Russians opting for Turkey to evade draft
Situation likened to post-1917 revolution
ISTANBUL — Vladimir Putin’s military draft “changed everything” for the tens of thousands of Russians who have fled their country since the Russian leader’s mobilization was announced last month, according to recent arrivals in Istanbul.
Niki Proshin, 28, left St. Petersburg last week, part of a torrent of Russian men escaping their homeland following Putin’s Sept. 21 declaration of a “partial mobilization” for the war in Ukraine. The Russian military call-up came as some Russian troops have been forced to retreat amid a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
“Last week changed everything for hundreds of thousands of other people who decided to leave Russia,” he said. “The main reason is the danger of being drafted into the Russian army.”
Turkey, which has maintained air links with Russia while other countries blocked flights and does not impose visa restrictions on Russian visitors, has been a popular destination for those leaving for “any place” they can reach.
Turkish officials have not released data on how many Russians may have arrived in Turkey to flee the draft, but Russia is close to the top of a list of countries that sends tourists to Turkey, after Germany. Some 3 million Russians have visited the country so far this year.
Turkish media have also reported an increase in the number of Russians purchasing or renting houses in Turkey.
The Nato-member country, which relies on Russia for its energy needs and tourism, has not joined U.S. and EU sanctions against Moscow. It has tried to balance its relations with both Russia and Ukraine, positioning itself as a mediator between the two.
Eva Rapoport, the Istanbul coordinator for The Ark, a group helping Russians fleeing their country, said there had been a significant increase in the numbers arriving in Turkey since Putin’s mobilization declaration.
While those who left Russia in the immediate aftermath of its February invasion of Ukraine were a “well-educated, Western-oriented, cosmopolitan crowd,” now her organization was seeing “just about everyone who can escape the country.”
Likening the situation to the aftermath of Russia’s 1917 revolution, when hundreds of thousands of “white Russians” found refuge in Istanbul while fleeing the Bolsheviks, Rapoport said those fleeing felt they no longer had a future in their homeland.
Maxim Bocharov, 38, is one of those disillusioned with Putin’s Russia.
“This mobilization was the last step for me,” the former sales manager said. “I want to say to the Ukrainian people that not every Russian is like a brainwashed zombie.”