Sunday 25 September 2022 08:32 PM Russians flee to Georgia to escape Putin's conscription order as troops arrest ... trends now
Russian women have bravely defied Putin's soldiers at anti-mobilisation demonstrations that have seen more than 2,000 protesters arrested, while men flee to Georgia to avoid conscription.
In the mainly Muslim area of Dagestan, videos shared to social media show women in head scarves chasing police away from a rally and standing in front of police cars carrying detained protesters, demanding their release.
Dozens of women chanted 'No to war!' in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala today, while police fired warning shots to disperse more than 100 people who blocked a highway in the region while protesting Vladimir Putin's military call-up, according to Russian media.
OVD-Info group, an independent Russian human rights monitor, said it was concerned by reports of 'very tough detentions' occurring in the region and said officers had resorted to using stun guns and truncheons on the crowds.
Women also protested in the Siberian city of Yakutsk, chanting 'No to genocide!' and marching in a circle around police, who later dragged some away or forced them into police vans, according to videos shared by Russian media.
At least 2,000 people have been arrested in recent days for similar demonstrations around Russia. Many of those taken away have immediately received a call-up summons.
Thousands have therefore opted to instead flee to neighbouring countries, with photos showing people dragging suitcases across the Georgian border.
Videos shared to social media shows locals tussling with officers in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala, where dozens of women chanted 'No to war!' at a protest against mobilisation
Meanwhile, thousands have opted to instead flee to neighbouring countries, with photos showing people dragging suitcases across the Georgian border
Those fleeing, wearing ponchos and raincoats, walk past vehicles with Russian licence plates near the Nizhniy Lars customs checkpoint between Georgia and Russia.
Russian authorities acknowledged a 'significant' influx of cars trying to cross from Russia into Georgia today, with one official saying there is 'significant congestion of private vehicles... around 2,300'.
Although the European Union is now largely off limits to most Russians, with direct flights stopped and its land borders increasingly closed to them, an exodus of Russian men fleeing military service is creating divisions among European officials over whether they should be granted safe haven.
German officials have voiced a desire to help Russian men deserting military service and have called for a European-wide solution. Germany has held out the possibility of granting asylum to deserters and those refusing the draft.
In the mainly Muslim area of Dagestan, videos shared to social media show women in head scarves chasing police away from a rally
Those fleeing walk past vehicles with Russian licence plates near the Nizhniy Lars customs checkpoint between Georgia and Russia
More than 2,000 people have been detained across Russia for protesting the draft, including 798 people in 33 towns on Saturday, according to independent monitoring group OVD-Info
In France, senators are arguing that Europe has a duty to help and warned that not granting refuge to fleeing Russians could play into Putin's hands, feeding his narrative of Western hostility to Russia.
'Closing our frontiers would fit neither with our values nor our interests,' a group of more than 40 French senators said. Turning away fleeing Russians would be 'a mistake by Europe in the war of communication and influence that is playing out.'
Yet other EU countries are adamant that asylum should not be offered to Russian men fleeing now - when the war has moved into its eighth month. They include Lithuania, which borders Kaliningrad, a Russian Baltic Sea
