The fate of Russia's relokanty

More than a million Russians left the country two years ago to avoid getting involved in the war in Ukraine. According to Putin 'more than 50 per cent have returned', far fewer for the Financial Times. But more than 'nostalgia', what drove them was the reception without much sympathy even in many countries firmly against Moscow's war. The stories of those who stay away.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - One of the most frequent appeals for the new year, by President Vladimir Putin, Patriarch Kirill and all the high officials of Russia, is aimed at the relokanty, the citizens who emigrated abroad to avoid mobilization and any involvement in the war with Ukraine, so that they return to their homeland.

There are no official data on their number, neither on exits nor on returns, even if Putin has been repeating for a few months that "more than 50%" of them have returned. The state newspaper Izvestija speaks more conservatively of 40%, while according to the Financial Times no more than 15% of the relokanty would have returned, which in any case is estimated at around one million - one and a half million people.

A few days ago, Putin explained at the meeting with municipal administrations that emigrants want to return to their homeland "because of shared bathrooms for boys and girls in other countries", which contrasts with the preservation of "traditional values", the refrain in particular the ongoing electoral campaign.

Rather, the relokanty themselves say in interviews with the press that they are forced to return due to the tightening of the rules for obtaining residence permits, the reduction of visa-free stay periods in many countries, the difficulty in finding work and sufficient earnings to support themselves. In general, in many countries firmly aligned against Russia's war, even Russians who fled for these reasons are not always welcomed with particular sympathy.

Currentime journalists spoke with several people who have experienced and are experiencing this drama, to understand the reasons why someone decides to return, or perhaps never return to Russia.

For example, 36-year-old Sergej, a designer by profession, went to Kazakhstan in September 2022, as soon as the general mobilization was announced, and is now moving to countries where it is possible to enter without a visa, without stopping in a specific place, but he does not intend to return.

From the Samara region where he lived, Central Asia was the most natural direction, and he says: "it was the most difficult moment of my life, it's one thing to understand that you have to do it, it's another thing to leave everything without knowing where you're going to go." finish, I didn't even get to say goodbye to my parents."

Sergei left out of fear of war and horror of the massacre of people from another nation, and his anti-war posts immediately caused him to lose his job. Now he is trying to get back on top, despite all the expenses of travel and rent, and thanks "the people of Kazakhstan who amazed me with their support and availability" and also in other countries he has found a lot of solidarity, despite the different opinions on the conflict.

Now he has decided that he will return to Russia only if the regime in power radically changes, and he advises other emigrants to leave together with a loved one, "it will be at least 50% easier, if not more", because the most tiring thing it is "not being able to share emotions and contradictions that weigh on the conscience and the heart".

Valentin Sokolov, 48, is an eco-activist and former coordinator of Alexei Naval'nyj's movement in the city of Kolomna, in central Russia. He left Russia for the United States already in the spring of 2021, after the arrest of its leader. In 2016, after the elections, he had experienced arrest, detention in the concentration camp and even torture against him and many other prisoners, and while he was in prison the teachers tried to turn his children against him, denouncing him as a "traitor of the homeland".

For this reason, as soon as it was possible, Valentin took a ticket to Mexico, and from Tijuana he managed to get to the USA on a scooter, together with his eldest son. The same itinerary was then undertaken by his wife with their two minor children, immediately after the invasion of Ukraine.

Now Valentin and his family, like many others, are trying to reorganize their lives, and feel nostalgic not so much for their native land, but for the possibility of working to change it and propose alternatives to the suffocating dictatorship. Other interviewees say they have returned, both to find their life and because of the difficult material conditions, but mostly they are waiting for the moment when it will again be possible to look for another path, towards another country.

• Russia
• Moscow
• relokanty
• guwerra
• Ukraine