VItaliy Averin has his hands full with what the 38-year-old Russian calls “demobilization.” Averin advises Russians who want to defect to Kazakhstan before mobilizing in the country. He has been living there, in Almaty, the largest city in the country, since last spring. Because as a leading member of the election observation and democracy movement “Golos” (voice), Averin, as he reports in an interview from Kazakhstan, threatened criminal prosecution in Russia.

Kazakhstan is likely to be the country to which most Russians have traveled, effectively fled, since last Wednesday, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced mobilization. The border between the two countries is the longest land border on earth, there are numerous crossings. Russians can cross it with their ID card equivalent, as Kazakhstan and Russia are both members of the Eurasian Economic Union. However, Awerin advises his protégés to take their passport with them if possible: the entry stamp in it is a condition for a number of services in Kazakhstan. In an emergency, however, one can apply for a passport at a Russian consular post in Kazakhstan – that is another advantage of the country.

Since the western sanctions against Russian banks after the attack on Ukraine, the neighboring country to the south has become the target of many Russians who apply for a tax number and open an account with it. Because Kazakhstan, which traditionally wants to be on good terms with all sides within the framework of a “multi-vector policy”, does not risk being subject to Western sanctions and can also serve as a gateway to Russia. It is unclear how many Russians have come since Wednesday, initially to stay in the country and wait to see how mobilization develops, or to travel further, for example via the airports in the capital Astana and in Almaty. It could well be tens of thousands of Russians.

Kazakhstan does not want to recognize “referendums”.

So far, Awerin reports, the vast majority have managed to leave the country. On the Russian side, he is only aware of two cases in which men were prevented from leaving the country on the basis of orders from military commissioners. Border guards – who belong to the FSB secret service – asked some people leaving the country if they knew about the “special operation” against Ukraine and the mobilization. Rumors of impending border closures are fueling the influx, but conditions like those on Russia’s border with Georgia do not exist on that with Kazakhstan. Wüstes reports from the Caucasus: Before the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint, the only crossing point between Russia and Georgia through which entry into the unoccupied parts of the South Caucasian country is possible (because Russians coming via the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia will not be able to enter free Georgia left), a queue of thousands of cars has formed. There are reports of bribes and local authorities’ ‘mobile operational groups’ are now handing out draft notices. From Georgia it is said that there are no plans to restrict the entry of Russians.

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