More than 200,000 people have left Russia for Georgia, Kazakhstan and the European Union since Russian President Vladimir Putin announced an immediate “partial mobilization” of Russian citizens on Sept. 21, according to official figures from several countries, CNN reported, citing News. ro.
About 100,000 Russians have crossed into Kazakhstan in the past week, Marat Kozheev, Kazakhstan’s deputy interior minister, said on Wednesday, according to state news agency Kazinform.
According to data released on Tuesday by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, at least 53,136 people crossed the border between Russia and Georgia from September 21 to 26.
Some 66,000 Russian citizens entered the European Union in the last week (September 19-25) – an increase of more than 30% compared to the previous week, the European border police and coastguard agency Frontex said on Tuesday.
Putin’s mobilization announcement sparked protests and a flight of Russian citizens from the country as the Kremlin tightened rules on avoiding military orders.
On September 21, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that up to 300,000 people with previous military experience would be recruited into the service.
The number of Russians fleeing the country to avoid conscription “probably exceeds” the number of troops who invaded Ukraine in February, Britain’s Ministry of Defense announced Thursday.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that he did not know the number of people who had left the country after Putin’s announcement.
The independent Russian news agency Novaya Gazeta-Europa reported on Tuesday, citing a source in the Russian presidential administration, that the FSB (Russia’s Federal Security Service) said that 261,000 men had fled Russia since the mobilization was announced on September 21.
Russian citizens have also traveled to Mongolia and Armenia, which would further increase the total number of Russians who have fled the country, including men, women and children.
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Source: Hot News RU
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