‘Things Will Only Get Worse.’ Putin’s War Sends Russians Into Exile.

ISTANBUL — They lined up at ATM’s, determined for money after Visa and Mastercard suspended operations in Russia, swapping intelligence on the place they might nonetheless get {dollars}. At Istanbul cafes, they sat quietly finding out Telegram chats or Google Maps on their telephones. They organized help teams to assist different Russian exiles discover housing.

Tens of 1000’s of Russians have fled to Istanbul since Russia invaded Ukraine final month, outraged about what they see as a felony struggle, anxious about conscription or the opportunity of a closed Russian border, or involved that their livelihoods are not viable again house.

And they’re simply the tip of the iceberg. Tens of 1000’s extra traveled to nations like Armenia, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan that are higher referred to as sources of migration to Russia. On the land border with Latvia — open solely to these with European visas — vacationers reported waits lasting hours.

Whereas the exodus of about 2.7 million Ukrainians from their war-torn nation has centered the world on a burgeoning humanitarian disaster, the descent of Russia into new depths of authoritarianism has many Russians despairing of their future. That has created a flight — although a lot smaller than in Ukraine — that some are evaluating to 1920, when greater than 100,000 opponents of the Communist Bolsheviks throughout the Russian Civil Struggle left to hunt refuge in what was then Constantinople.

“There has by no means been something like this earlier than in peacetime,” mentioned Konstantin Sonin, a Russian economist on the College of Chicago. “There isn’t a struggle on Russian territory. As a single occasion, it’s fairly big.”

Some who’ve fled are bloggers, journalists or activists who feared arrest beneath Russia’s draconian new legislation criminalizing what the state deems “false data” concerning the struggle.

Others are musicians and artists who see no future for his or her crafts in Russia. And there are employees in tech, legislation and different industries who noticed the prospect of comfy, middle-class lives — not to mention any risk for ethical acceptance of their authorities — dissipate in a single day.

They left behind jobs and household and cash caught in Russian financial institution accounts which they will not entry. They concern being tarred as Russians overseas because the West isolates the nation for its lethal invasion, they usually reel over the lack of a optimistic Russian identification.

“They didn’t simply take away our future,” Polina Borodina, a Moscow playwright, mentioned of her authorities’s struggle in Ukraine. “They took away our previous.”

The pace and scale of the flight replicate the tectonic shift the invasion touched off inside Russia. For all of President Vladimir V. Putin’s repression, Russia till final month remained a spot with in depth journey connections to the remainder of the world, a principally uncensored web giving a platform to impartial media, a thriving tech trade and a world-class arts scene. Slices of Western middle-class life — Ikea, Starbucks, reasonably priced overseas automobiles — had been extensively out there.

However once they awoke on Feb. 24, many Russians knew that every one that was over. Dmitri Aleshkovsky, a journalist who spent years selling Russia’s rising tradition of charitable giving, obtained in his automotive the subsequent day and drove to Latvia.

“It turned completely clear that if this purple line has been crossed, nothing will maintain him again anymore,” Mr. Aleshkovsky mentioned of Mr. Putin. “Issues will solely worsen.”

Within the days because the invasion, Mr. Putin has compelled the remnants of Russia’s impartial media to close down. He has engineered a brutal crackdown towards antiwar protesters, with greater than 14,000 individuals arrested throughout the nation since Feb. 24, together with 862 in 37 cities on Sunday, in accordance with the rights group OVD-Information.

To make certain, many Russians help the struggle, and plenty of of these supporters are fully unaware of the extent of Russia’s aggression as a result of they depend on state-run tv information.

However others have flocked to locations like Istanbul, which, like in 1920, has once more grow to be a haven for exiles. Whereas most of Europe has closed its skies, Turkish Airways has been flying from Moscow as a lot as 5 instances a day; mixed with different airways, greater than 30 flights arrive from Russia on some days.

“Historical past strikes in a spiral, that of Russia particularly,” mentioned Kirill Nabutov, 64, a St. Petersburg sports activities commentator who fled to Istanbul together with his spouse this month. “It comes again to the identical place — again to this identical place.”

Mr. Nabutov’s great-uncle was an 18-year-old conscript sailor in Crimea when he evacuated with the commander Pyotr Wrangel’s fleet to Constantinople in 1920. He traveled on to Tunis, the place he turned an insurance coverage agent.

Now, too, a era of Russian exiles faces the daunting prospect of ranging from scratch. And all face the gnawing actuality of being seen as representing a rustic that launched a struggle of aggression, despite the fact that many insist they’ve spent their lives opposing Mr. Putin.

In Georgia — the place, the federal government says, 20,000 Russians have arrived because the begin of the struggle — exiles have confronted an intimidating atmosphere, filled with anti-Russian graffiti and hostile feedback on social media.

