Discussion on Russian emigration amidst Ukraine war (Part 2)

You have to look into this. Where does the story then start for you? Well, when the full scale invasion of Ukraine happened in February 2022, that was really the first stage of emigration from Russia. People leaving. People leaving, yeah. So there were a number of reasons why, why people were leaving. The main one, one was because of the political crackdown. But a lot of people, I think, saw that sooner or later there would be some sort of mobilization, call up some sort of enhanced conscription for ordinary Russians. I spoke to of my, you know, friends and colleagues at that time who said, you know, sooner or later we're all going to be drafted. But just, just in terms of the political repression, I mean, many activists, journalists and, and just ordinary Russians who are against the war fled and many Western countries welcomed them. Right. There were multiple public statements by leading Western officials and politicians at that time. If you don't want to fight in this war, come here, you're welcome. We'll protect you. And the thinking was, was that one less soldier for Russia's army is one less person to pull the trigger. Right. I spoke to one guy, a deserter from the Russian army called Artyom Vovchenko. He is from a small town in southern Russia, from a pretty ordinary family with quite humble beginnings. In 2019, he was conscripted into the Russian army. So this is pre full scale invasion. I didn't even know that there was conscription at that point. So there's always been conscription in Russia. Now, conscripts are largely not sent to the front line in Ukraine, but all young people in Russia must go through some sort of military training. So Archom, like many, many others, was drafted into the army in 2019. Now he says that in 2021. So again, this is before the full scale invasion, he was tricked into signing a contract to become a proper professional soldier in the Army. Then in 2022, when the full scale invasion happened, he was opposed to that war and made it clear that he was opposed and came under a lot of pressure from his senior officers and they planned to deploy him to Ukraine to fight in the war. And for Artyom, this was something completely.