new country, and as a Russian? Probably pretty tough
Most end up in Georgia, because it’s just across the border, culturally and linguistically close.
Usually illegal to work unless you have money to pay to get the permission to work.
No, but there are many obstacles. Besides usual ones common to migration in general, due to sanctions people who want to emigrate won’t be able to easily access their money left in Russia. Also if they speak up against Putin everything they left in Russia will be confiscated and returning back (for any reason including possible deportation) will be dangerous (Russia is smart enough to not charge dissenters living abroad so that they won’t be able to claim asylum, but when they return they can be arrested. This strategy was used since USSR times). This makes emigration a risky proposition unless you already have a high-paying job lined up for you, and can receive foreign citizenship in a short time.
They don’t let valuable people live. Also they don’t let people convert roubles to western currency. The current exchange rate for roubles is a complete sham as it’s not a free market
Pretty sure many people in the world aren’t doing business with Russian currency for obvious reasons.
That only changed recently, it wasn’t always like that. “Free markets” don’t need to be fully free for the same reason that the tolerant need not tolerate the intolerant.
Based in the news I’ve read, the Russian government, and also the ones of many neighboring countries
You have to have a country to go to. The hard part of emigrating is often immigrating. Countries don’t generally just let people in.