Since mobilization was declared in mid-September there have been constant reports about long queues of Russians fleeing their country to escape serving in Ukraine but make no mistake, these aren’t heroes for standing up to Putin.
The majority of Russians fleeing their nation are not doing so out of a commitment to peace and because they are against the war their President has brought down on Ukraine, they are doing it because they are cowards which don’t want to serve. There are hundreds of videos online of Russians in other nations who just escaped being asked what they think of the war and the majority think the areas annexed by Russia, belong to Russia.
The majority support what their government is doing to Ukraine, they are just too cowardly to carry out the war they at best tacitly support and at worst actively cheered on. Rather than truly resist, which we’re quickly learning Russian men have no stomach for unlike the brave women of Iran, they are running away or goose-stepping towards tyranny in Ukraine. They then have the gall to claim themselves as refugees while fleeing a war that isn’t even waging in their country, who is the aggressor in the war they are running from.
All nations should be sending a strong message to Russian men, you are not free to hide in our nations from the consequences of the actions you enabled. You are not an innocent refugee caught in the crossfire, you are a coward. Go back to Russia and stop your government, or die in a Ukrainian field fighting for the invasion you supported but thought you wouldn’t have to serve in.
At the end of the day, Russians didn’t form mass protests to end their government’s reign of terror, the brave few thousand that protested in February were the last ember of a rational and brave Russian people. The mythos of the mighty Russian people capable of rising to the moment to do what is right is just that, myth. It perhaps was true when the Red Army was crushing Nazi Germany, a mighty force that included the men, women and children that the Russian army now brutalizes in Ukraine.
If you’re one of the few Russians that see reason and support peace, good for you for thinking for yourself. What are you doing? Where are you? Are you the tiny minority we all think you are? Why aren’t Russians stopping this madness, at best we’re a few short months away from truly dark times? Is it worth the whole world going down in flames for Putin? History will remember what Russia did and it won’t make distinctions between Russians that allowed it and ones that posted on social media about how anti-war they were while living comfortably in Germany or Poland.
Layman's Terms 