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Tuesday, March 15th, 2022

‘We had no choice’: over 8,000 Russians seek US refuge in six-month period

Author:     Editorial Staff
Source:     Associated Press
Publication Date:     Mon 14 Mar 2022 | 2030 EDT
 Link: ‘We had no choice’: over 8,000 Russians seek US refuge in six-month period
Stephan:   This is another aspect of Putin's evil war on Ukraine. Since the fall of the Soviet Union Russia has slowly integrated with the rest of the world in a way never seen during the Soviet period, and I think one of Putin's miscalculations was how Russian citizens, particularly the young and well-educated have shown they are not willing to give up those international connections and are fleeing Putin and what he is doing to their country. As this article notes, it really began with Putin's persecution of Alexei Navalny, but the outflow of people has gone up dramatically with Putin's ill-conceived war on Ukraine.
More than 8,600 Russians have sought refuge on the US border with Mexico from August through January. Credit: Joebeth Terríquez/EPA

Maksim Derzhko calls it one of the most terrifying experiences of his life. A longtime opponent of Vladimir Putin, he flew from Vladivostok to the Mexican border city of Tijuana with his 14-year-old daughter and was in a car with seven other Russians. All that separated them from claiming asylum in the United States was a US officer standing in traffic as vehicles inched toward inspection booths.

The emotions are “hard to put into words,” he says. “It’s fear. The unknown. It’s really hard. We had no choice.”

The gamble worked. After spending a day in custody, Derzhko was released to seek asylum with his daughter, joining thousands of Russians who have recently taken the same route to America.

Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to punishing sanctions from the US and its allies, the United States was already seeing an increase in Russian asylum-seekers.

More than 8,600 Russians sought refuge on the US border with Mexico from August through January – […]

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