Belarusian station

The easiest way to escape from mobilization is to leave through Belarus. Where can you go from there?

The Belarusians seemed to be angry: mobilization in Russia did not force those who stayed in the country, immediately pack suitcases and storm the border. Because Belarusians have been running for two years - this is the chronic state of society. And neighboring mobilization did not change the number of those leaving. But she changed the number of vehicles coming all types from Russia.

The Belarusians themselves began to massively leave their homeland in the fall of 2020, when on Sundays in Minsk there were still thousands of protest marches, and on the weekdays their participants were slowly arrested for riots. And then, despite the borders of the European Union closed due to the pandemic, Poland opened the entrance to Belarusians and began the issuance of humanitarian visas. At that time, many received visas just in case - even those who did not participate in protests. It was enough to write a statement in the name of the consul indicating the reason (as the reason, many wrote simply - “in connection with the situation in the country”), and a citizen of Belarus received a humanitarian visa of Poland.

Nobody can still name the exact number of those who left for this time. Because many, without waiting for visas, left and asked for political asylum at the border.

Many crossed the border illegally - most often to Ukraine, where they later submitted applications for visas or remained. Many went through Russia or Georgia.

In general, they left the scatter - just like Russians now. It is known, for example, that from the beginning of protests in August 2020 to April 2022, Poland issued 297,000 visas to Belarusians - humanitarian, workers, business. Of course, not everyone used them, but the scale is clear.

On December 21, 2020, the Belarusian government introduced a ban on departure from the country through ground points of the check. So from Belarus it was possible to fly away or leave by train (though trains went only to Russia). And in May 2021, after the landing of the Ryanair aircraft, Afina-Vilnius flying the flight, and the arrest of his passengers of Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapieha, all Western airlines abolished flights to Belarus, and closed their airspace for the flights of Belarusian aircraft. Russia also had to less than a year later, but then no one knew about it yet. And Belarusians left the only way abroad - through Russia (even through Istanbul and Dubai, but it was very expensive).

At the end of February, when Russian planes also stopped flying west, Belarusians were locked in their country. To get to Vilnius, who is located 170 kilometers from Minsk, or to Warsaw for 500 kilometers through Dubai or Istanbul, they did not go to Georgia with the outbreak of war. According to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia, Vakhtang Gomlauri, almost 16 thousand Belarusians entered Georgia in the first three weeks of the war. During the same period, Georgia took ten times less during the well. But about Russians, Gomlauri then said that their number did not change compared to previous years.

Indeed, after the outbreak of war, Belarusians survived another panic attack. The state’s entry into the war seemed quite possible, given the shelling from the Belarusian territory, and rumors about the investigations for fees crawled around the country, although the call of reservists was not officially declared. It was this kind of rumors (“The neighbor's husband brought the agenda, so he didn’t even go home, he immediately left”) and gave rise to the mass departure of Belarusians to Georgia. Now even the Belarusian school is working in Tbilisi.

But the Russian mobilization of Belarusians no longer frightened. Those who did not leave after the outbreak of war almost calmed down, especially since Alexander Lukashenko asserted many times that Belarus would not participate in the war and no mobilization threatens Belarusians. Of course, they do not believe Lukashenko, but they are afraid of the KGB, the Gubopik, and even the military commissar is already an excessive load on the nervous system. Moreover, the Belarusians spent less than a month and a half: on April 3 of this year, the ban on departure from the country through ground points of the check was removed , and the happy owners of Polish visas lined up in line on the border. So those who did not leave at least pretended to be believed in the non -performance of Belarus in the war, and continue to live, as usual. Although suitcases with the most necessary are in the pantry of many Belarusian apartments.

Now Belarusians help the Russians coming to Belarus. Nobody can name the exact figures of the arrivals, because the border between Belarus and Russia is not de facto, and there are no checkpoints, which means that the number of crossing the border is not conducted. That is, there is no border control - there is a simple passport so that citizens of third countries do not pass through the missing border: you show a Russian or Belarusian passport and go on. There are no submarines with bases. So traveling to Belarus is perhaps the safest. Moreover, in addition to the highway, there are many country roads, along which people generally drive calmly without finding a single border guard.

