Fluent Russian

Instructions for those who decide to flee from repression

Reshuffles in power, fraught with the emergence of new criminal cases, the show trial of the "mass riots" on Bolotnaya Square, the detention of Leonid Razvozzhaev, who was captured by Russian special services in Ukraine, the emergence of more and more political emigrants - the last month made Russian citizens, regardless of their political views, think about the need to leave the country . The New Times publishes instructions for those who decide to flee repression

Authors

Oleg Mavromatti is an action artist. He left Russia in 2000, after a criminal case was initiated against him under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code - incitement of interethnic and interreligious hatred. Currently resides in the USA.

Pyotr Silaev (Petya Kosovo, DJ Stalingrad) - anti-fascist, writer, author of the story "Exodus". He left Russia in 2010 after a rally of left-wing activists near the building of the Khimki city administration, one of the organizers of which the investigation considered him. Received asylum in Finland.

Denis Solopov is an anti-fascist, social activist, and artist. According to the investigation (a criminal case was initiated under Article 213 of the Criminal Code - hooliganism), he also participated in organizing a rally near the Khimki administration. In 2010, he left for Ukraine, was placed under extradition arrest in Kyiv, but after the Netherlands granted him refugee status, he was released.

When to leave?

You are a witness in one of the political cases and have reason to think that you will soon turn into a suspect. You are regularly visited (called) by law enforcement agencies. Your friends are asking unnecessary questions about you. They are looking for you, despite the fact that you are not officially wanted (as part of operational-search measures). You or your loved ones were suddenly searched. You are called for a “conversation” at the police station, the Investigative Committee or the Center for Combating Extremism, while at least one of your acquaintances has a similar situation (or this person has already been arrested). The presence of at least one of the above signs is sufficient reason to go on vacation for at least a couple of weeks. A very bad option - you are already a suspect and you have been put on the All-Russian or international wanted list.

Denis Solopov : “First, they put everyone on the wanted list at the operational-search base. The network of operatives simultaneously breaks into all the people from your notebook, to all relatives and guards there. At some point, when they realize that a person has fled, he is put on the federal wanted list, and then across the CIS (it is also called “international”) and after or at the same time they send papers for the wanted list through Interpol. In my case, it was like that."

But the situation when a person is immediately put on the wanted list is rare. If the investigator or operatives have the task of imprisoning you, then they will resort to any tricks - from an informal and polite invitation to a confidential “talk” to psychological pressure on your relatives in order to catch you “hot” without being put on the wanted list.

Instruction I.

For those who have a passport

Step one. Select the country where you may have to live. Examine the list of countries in which Russian citizens have a visa-free regime. If you understand that you have serious problems, then, without staying for a long time in transit points like Ukraine, go to the EU.

Peter Silaev: “You can get a Schengen visa in an accelerated mode - Spain and Finland put a tourist visa in three days upon presentation of a reservation in a hostel and similar nonsense. Plus, there are many countries where a visa for Russians is not required at all.

We must always try to stay a few steps ahead of the persecution - given the dullness and sluggishness of the Russian system, this is not very difficult. If there is no certainty that it is already possible to return, you can always spend three months in Turkey without a visa.”

Step two. Prepare to leave. Everything of value and everything that can somehow compromise you should be taken to a safe place. This is definitely not the parental home, not the apartments of relatives. Remember that if you are searched during your absence, you will have to forget not only about the computer and any digital media, but also about books, personal records, etc.; often seized indiscriminately. It is desirable that the evacuation of property is not carried out by you, but by someone else - it is better for you not to appear at your place of residence.

Oleg Mavromatti: “When I left, in Russia searches were carried out endlessly in my former apartment, in the apartment of my parents, my “accomplices” were summoned for interrogation. Everything turned out strange, because I did not hide my departure. On the contrary, I informed the investigator, and he allowed it. But the next day, after I left for Bulgaria, I was put on the wanted list on TV - there was a program “Man and Law”, in which my investigator made a statement, calling me “a particularly dangerous lunatic”. Then they searched for me, but only on the territory of Russia: my investigator applied to Interpol, but he was refused.”

Step three. If you are sure that you are not wanted yet, you can buy a train or plane ticket; if there is the slightest doubt, do not take risks and travel by transport, tickets for which can be purchased without a passport. If you have a car, we do not recommend driving it - it will not be difficult to track your path on video cameras at traffic police posts. The faster you cross the Russian border, the better. If you have just been put on the wanted list, there is a chance to slip through while the information about you has not yet reached the border guards.

Petr Silaev: “On day X, I borrowed a civil passport from a friend, a native of the south, and used it to travel by train to Minsk. There I boarded an electric train to Kaliningrad (already with my passport) and got off at a bus stop in Kaunas, Lithuania. I was quite calm, since the police usually quickly draw up only a wanted sheet for the district - before being put on the federal wanted list, I had at least a week. I was wrong. As it turned out, this time the court in Khimki was in a hurry and issued a sanction in an accelerated mode - I was only two days ahead of it (the federal wanted list covers Belarus).

Step four. According to statistics, Russians are most often granted political asylum in the United States, Great Britain, the Netherlands and France. But this does not mean that in other countries you have nothing to hope for. If you decide to apply for political asylum, first of all contact human rights activists - they will advise you on the specifics of this procedure in the country where you find yourself. However, the sooner you apply for asylum, the sooner your whereabouts will become known to Russian law enforcement officers.

