In the wilderness of the steppe. On the border with Kazakhstan, there is still a checkpoint without many days of queues - the stories of those who managed to quickly leave Russia

Since the announcement of mobilization from Russia, about 98 thousand Russian citizens entered Kazakhstan. To avoid a forced call, people stand in lines for a checkpoint for several days without the opportunity to buy water or go to the toilet-those who are not lucky to be there are about the impending humanitarian catastrophe. But some Russians decided to take a chance and go to less popular and more than remote from large cities of the checkpoint. Mediazon asked them about what came of it.

The length of the border between Kazakhstan and Russia is 7,600 km, it can be crossed after 51 checkpoints. Most of the Russians who are saved from mobilization announced by Vladimir Putin prefer to cross the border through the cities of Central Russia by checkpoints, mainly through the Saratov and Orenburg regions. For several days the largest traffic jams have been accumulating there.

On the checkpoint, which are located closest to Kazakhstani cities - Petropavlovsk and Uralsk, there are kilometer lines from Russia. People in them are waiting for the opportunity to cross the border for several days.

However, there are several checkpoints through which even now you can cross the border much faster. In chats where men leaving for Kazakhstan are coordinated, they write that you can go through the border with Kazakhstan in the Kurgan region in a few hours, there are no queues for almost all the checkpoint in Omsk, Tyumen and Chelyabinsk. In the Altai Territory, you can leave Russia through the points "Veseloyarsk", "Mikhailovka" and other checkpoints. Mediazona talked with the Russians who managed to go through the border relatively quickly.

"We rode in absolute silence, looked at one point." By bus through the Mikhailovka checkpoint, 611 km from Novosibirsk, 385 km from Barnaul

The 41-year-old journalist from Moscow told Mediazone that on September 26, he successfully reached Kazakhstan through the Mikhailovka customs post in the Altai Territory.

Loginov flew from Moscow to Novosibirsk and met there with his wife’s brother, an employee of an IT company. When choosing a route, Igor studied Google cards and found out that there were no traffic jams on the way to Ust-Kamenogorsk. Then he and Shurin bought bus tickets.

“The bus resembled an ark that sailed towards the border of Kazakhstan, to the Mikhailovka checkpoint,” the journalist recalls. - He was packed with ITSHNIKS, managers, scientists. Everyone rode in absolute silence and looked at one point. ” In the same state, Igor himself rode. “After February 24, many friends left, and then I stayed. I am a native Muscovite, I have a wife, children go to school, my own apartment, ”he explains. “But now, if you stay, you either constantly think about how any cameras would not burn you if you have a orientation, either you go to jail, or you are going to kill the military people.” Or you are not clear where and try to lie down somewhere. There is no other. Of course, I will not go to kill anyone to Ukraine. ”

A priority strip operates for flight buses on the checkpoint. When the bus in which Igor was arrived, there were no queues in front of them. The bus stood for ten minutes under the barrier, then it was missed. All passengers went out, lined up, “and plunged into heavy silence,” says Loginov.

“Then you approach the window, a strict customs officer looks at you and asks:“ Military service? ” I say: "Military service, category" in "". He looks at you and clicks the seal. And you go out and sigh in relief, ”he recalls. According to Igor, the border guards missed everyone who was traveling with him on the bus.

Then Loginov reached the Kazakh checkpoint. Customs officers asked all men and goals of the trip. He replied that he was going to see the friends of the family.

The crossing of the border occupied Loginov and his fellow travelers for about an hour.

“When everyone again got on the bus, they experienced great relief,” says Igor. “And then they laughed, talked to each other, met.”

"There was even a priest in the queue in the cassock." On foot through the Vishnevka checkpoint, 297 km from Volgograd

The city closest to the “Vishnevka” border in Kazakhstan is located almost 500 km from the border, but over the past few days, hundreds of cars have also accumulated in this not most popular direction before. “Cars cost three days. Those who cross the border on foot pass on average per day. Everything is very slow, but on other checkpoints, they say, even worse. So in the end, everyone who ended up made the right choice, ”says the Muscovite, who right now crosses the border with Kazakhstan.

After the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the 48-year-old Bolotov left Russia to Tashkent, and in September decided to return to Moscow to pick up the cat. “But this bunker moron tore all the plans for me. I had to hand over tickets, the cat stayed in Russia, and I ended up here, ”he says.

Bolotov flew to Volgograd on the afternoon of September 27, crossing the border through the Vishnevka checkpoint was offered to him by a friend who was traveling to Kazakhstan by car. “He arrived earlier, stood for two three days and left for another checkpoint, even more deaf,” says Ivan. - But in the end, he is now returning to Moscow - he decided that he would not have time to pass until September 30. Now everyone is sure that it is necessary to have time before the 30th, and then the boundaries will be closed. ”

At the Volgograd Airport, Bolotov drew attention to the fact that near the area where taxi are parked, young people with backpacks and suitcases gradually accumulate. All of them planned to go to border posts near the border with Kazakhstan. “There I met my sweet guys, and we took a wheelbarrow for four. The driver, also a very sweet guy, stopped at the store on the way so that we could buy at least some food-doshiraks and so on, ”says Ivan.

The road to the Vishnevka checkpoint took more than four hours. In the place of those who decided to cross the border on foot were met by volunteers who invited men to break into groups of five people.

“They record surnames, check with a passport, and then shout out the numbers of those who can go to the checkpoint. That is, no one climbs out of line. In my opinion, these are Volgograd guys. They are both volunteers and participants in the queue. Therefore, they are also offered to those who still wait long, ”explains Bolotov. His group was 418th in line, at that time five people from the 280th passed the border.

According to Bolotov, a very “motley public” gathered in the queue for crossing the border: young people from Moscow, St. Petersburg and Irkutsk, Yakutia, Buryatia and the republics of the North Caucasus.

“Here are not pacifists and not dissidents, but generally ordinary people who are far from politics, from everything. There was even a 56-year-old bearded priest in the queue in the cassock, the former captain-border guard himself, ”says Ivan. “I heard him explained to the Russian border guards what he needed to Kazakhstan, and from there to Turkey, to Constantinople, because it is a holy city.”

Bolotov reached the Russian checkpoint all night, for about eight hours. According to him, the border guards asked him “standard questions” - where and where he was going and then missed. The man notes that so far they miss everyone through the border, with rare exceptions: “He heard that one of the boys was not missed because of some military affairs with documents. He was with two brothers, they also refused to go further and returned with them. ”

Once behind the Russian border post, Bolotov and other men from his group spread foam on the grass and tried to relax. According to Ivan, on a neutral strip he was surprised to see a toilet to which a large queue lined up. “There were no toilets on the Russian side at all,” he says.

Ivan and his fellow travelers had to put on all the warm things that they took with them - at night the piercing the steppe wind blew, and it is strictly prohibited to breed bonfires between the border guards.

“Here we met more prepared guys: they have warm things with them, and tents and burners,” he says. - But in general, everything is very sincerely, at night they sang under the guitar of System of a Downa , Nirvana , “Civil Defense”. Wild mutual assistance, everyone helps each other than they can. "

By the evening of September 28, about 250 people remained in the queue in front of Bolotov, he hopes that by morning he would be at the closest from the border of the large city of Atyrau. After the volunteers warned that the rain would begin soon, one of the Kazakhstani border guards ordered that a large army tent be launched on the side of the road so that those who do not have a car could hide. People in line began to applaud.

Editor: Maria Klimova