Thousands of Russians flee the call to arms and take refuge in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Tensions with the local population, aware of the discriminatory treatment suffered by their own migrants in Russia. However, many show compassion for those who arrive.
Moscow () – The massive flight of Russians from the military mobilization towards the countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia is showing a surprising paradox, due to the historical habits of these lands. The ex- and post-Soviet have always been Russia’s “migrant workers”, who are treated as second-rate people and are often the subject of ridicule and vaguely racist epithets, the “blacks” (černota) or the “narrow-eyed” (uzkoglazy) and are even barred from certain venues and hotels (“Asian-looking people please keep out”). Now, in revenge, many Kazakh or Kyrgyz locals hang the “no whites allowed” sign.
In the last week more than 50,000 Russians crossed the borders of Kazakhstan passing through the “Russian” regions of the north, Uralsk and Petropavlovsk. In reality, many locals are willing to welcome the fugitives, while others organize pickets to prevent them from passing, because “they do not integrate with us”, “they do not respect our culture” and furthermore “they are not fleeing from war but from recruitment, They just want to save their skin.”
Radio Azattyk has collected several testimonies on the ground to understand the climate of these chaotic days in Central Asia. According to Maržan from Almaty, “These guys have been sitting on the couch eating peanuts since February, and they only moved when they started targeting them directly… They flee to our country leaving their wives and children, they are afraid to go out to the street to protest. These people who arrive “will not bring anything good for us, it is better to close the borders.”
Many Kazakhs try to help the Russians by organizing humanitarian initiatives for them but provoking the reaction of others, for whom “there is no work here and the students sleep on the street because they cannot pay the rent, the only thing we need is to give them a house and I work for the Russians.” Others fear that “now they come here to cry and then they will send the tanks to us because we have not treated them by speaking Russian correctly.” The arrival of the Russians has already dramatically increased the price of rent and food, and especially alcohol.
Another interviewee insists that “those who arrive are not refugees, they have not bombed their houses, they are just cowards, let’s put them all on Russian military ships.” Umay, from Bishkek, explains that “the Russians who arrived in Kyrgyzstan can be divided into two waves, the first are those who left immediately after the invasion of Ukraine, mostly young people with a liberal orientation and humanitarian activists, who are called themselves “relocated” (relokanty). The second wave is that of deserters, because there is no other way to call them, a catastrophe that has fallen on us”.
The “resettlers” have tried to somehow fit into the new context, asking the locals for advice on how to behave and also participating in joint protest actions against the war and the Russian “colonial occupation”. The “deserters” do nothing but cause strong social tensions, with the mentality of those who consider the local population “a band of nomads who should return to their yurts [carpas] and leave the houses to the whites”.
Kazakhs spread many negative reactions to the arrival of the Russian fugitives on social media, but Alina from Karaganda says that “we are not all like that, there are many Kazakhs who know the meaning of compassion and hospitality, and understand that if If the situation were reversed, we would all have fled to Russia”. Many welcome Russians into their homes for free, overcoming mistrust and perplexities rooted in history and today, and showing the best face of humble and proud peoples, but rich in humanity and spiritual values.
As Tamerlan from Bishkek puts it: “Spontaneously, one would say ‘you cooked this soup, now you have to eat it’; we also have our problems, they attack us from Tajikistan… then a Russian who was escaping came to our house, a friend from my mother; we argued all night and now we are starting to live a new life together.”