Many are generally surprised and call friends in Belarus with the question: “I am going to you, I look at the site of the Belarusian border committee in search of information about queues, and there are no mention of the Russian-Belarusian border! Only Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine. So how can I go? " These are those who are driving a car for the first time. Those who take train tickets and a plane are spared at least from these alarms. Moreover, the plane is sometimes cheaper than the train. “Belavia” and “Aeroflot” fly several times a day, and you can take a ticket at Belavia at least tomorrow: at the Light tariff without baggage for those who are ready to go with one backpack, it will cost 45 euros. With baggage - 61 euros. The popular “sedentary” train “Swallow”, which walks twice a day, costs 38 euros. And, of course, night trains existing since time immemorial are 50-80 euros per place in a compartment car. So there are a lot of options to get to Belarus. The question of what to do next.

Olga and her husband-small entrepreneurs, arrived from Smolensk, rented a “dish” apartment not in Minsk, but in Smolevich: it is a small satellite city 40 kilometers from the capital. The owner of the apartment, giving the keys, frightened them: said that the police walk in the renting apartments and reveals the Russians that are evading calling. As a result, tenants sit quietly, once again they do not leave the house, pretend that there is no one in the apartment at all. Only Olga goes for products - just in case, if anyone sees and reports, is ready to prove that she is generally alone here.

But no one will have to prove anything yet.

Nobody is engaged in the search for Russian draft age in Belarus (not all participants in the protests of two years ago were established and arrested).

Do not check the documents neither at the stations, nor at airports, nor in apartments. But everyone understands perfectly well that at any moment the situation can change if Moscow asks for it. For this, even another, the eighth since the beginning of the year, the meeting of Lukashenko and Putin is not needed - there will be enough phone call.

The Russians are well aware that Belarus can only be a short -term refuge and a transshipment base. For example, the 22-year-old barista Oleg from Moscow (he has a white ticket, they didn’t take the army, but mobilization makes it possible possible) and his friends who have no passports came to Belarus exclusively in order to contact the Russian consulate, get a passport in Minsk and rush further-at least where there is a full-fledged border with Russia.

But with this, things are not so simple for those who are in a hurry. The next visa -free flights outside the Belarusian, on which there are tickets, on October 20 in Batumi (434 euros) and Astana (505 euros). On October 21, you can fly to Tbilisi (434 euros), on October 22 to Baku (480 euros) and Yerevan (540 euros), October 27 - in Kutaisi (430 euros), on October 28 - to Istanbul (470 euros), on November 1 - to Tashkent (440 euros). Until October 20, there is nowhere to fly out of Belarus. According to the director of the travel agency Elena, the Russians who arrived in recent days call and ask if it is possible to buy a ticket for a charter flight to Turkey. And they are surprised to learn that only with a tourist. Such Belarusian realities lead them to extreme bewilderment-just like the low speed of the Internet and the fact that many Belarusians, it turns out, speak in Belarusian.

The Russians share their problems and fears in telegram chats with the conditional name "Border of RB-RF". In the largest already more than 20 thousand participants. There are terrible stories about the police, which is drooping at the stations in search of Russian recruiting Russians, and refut these rumors. And they also ask if it is true that if for the Ukrainians the verification word is “Palyanytsia”, then for Belarusians-some kind of “shchichynshchyna” (I explain: Shchuchyynshchyna (in Russian Schuchinshchina) is just the colloquial name of the Schuchinsky district of the Grodno region. And after the appearance of the “Palyanitsy” Belarusians really joked on social networks, that if Russia attacks on Belarus, then Shchuchynschyna will become a code word).

Those who are still going to Belarus ask for advice from the arrivals. They exchange experience: which road is better to go by a car, which operator to buy a SIM card, where to apply for vaccination certificates for dogs and cats, where to order pizza, in which bank will make a plastic card faster. By the way, the opportunity to open an account with a Belarusian bank and get a plastic card became a pleasant surprise for Russians: only the “daughters” of Russian banks (VTB, Sberbae) and state (Dabrobyt, Belarusbank and Belinvestbank) were under sanctions in Belarus. The rest of the banks, although there are not so many of them, willingly open accounts for the Russians - according to the internal passport, without registration in Belarus. And their Visa and MasterCard cards work around the world.

And Belarusians give advice in the same chats, offer nights, share life hacks and carry out political information. They explain that no one Lukashenko calls the “father” in Belarus, and by this word the Russian is easy to calculate even without any shchichynschyna that it is impossible to relax, since today's calm in Belarus does not guarantee tomorrow, and finally, there is no such “Belarusian” country, and the place where the Russian guests are now called Belarus.

And in the evenings they write there: “Who is in Minsk? Who wants to drink? " “Who is in Vitebsk? Let's meet! " As if a hedgehog in the fog calls a bear, only this is not a cartoon and fog, it seems, it does not differ at all soon.