Denis Solopov: “Legislation on refugees changes very often, but patterns and trends can be identified. Specify the details and calculate the risks based on your situation. Very often, a small oversight became an unhappy end to a long journey. Study as much as possible the statistics and experience of those who were before you, because you are not the first and you are not the last. And remember that you get information from human rights activists and lawyers, not a guide to action. Think with your head. Lawyers give legal advice, you act according to the law, and the police arrest you also according to the law.

Oleg Mavromatti: “As soon as I got in touch with the asylum procedure, problems started. Of course, I drew attention to myself. Due to the fact that I became a refugee candidate, I had to go to the refugee office for registration every week, stand in lines in a hell of a crush from morning to evening. As a result, I went through two trials, and they refused me - they behaved rudely, they called me a criminal. I almost despaired. But the lawyer said that I can safely live in Bulgaria with a Russian passport until it runs out, and buy a residence permit. So I did. And for five years after that, he didn’t remember anything.”

Peter Silaev: “The Russian police themselves gave me the idea of ​​asylum by committing a million offenses in record time, and also by filing an application for me to Interpol. My procedure was complicated by the fact that the European Union could not decide in any way which of the countries, in accordance with the procedure provided for by the Dublin Agreement, was responsible for granting me asylum: I arrived in Lithuania, applied in Belgium, and I had a Finnish visa. Priority is given to the visa, and my case was transferred to Finland, where I received my documents a year later. By the time the Interpol request finally arrived at the international base, I was already fully protected.”

Instruction II.

For those who do not have a passport

Step one. Without a passport, your choice is small - Belarus, Ukraine or Abkhazia. If you have already been put on the federal wanted list, sinking to the bottom in Moscow can be considered as an option, but, of course, this will require a huge number of precautions.

Petr Silaev: “I would rather bury myself in Russia and gradually explore the ways of illegal border crossing - fortunately there are plenty of them. These are Abkhazia-Georgia-Turkey, and Belarus-Lithuania, and Ukraine-Moldova - all popular routes of local smugglers, plus many other, less well-known ones. An Algerian friend of mine found such a place using Google maps, while still at home in North Africa, and successfully carried out his plan by crossing the ice from Russia to one of the EU countries.

Denis Solopov: “There are a lot of myths about impregnability around the borders. The old Soviet borders are extremely weakened. And the newly emerged borders between the former Soviet republics are even weaker. According to the statistics of successful cases of crossing these borders, there are quite a few, but the risk, of course, remains.

Step two. Try to get a passport anyway. Make inquiries through travel agencies that offer "visa assistance" and other services, but remember that this costs money. If you managed to get a passport, carefully read the first instruction. If not, then in addition to Ukraine, Belarus and Abkhazia, there are also radical options.

Peter Silaev: “Contrary to common opinion, the faces of all people are physiognomically divided into only a dozen types. If you have a friend with a passport who looks a lot like you, there's a good chance that the girl on the night shift at one of the busy road or rail checkpoints won't tell you apart. Your task is facilitated by the fact that you urgently need to cross only the Russian border to exit. If you are still detained, for example, by the Estonian border guards, you should be ready to stick a folder with prepared documents for political asylum in their faces - they will arrest you, but they will not be able to send you out immediately without considering your case.

Step three. If you find yourself, for example, in Ukraine, you should not immediately contact the migration service and apply for political asylum (for reasons, see the first instruction). Follow the safety rules below and keep a close eye on developments.

Petr Silaev: “I personally would not apply for asylum in Ukraine - it’s rather scary to completely surrender to someone’s will, especially if it’s the Yanukovych government. It is obvious that they cooperate with Russia and in serious cases always submit to the Kremlin. The story with my friend Denis Solopov is more of an exception, and the kidnapping of Leonid Razvozzhaev is more of a rule.”

General safety rules (in both situations)

Get rid of your cell phone. Remember - your notebook is being "worked out" (a call from a friend's number or someone whose phone can be tapped is already a serious danger). In an emergency, use a payphone or buy cheap phones and SIM cards from your hands, for example, in underground passages. A good alternative is the Skype program, you only need to top up your account for calls to phones (this method will not provide confidentiality, but will allow you to hide your physical location).

You cannot live at the registration address - this will be one of the first places where they will come for you. If you are renting a house, you will also have to forget about it. And of course, no more coming to work or school. Do not use your email and social networks. You can access the Internet using the TOR system or from different Internet cafes. No one, including relatives, should know where you are and what you are going to do. You will contact them when you are already in relative safety.

Unless absolutely necessary, do not show your passport (if you are already wanted, then this is completely excluded). Airplanes and trains will then have to be forgotten. When traveling by trains and buses, during transfers or waiting (especially in the provinces), do not linger at train stations - there is a high probability that a patrol will approach you. Having noticed it, it is better to play ahead of the curve - come up and politely ask where, for example, a toilet is located. You can hitchhike, but this is a rather unpredictable process, and border control will be stricter.

Upon arrival in the country of destination , try not to draw too much attention to yourself and not to spread about your circumstances to random people. It is most convenient to hide in large cities or popular tourist places. Do not move around the city with large luggage. In resort areas, be a tourist.