Over 100,000 Russians have left for Georgia in just a week amid fears of a new mobilization and sending them to war against Ukraine. The mass exodus began despite public assurances from the Russian authorities that a new wave of mobilization was not planned.

As reported by Censor.NET , the Russian publication The Moscow Times writes with reference to Politico.

113 thousand Russians left through Verkhny Lars

Over the past week, about 113,000 Russian citizens crossed the Verkhny Lars border crossing and left for Georgia, one of the few countries where Russians can enter by land without a visa.

On August 20 alone, more than 20,000 people crossed the border there. The Russian Federal Customs Service acknowledged that this figure “significantly exceeds” the level of previous years.

On the same day, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzia, stated that mobilization in Russia “is not planned or expected.” The Moscow Times recalls that on January 31, 2022, Nebenzia also denied that Russia was preparing to invade Ukraine and called the corresponding statements by Western countries “baseless and provocative.”

Unlike the fall of 2022, when the mass exodus from the Russian Federation began after Vladimir Putin announced mobilization, this time Russians are trying to leave the country in advance.

Military registration and enlistment offices have become more active, the authorities are collecting data on reservists

The human rights organization “Conscript School” records an increase in the number of appeals from men of draft age, primarily reserve military personnel.

Its head, Alexei Tabalov, told Politico that in recent months, Russian authorities have been actively collecting personal data of reservists through their employers. He said they are even finding out the addresses of relatives so that they can track down the men if they evade duty.

Reservists are also called to military registration and enlistment offices and given documents indicating the military unit they should report to if called up.

Tabalov believes that such a system allows the Kremlin to organize a rapid replenishment of the army even without publicly announcing a new wave of mobilization.

“It’s enough to simply send, say, 10 buses to a certain metallurgical plant and pick up a predetermined number of specific people directly from their workplaces,” he explained.

The Kremlin is finding it increasingly difficult to recruit people for war

According to a lawyer for the Russian organization “Call to Conscience”, since the spring the Russian authorities’ interest in reservists has increased sharply amid problems with the recruitment of contract soldiers.

According to the Ukrainian military, cited by the publication, in recent months, the losses of Russian forces at the front have exceeded 30,000 people per month, sometimes reaching 40,000. At the same time, the Russian authorities have practically failed to recruit more than 30,000 contract soldiers per month, and in some months the figure dropped to 27,000.

In parallel, the federal authorities of the Russian Federation require regions to work out the procedures necessary in the event of mobilization , including conscription, accommodation, provision of food and weapons.

Russians are also trying to leave through the introduced mechanism of electronic summonses: after it is sent to a conscript, the right to leave the Russian Federation is automatically restricted.

Another destination for Russians who do not want to get involved in the war against Ukraine could be Armenia. Yerevan has already stated that they do not plan to prevent the entry of Russian citizens who will leave the country due to possible mobilization. Джерело: https://censor.net/ua/n4020646

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