Long queues of cars at the Russian borders with Georgia, Finland and Kazakhstan. Fully booked planes to Serbia, Dubai and even Belarus. Russian men have fled the country in droves in recent days to avoid partial mobilization. It was announced by the Russian leadership to reinforce the soldiers in Ukraine who had come under pressure.
But in Europe, many countries are slamming the door in the face of conscientious objectors. Finland has now closed its borders, and other countries are not issuing visas to Russian refugees. What about Central and Southeastern Europe? We have asked our correspondents to report to us from their countries.
President Milos Zeman speaks out in favor of accepting Russian conscientious objectors. “I think we should give these people visas, just like the Ukrainian refugees,” he said. Zeman was a supporter of Putin until last year, but has since turned into a staunch opponent of the Russian president. But his words fall on deaf ears in Prague.
Only dissidents are admitted, but not conscientious objectors. Russians who evade mobilization are not eligible for humanitarian visas, Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said. “Those who flee the country because they do not want to fulfill the obligation imposed by their own state do not meet the requirements for a humanitarian visa,” Lipavsky was quoted as saying by the news website CT24.
The foreign minister justifies this with security concerns, among other things. “It cannot be our goal that the deserters romp around in our country, that would also be a security risk for our own state,” said Lipavsky. Because: “There may be Russian agents among them.” He has been working for a long time to weaken the influence of the Russian secret services in Europe. Last year, for example, the Czech Republic expelled 81 Russian diplomats suspected of espionage. They are ready for the attack an ammunition dump in 2014.
Since the beginning of the Russian aggression in February 2022, the Czech Republic has stopped issuing tourist visas for Russians. At an informal summit of EU foreign ministers on August 31 in the Czech capital, the government unsuccessfully tried to make the suspension of Schengen visas for Russian citizens binding for the entire EU. In the end, the EU countries agreed on a compromise: Visas should not be refused, but issuing them should be more expensive and complicated. “It’s a good step, but not enough,” Foreign Minister Lipavsky said at the time.
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Warsaw also raises security concerns. Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said it was “highly inadvisable” to take in a large number of Russians, both from a security policy and from a moral point of view. And Deputy Interior Minister Marcin Wasik warned that employees of Russian secret services could sneak in under the pretext of fleeing military service.
“We don’t want to take in Russian citizens who have so far supported the Putin regime and now that they will probably have to go to the front, have become great democrats and are planning to leave Russia,” said Michal Dworczyk, head of the chancellery of the Prime Minister on Polish State Radio. But Poland does not close the border to human rights activists who are being persecuted for their political beliefs, said Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s close associate.
The subject is discussed controversially in the media. The liberal-conservative newspaper Rzeczpospolita speaks out against the admission of Russian conscientious objectors. “Russian statistics show that almost 80 percent of the population supports Putin and his aggression against Ukraine,” the commentator reminds, assuring that the closure of the Polish border is not “blind retaliation” or “imposition of collective responsibility”, but “a strike against the silent social basis of this power”.
The conservative publicist Lukasz Warzecha, on the other hand, advocates a “pragmatic attitude”: “Encouraging soldiers to desert is one of the best and oldest methods of sabotage. Putin gave us this opportunity on a platter,” he writes on the online portal Onet, adding: “Our goal remains the weakening of Russia.”
Poland had already drastically restricted entry for Russian citizens on September 19: Russian tourists, business people, athletes and artists have not been able to enter the country since then. Nevertheless, the country’s borders are not hermetically sealed, even for conscientious objectors or deserters. The Wirtualna Polska portal reported on 32-year-old Alexander, who easily made it to the Polish capital by plane from Moscow via Turkey and Hungary.
So far, no Russians of military service age have turned up at the Greek border asking for asylum in Greece. They should have come through Turkey, and that border is closed to all refugees. Should Russian conscientious objectors make it to Greece anyway, they would most likely not be welcomed. Greek legislation does not provide asylum for those who do not want to go to the front in the service of their country. Desertion is considered a criminal offense and offenders have no right to asylum in Greece. So saying “I don’t want to fight Ukraine” wouldn’t be enough to get into the country.
Asylum is granted only to those Russians who can prove that they were persecuted for political, religious or other reasons before mobilization in Russia. Even in the public debate, there is no willingness to see conscientious objectors as persecuted dissidents who have a right to protection. Instead, they are expected to stay in their country and fight, whether against the enemy or against the dictator. In the case of Russia, moreover, the men who are now trying to desert or flee are not believed to have previously opposed Putin and his war of aggression.
Greek public opinion views the members of the Greek minority in Ukraine quite differently. Most of them live around Mariupol, in areas occupied by Russia. These people would be welcomed if they asked, including those who are pro-Russian.
Author: Lubos Palata, Jacek Lepiarz, Kaki Bali
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The original of this article “Conscientious objectors in front of closed doors” comes from Deutsche Welle.