“We tried to clarify that Russians should not Putin — we hate Putin, too,” mentioned Leyla Nepesova, an activist from Memorial Worldwide, a Russian rights group lately shuttered by the Kremlin. Ms. Nepesova, 26, escaped to Georgia every week in the past and has discovered herself tainted by affiliation — sworn at on the street and shouted at by a taxi driver.

“He instructed us, ‘You might be Russians, you might be occupiers,’” Ms. Nepesova mentioned. “Russians are hated right here — and I can not blame them.”

Many Georgians see clear parallels between the Ukraine invasion and Russia’s struggle on Georgia in 2008. And whereas most have been welcoming to the brand new arrivals, some haven’t distinguished between Russian dissidents who’ve fled Russia for safety or ethical causes and people who help Mr. Putin.

The Financial institution of Georgia has demanded that new Russian prospects signal a press release denouncing Mr. Putin’s invasion and acknowledging Russia’s occupation of components of Georgia — a problematic request to make of anybody hoping to return to Russia.

Some Georgians have even referred to as on landlords to refuse tenancy to Russian arrivals.

“Your fingers are soiled,” mentioned a Georgian vigilante fighter at the moment volunteering in Ukraine, in a web based video that was addressed to landlords, banks and politicians in Georgia. “Each single certainly one of you,” the fighter, Nodari Karalashvili, added, “why are you promoting all of this? With what worth of blood?”

In neighboring Armenia, the place the federal government says a number of thousand Russians have been arriving every day, the exiles report receiving a greater welcome. Davur Dordzheir, 25, mentioned he stop his job as a lawyer with Russia’s state-owned Sberbank, organized his monetary affairs, made out a will and mentioned goodbye to his mom. He flew to the Armenian capital, Yerevan, anxious that his previous public feedback towards the Russian authorities may make him a goal.

“I noticed that because the begin of this struggle, I’m an enemy of the state together with 1000’s of Russians,” he mentioned.

In Istanbul, Ms. Borodina, the playwright, who arrived on March 5, has already lined up a designer and a Turkish printing store to make Ukrainian flag pins for Russians to put on. It’s a part of her effort, she says, to “save this identification” of a Russia separate from Mr. Putin. She believes it’s honest for Ukrainians to espouse hatred now for all Russians. However she is essential of individuals within the West who say that each Russian bears accountability for Mr. Putin.

“Have you ever lived beneath a dictatorship?” Ms. Borodina, 31, whose work has instructed the tales of Russians imprisoned for years after protesting, mentioned she would ask these Westerners. “Are you aware what the implications of those protests could be?”

Some exiled Russians try to prepare mutual support efforts and in search of to counter anti-Russian sentiment. Mr. Aleshkovsky, the journalist, 37, mentioned he cried day by day for the primary 5 days of the struggle and suffered panic assaults. Then, he mentioned, “I pulled myself collectively and realized I wanted to do what I understand how to do.” He and a number of other colleagues are organizing an initiative tentatively referred to as “OK Russians” to assist these compelled to or attempting to depart and to supply media content material in English and in Russian.

Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, the exiled oil tycoon who spent 10 years imprisoned in Russia, is funding a challenge referred to as Kovcheg — “The Ark” — which is offering housing in Istanbul and Yerevan and is on the lookout for psychologists to supply emotional help. Since its kickoff on Thursday, it has acquired some 10,000 inquiries.

When Irina Lobanovskaya, the director of selling at a synthetic intelligence agency, began a chat group about emigration within the messaging app Telegram, she started with 10 individuals who shared recommendations on visas and work permits. The group now has greater than 106,000 members.

“I’m a midwife, a lactation specialist, who ran away from Moscow with an nearly 18-year-old son,” one lady wrote, asking for recommendation for exiled well being care professionals. “We’re sitting in Prague, attempting to determine easy methods to stay on.”

The ache of leaving every thing behind has been excruciating, many mentioned — together with the guilt of maybe not having performed sufficient to combat Mr. Putin. Alevtina Borodulina, 30, an anthropologist, joined greater than 4,700 Russian scientists in signing an open letter towards the struggle. Then, as she walked with mates on central Moscow’s Boulevard Ring, certainly one of them pulled out a tote bag that mentioned “no to struggle” and promptly obtained arrested.

She flew to Istanbul on March 3, met like-minded Russians at a protest supporting Ukraine and now volunteers for the Kovcheg challenge to assist different exiles.

“It was like I used to be seeing the Soviet Union,” Ms. Borodulina mentioned of her final days in Moscow. “I used to be considering that the individuals who left the Soviet Union within the Twenties in all probability made a greater determination than those that stayed after which ended up within the camps.”

Anton Troianovski reported from Istanbul, and Patrick Kingsley from Tbilisi, Georgia. Jane Arraf contributed reporting from Yerevan, Armenia, and Neil MacFarquhar from New York.