Find protection in Lithuania. The successes and tragedies of Russian refugees

Lithuania is quite willingly providing asylum to the Russians pursued in their homeland for political reasons. According to the Lithuanian Department of Migration, from 2011 until the beginning of 2020, 186 people received temporary protection in this country and 58-the constant status of a refugee. They formed in Vilnius a cohesive community of several dozen people representing the entire spectrum of the Russian unsystematic opposition. How does political refugees from Russia live in a neighboring country? Here are the stories of some of them.

The former co-chairman of the Moscow Solidarity Branch of Vsevolod Chernozub was in Lithuania in 2013 due to fears of persecution in the "Swamp business". The leader of the Moscow Defense League movement Daniil Konstantinov in 2015 left as a result of the campaign of the persecution of nationalists. And the left activist Anna Topchilova became a political book last in the spring of last year-due to the threat of criminal prosecution in the case of the "network".

Former coordinator of the Chuvash branch of Open Russia Dmitry Semenov received refugee status in October last year and is already working as a journalist in the Lithuanian Russian -speaking media:

- I accidentally hit Lithuania. In 2018, the Open Russia held here an annual election conference, I came to it and had to return home. I bought return tickets, from things - only a jacket for a conference. But I was threatened with the initiation of a criminal case for participating in the activities of an “unwanted organization”. Lawyers "Postcards" advised me to stay. I received political asylum, and I have a permanent residence permit. The expectation took me five months, by European standards it is very quickly: in France or Switzerland you can wait for years. In addition, my case was clear, many media wrote about this, there were many sentences of courts.

Dmitry Semenov

- How did you react to the idea of staying in Lithuania?

- For all the time of political activity, I had a rule: to listen to lawyers and lawyers who protect me. In the first months, I was thinking about whether I did the right thing, what I would do here, and maybe I need to go somewhere further. But I quickly got used to it, and when 2019 came, when the case of the Open Russian Open Russia Branch of Anastasia Shevchenko in Rostov-on-Don arose, I realized that this was the right decision. If I returned, it would not be the first to be, but I, since administrative affairs came into force before. I continued to engage in the affairs of the movement already remotely, helped regional branches organize lectures with different speakers. My salary was preserved, and it was quite possible to live on it.

- What conditions exist here for a person who receives a shelter?

I associate all my further plans with Lithuania

- During the year you are going through the integration program - either in the Red Cross, or in the organization of Caritas, and volunteers help you with various household problems, with documents, explain how everything is arranged in Lithuania. The program includes annual free Lithuanian courses. Plus, a manual is supposed to be 240 euros per month for the first six months, and the second six months - 120 euros. Compensation for renting an apartment - 92 euros per month. This is all. If you do not have a separate source of income or your apartment, you can’t live on it, because the whole amount will go to the rental of the apartment. I am often asked in social networks people who prepare a backup plan in case they press: "How is it in Lithuania?" Personally, I like Lithuania, I love her very much, I am comfortable here, but I honestly say: if there is no possibility of remote work with a salary of at least 1000 euros, I do not advise going to Lithuania because you will live on the verge of poverty.

- Want to return to your homeland?

- No, I connect all my further plans with Lithuania. I have a job here, and not even one: a journalist on the Delfi portal and in the Russian -speaking program "Russian Street" of the National Television and Distributor LRT. You work, grow in your acquaintances and at the same time move away from the Russian agenda. And now, let's say, 45 to me, Putin was shifted. Return to Russia and start all over again? This is unreasonable.

- Do you continue to engage in Russian politics from here?

- Now there is practically no, and there is no such desire. Therefore, when my name is, for example, on the radio station as a speaker on the Russian topic and ask how to present me - the deputy chairman of Open Russia? “I say that I have not been to them for a year, and I need to represent me as a journalist.”

Suppose I have 45, Putin was shifted. Return to Russia and start all over again? This is unreasonable

- I found out that you and the local ultras are communicating ...

- Since childhood, I love football, I played myself. Here I was once called to the match of the Europa League, the Vilnius "Salgiris" played, we took the cheapest gates at the gate, next to the UltraS sector. I began to come often, and over time I was like a beginner, especially speaking in Russian, noticed that they came up to me, met, I told my story and acquired several good friends from this environment. I communicate with them in Russian, many about forty, they usually speak Russian. Yes, and the youth too, because the fans of the "Zalgiris" are very friends with the fans of the Kyiv "Dynamo", and in what other language to speak with them? Ultras in some countries has nationalist views, therefore, when people from Russia ask me, whether there is Russophobia in Lithuania, I reply that the main Lithuanian nationalists are talking to me in Russian. I myself am a moderate right, very sympathize with the local party of conservatives, which is now in the opposition. March 11 is the Day of Independence of Lithuania, in Vilnius there were two processions, official with the participation of the president and the unofficial procession of local nationalists. I was on both. Ideologically, of course, I am not a supporter of most of their ideas. But I do not see here problems of national or racial xenophobia.

A native of Bashkortostan, a defendant in Moscow Affairs Aidar Gubaidulin, accused of a threat to the use of violence against a policeman, is just awaiting the decision of the migration service:

Aidar Gubaidulin

- I came here in late October. For two or three weeks he experienced joy and a feeling of calm from the fact that nothing threatens me. After that, some melancholy, depression appeared, and this all lasted a couple of months. Now I have a normal mood, but at the same time I understand that this is not my country, I will never feel at home here. And I want to return to Russia. I understand that here is a completely different culture, despite the fact that this is the country of the former Soviet Union, there is a different language here. My country is Russia.

