Russians Who Fled Putin Seek Shelter and Redemption in Georgia

Ms. Soloveva, 28 years previous, blames herself and her compatriots for trying the opposite manner as Mr. Putin tightened his grip on Russia, permitting him a free hand to launch the most important floor offensive in Europe since World Battle II.

Like lots of of the Russians who have flocked to Georgia, she now spends a lot of her free time providing assist to Ukrainians who’ve escaped the brutal combating.

“All I wish to do is assist Ukraine,” mentioned Ms. Soloveva, who works on the meals financial institution a number of days per week. “Perhaps this can assist me atone.”

Left: Vsevolod Osipov, seated, says he was an informer for the Russian intelligence service. His girlfriend, Dariya Zheniskhan, standing, runs a bar that has fundraised for the Ukrainian army. Proper: Maria Belkina runs Volunteers Tbilisi to assist Ukrainian refugees.

Georgia’s authorities estimates that about 35,000 Russians have settled within the small Caucasus nation of 4 million because the begin of the Feb. 24 offensive. About one other 50,000 have arrived from Ukraine and Belarus, whose chief

Alexander Lukashenko,

 has made the nation a staging publish for Russia’s warfare. Georgia, which misplaced roughly 20% of its territory to Russian-backed separatists after going through its personal Russian invasion in 2008, doesn’t require a visa for residents of any of the three international locations.

The Russians who have gone south are a combined bag. Native Russian and Georgian activists surveying the arrivals say they’re usually younger individuals of their 20s and 30s, broadly cut up between those that are strongly against Mr. Putin’s regime and others, like the various IT professionals, who could not maintain sturdy political opinions however noticed their profession prospects diminishing in a Russia shut off from the West.

When the exodus of educated Russians started in March, the Kremlin welcomed the departures. “Many individuals are exhibiting themselves to be what we in Russia prefer to name traitors,” mentioned Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “They disappear from our lives on their very own. Some resign from their jobs, some withdraw from their skilled lives, and a few depart the nation and transfer to different locations. That’s how Russia is cleansed.”

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Whereas some Georgians are skeptical of an enclave of Russians taking root of their nation with swaths of its territory remaining underneath Russian occupation, the federal government has welcomed the émigrés with open arms, hoping to learn from Russia’s mind drain.

“They don’t pose actual threats to Georgia’s safety,” mentioned Nikoloz Samkharadze, chairman of parliament’s overseas affairs committee and a member of the ruling Georgian Dream celebration. “These are individuals who contribute to Georgia’s economic system.”

Russians are nonetheless greeted on each nook in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, with graffiti shouting obscenities about their president and nation. Some institutions have instituted quasi visa regimes. Dedaena Bar, set in a park the place mass demonstrations within the Seventies prompted Soviet authorities to retract their resolution to revoke the official standing of the Georgian language, asks Russians to fill out a kind stating they’re towards the warfare.

Nonetheless, Russians have settled in. In accordance with Transparency Worldwide Georgia, Russians registered 6,400 firms in Georgia between March and June, almost doubling the overall of such firms within the nation.

Some have launched initiatives devoted completely to supporting Ukrainians.

Emigration for Motion, based by a Russian activist, distributes remedy. Motskhaleba, launched by an unbiased Russian journalist, runs a shelter and provides psychological assist. Volunteers Tbilisi, the initiative of a Russian who moved to Georgia a number of years in the past, organizes a meals financial institution, helps direct Ukrainians fleeing the combating and rents out flats for individuals who make it to Georgia. Select to Assist, a community of volunteers staffed by Russians, together with Ms. Soloveva, Belarusians, Ukrainians and Georgians, palms out meals, garments, sanitary merchandise and medication.

Almost six months into the warfare, Ukrainians proceed to reach within the nation, driving lots of of miles by Crimea into Russia and over the Caucasus Mountains. The Russian-led volunteer teams say they’re serving to to fill the gaps within the authorities’s response. At first of the month, Georgia ended a program of subsidizing resorts to accommodate Ukrainians, citing restricted sources and the nation’s personal tens of 1000’s of internally displaced individuals on account of the 2008 warfare.

The teams have largely raised funds for his or her lodging amongst fellow Russian émigrés but in addition by wire transfers from Russians nonetheless at house, and have attracted a variety of volunteers, together with Ukrainians and Georgians.

Like Ms. Soloveva, some say they’re making atonement for having acquiesced to Mr. Putin’s authoritarian rule.

