The wife of an FSO officer who opposed the war and tried to escape mobilization flew to France

The wife of FSO Major Mikhail Zhilin, who tried to escape to Kazakhstan from mobilization and was deported to Russia, flew with the children to France. Ekaterina Zhilina plans to ask for political asylum, journalist Evgenia Baltatarova said in a telegram.

According to Baltatarova, the day before her departure, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Kazakhstan was “interested” in Zhilina.

In September, after the announcement of mobilization, Zhilin crossed the border with Kazakhstan, bypassing the official checkpoint, making his way under barbed wire. Due to access to state secrets, the man was prohibited from leaving Russia and did not have a foreign passport. Having met the border guards, Zhilin asked for asylum. His wife entered Kazakhstan with their children through the official border checkpoint.

“I, Mikhail Alekseevich Zhilin, being a serviceman of the Russian Federation, without the purpose of desertion, crossed the state border with the Republic of Kazakhstan on September 27, 2022 due to the fact that the war in Ukraine started by the military-political leadership of the Russian Federation would oblige me to go to the combat zone for the murder of other persons, citizens of Ukraine, with which I categorically disagree,” Zhilin said in a video message published by the ASTRA telegram channel, which he and his wife recorded on October 2.

Kazakhstan denied the officer political asylum. On December 2, the court found him guilty of illegally crossing the border, giving him six months of suspended imprisonment and deportation from the country.

The man was allowed to leave on his own, but he was unable to do so: he was detained at the request of Russia at the airport when he was trying to fly to Armenia. In Russia, a military man was put on the international wanted list under articles of desertion (Article 338 of the Criminal Code) and illegal border crossing (Article 322 of the Criminal Code). Kazakhstan extradited him in December.

• On September 21, Vladimir Putin announced a “partial” mobilization, after which Sergei Shoigu ordered the conscription of 300 thousand people into the army.