- How do you evaluate your chances to return there?

- Now I am very interested in what will happen, first of all, with an amnesty. By the end of April, its final text will be known and it will become clear which articles will enter it.

- Do you intend to return by the fact of an amnesty, without waiting for the political situation in Russia in the general situation in the general?

- The latest events were great. I perceive the bill on the rejection of the presidential terms as the last line, as a coup d'etat. If he is accepted and the Russian people swallow this, I do not think that in the next 10-15 years, something good is waiting for Russia. If everything goes according to the very poor scenario, I may not even return to Russia. I am a programmer, now I work remotely, I can feed myself and I can in the future.

Since I want to return to Russia, I am not interested in local political processes, I don’t strive to communicate with the locals either. Among several dozen people from among Russian refugees and emigrants that I managed to get to know here, Dima Semenov is the only person who was glad to be in Lithuania. All the others, to one degree or another, want to return and do not see their life here. Even family people who have been here for more than five years, who have children here to school here. There is no circle of communication that I am used to, all my relatives and friends remained in Russia. I have not been anywhere, Lithuania is the first foreign country that I got into. But it is one thing when you come as a tourist, and another - when you were forced to leave. Then your sensations are completely different.

I want to return to Russia. My country is Russia

- Are you going to participate in Russian politics?

- A very complex term is participation in politics. I did not go to pickets, did not organize anything, I just went to rallies to express a civil position. Now, if I can return, I can no longer behave so passively.

- And if you stay?

-To be some kind of "speaking head" and from abroad to advise something to the inhabitants of Russia? Those who have been living outside of Russia have lost touch with reality and cease to feel the country in a couple of years. I will not feel the moral right to call someone to something.

Irina Kalmykova was born from Ukraine, was engaged in wholesale trade in Kogalyma, became a victim of a fabricated criminal case of tax failure, but was able to independently prove her innocence. The ill -wishers set fire to her house, leaving without a roof over her head with three children. She moved to Moscow and joined the protest movement back in 2007. Fleeing from criminal prosecution under an article on repeated violation of the rules for rallies and pickets, she fled from Russia, taking with her the only value - a collection of artifacts of street opposition activism: stickers, badges, posters, T -shirts with prints, various documents. He dreams of organizing an exhibition in Vilnius. Already in exile, she lost both daughters who supported her in the fight against the Putin regime.

Irina Kalmykova

- Irina, how did you cross the border?

- Oh, it was a story. My son was 14 years old on October 16. And on the 24th we left. We left for Belarus, and from there we were not released, because he did not have a passport, one birth certificate. And I only have a Russian civil passport. I was not preparing to escape! I went to the investigator, then to the courts. I was simply persuaded: "Run!" Already when I was abroad, the search was announced, federal and international. They found me a guide, but I had to go through Russia. I put on a wig and tied with a handkerchief. All the money went to warm things, the frost was 25 degrees. We transferred us to Ukraine paths, there I was also afraid to go out there - we illegally crossed the border. After three months, I managed to use one organization to get a visa to Lithuania. Without documents! We came to Lithuania legally to the territory of Lithuania, I immediately filed a petition for asylum. And I was the only one in Lithuania for a month and a half! I asked to consider faster, because there was no money, I had to live with my son for something. There are no things, are two backpacks filled with what? Papers! Deputy Emanuelis Zingeris wrote to the Foreign Ministry, President Dalya Grybauskaite paused the word.

- Where did you work at first?

- I got a job as a cleaner for one and a half rates in the furniture workshop. It was a huge volume, I just fell! Yes, I don't know the language. She worked until 2017 until she broke. Then they did an operation on the knee, and then everything is worse and worse ... And now it is very difficult with money, I have a working group of disability. The manual is less than the fee for the apartment, and yet communal, transport, food.

As early as January 25, we commemorated Lesia, and three years and three days after her, Lena was gone

- Was your daughters leaving?

- Certainly! The eldest, Lesya, could not break off, because she looked after her grandmother, a disabled person of the 1st group. In addition, she could not, like me, she needed to make a passport. And after that she had to come. I was in Ukraine. 15 minutes after I found out that I was put on the international wanted list, my mother wrote that they found Lesy in Moscow dead. Allegedly, she died 9 days before, January 25th. I have no idea how this happened. I only know that she was in the hospital with pneumonia, she was taken from there to the police, interrogated about where I was, kept two days and released. She called her grandmother, said she was going, and disappeared.

The youngest, Lena, still threw drugs in Russia. When I left, she sat. I came to say goodbye to her. I said that I was leaving, because if I stay and also sit in jail, I can’t help her at all. In prison, she became infected with tuberculosis. When I freed myself, I went to Ukraine, restored Ukrainian citizenship and came to me. I received a residence permit, registered with the labor exchange, suddenly fell ill with meningitis and died within a week. On January 25, we commemorated Lesia with Lena, and three years and three days after her, Lena was gone.

“But you are very courageously holding on, even engage in social activities here.”

- Of course, we will organize events. The march of the world, for example, was held. During the Russian elections of the president, the funny ballots wrote: “Sobchak, Putin, Zhirinovsky: vote - don’t vote ...” Daniil Konstantinov and journalist Evgeny Titov established the Russian European movement here to rally Russian political refugees in Vilnius.