Some Russians easily change their place of residence, but their number should not be exaggerated. On this subject declared Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, reports TASS.
“People leave, people come back, people arrive. There is such a part of the population that is very, very reactive, so to speak, behaves against the background of certain events, easily changes its place of residence in the short or medium term. I don’t think it’s a trend. Of course, it is not necessary to particularly exaggerate the number of such people. But there are such citizens, yes,” Peskov said.
So he answered the question that some Russian citizens, after the announcement of the partial mobilization, left for Georgia, and now, against the backdrop of protests in this country, the reverse process has begun.
Alexander Chizhenok / Kommersant
Departure of citizens from Russia
On September 21, Putin announced a partial mobilization in Russia, immediately after which queues of those wishing to leave the country lined up at Russian borders. At the beginning of October, Forbes, citing a source in the presidential administration, wrote that in two weeks after the start of the mobilization, from 700,000 to 1 million people could leave Russia. Peskov called this message a “duck”.
At the end of December, The Bell* estimated that at least 566,000 people had left Russia since the start of the military operation in Ukraine. The counting method was based on information about the number of Russians who had “entrenched themselves” in the countries to which they had moved. The main destinations of those who left were Turkey, Georgia and Kazakhstan – more than 132,000, 112,000 and 100,000 Russians settled there, respectively. Another 60,000 Russian citizens moved to Serbia, 40,000 to Armenia and 38,000 to Israel. Just over 36,000 Russians have arrived in EU countries.
In early March 2023, mass protests and riots broke out in Georgia due to the authorities’ plan to introduce a law on foreign agents in the republic. On the night of March 9, a number of Russian media reported that a traffic jam had formed at the Upper Lars checkpoint on the Russian-Georgian border. Publications and telegram channels wrote that the Russians were leaving Georgia because of the unrest that had begun. Russian citizens living in the republic told RTVI that congestion at the border checkpoint occurs regularly due to its instability.
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