But the potential impact of hundreds of thousands of unemployed, destitute people determined not to go back home could easily become a catastrophe. With their country the aggressor in a genocidal war that has set Europe ablaze, Russians are not seen as deserving refugees. Without work or secure housing, burning through their savings and often unable to move large sums of money out of Russian accounts due to sanctions, the situation is increasingly unsustainable for the new arrivals.Īnd yet, the predicament has so far attracted little sympathy from Western policymakers, who have been more focused on efforts to close the borders to those leaving. “I quit my job in a cafe and got on a flight,” 19-year-old Artyom tells me, “but I don’t know what I’ll do now.”Īt the same time, rents in their destinations of choice have skyrocketed – every hostel room in Tbilisi has been booked up, while landlords in Yerevan have doubled already-inflated rates for apartments to London or Manhattan levels. On the streets of the Armenian capital, Yerevan, groups of teenage boys from backwater towns mill around aimlessly, many having turned up with nothing but two backpacks and their birthday money.
The latest wave, however, aren’t so much relocating as fleeing for their lives. By and large, they were the kind of educated, middle-class professionals who could work remotely or find new jobs in the West. When Putin declared war in February, a wave of Russian emigres headed for the Caucasus, Turkey and the EU. Clutching suitcases, dogs and children, nobody is there to meet them when they land. In Armenia, where Russians can travel even without a passport, plane after plane is landing from Moscow and passengers are paying more than a thousand dollars apiece for tickets.
At the southern border with Georgia, huge crowds of young men have slept outside in the icy mountain air for three or four nights, desperate to cross over, while Kazakhstan alone has already accepted 100,000 in a fortnight.
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