“It’s soul-saving work,” mentioned a lady who after the invasion stop Russia Past, an English-language web site selling Russian tradition to foreigners and owned by RT, the Kremlin-backed tv community beforehand generally known as Russia Right this moment. The job, she mentioned, was her first alternative in journalism out of faculty, and whereas unsavory, there weren’t many others after the Kremlin had spent years squeezing unbiased media.

“On the meals financial institution individuals let you know about Mariupol, about everybody who died. You are feeling the tears coming down your face, and all you’ll be able to say is, ‘Right here’s some buckwheat,’” she mentioned. “However no less than you’re feeling that your day wasn’t for nothing.”

Many extra of the Russians in Georgia don’t volunteer, however some say they imagine that simply by having left Russia they’re already doing extra good than hurt.

“The primary factor I can do is to cease paying taxes in Russia,” mentioned Viktor Ramin, who was relocated by a world IT firm. “It’s probably the most substantial step atypical individuals can take.”

The view differs with one gaining steam in Europe, after Ukrainian President

Volodymyr Zelensky,

Finnish Prime Minister

Sanna Marin

and Estonian Prime Minister

Kaja Kallas

in current days all urged European international locations to cease issuing visas to Russians as a strategy to stress Mr. Putin’s authorities.

Whereas some within the Georgian opposition have likewise known as for a visa regime for Russians, Georgian Dream has brushed apart the suggestion. Earlier this month, Irakli Kobakhidze, the celebration’s chairman, described the proposed coverage as “xenophobic.”

Georgian critics of their authorities say the stance is the newest proof that the Kremlin has sway over Georgian Dream behind the scenes. They level to the celebration’s rising pro-Russian messaging and the Georgian authorities’s refusal to hitch most worldwide sanctions towards Russia, saying the West is making an attempt to pull Georgia into the warfare. Mr. Samkharadze of Georgian Dream denied that the celebration has a pro-Russian bent and mentioned that Georgia “has been very constant in supporting Ukraine and condemning Russia.”

The critics additionally notice that in a number of public cases, Russian unbiased journalists and antigovernment activists haven’t been let into Georgia and face prolonged checks every time they cross the border. Mr. Samkharadze mentioned the entry denials amounted to “a handful of particular person instances” quite than a pattern, and that the checks are to make sure the journalists haven’t traveled to Russian-occupied territories in Georgia.

Some opposition-minded Russians fear that they aren’t utterly secure from the Kremlin even in Georgia, and have claimed that they’re generally tailed by Russian safety brokers.

Final month, Vsevolod Osipov advised the Russian information web site Meduza that earlier than the warfare he had been despatched to Georgia collectively by the FSB intelligence company and the Inside Ministry’s Heart for Combating Extremism, generally known as Heart E, to maintain tabs on Russian opposition activists.

In an interview with The Wall Road Journal in Tbilisi, Mr. Osipov, 20, mentioned he had been pressured by the FSB and Heart E after they detained him and searched his house within the spring of 2021 for collaborating in antigovernment protests, and in October dispatched him to Georgia the place opposition activists had been already looking for security earlier than the warfare. Mr. Osipov confirmed a duplicate of his search warrant specifying that it was for his alleged antigovernment actions, however mentioned he wasn’t given copies of working agreements he signed with the FSB and Heart E. The FSB and Heart E didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Mr. Samkharadze mentioned he wasn’t conscious of Mr. Osipov’s circumstances or different claims of Russian safety service presence, however mentioned the difficulty was the prerogative of Georgia’s State Safety Service. The State Safety Service didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Mr. Osipov mentioned he acted as a double agent, telling activists he had been recruited, and plotted a strategy to finally stop his position. Anton Mikhalchuk of the Free Russia Basis, which organizes antiwar rallies in Tbilisi, mentioned Mr. Osipov had confessed to him over the winter that he had been tasked with informing on Free Russia’s actions.

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After the invasion, Mr. Osipov mentioned he modified his contacts and minimize ties along with his handlers. He now works as a sommelier and might usually be discovered at a bar co-founded by his girlfriend, Dariya Zheniskhan, who’s from Kazakhstan. Known as Ploho—it means “unhealthy” in Russian—it has turn out to be a gathering spot for Russian and Belarusian émigrés. Final month, Ms. Zheniskhan mentioned it despatched proceeds from a cookout to the Ukrainian army.

Mr. Osipov mentioned he is pessimistic concerning the Russian opposition’s skill to unseat Mr. Putin from the Kremlin, however believes Russians nonetheless have a urgent activity at hand.

“What we are able to do is assist Ukrainians, assist refugees, and live on,” he mentioned.

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Write to Evan Gershkovich at evan.gershkovich@wsj.com