Europe should welcome fleeing Russians

In the wake of Vladimir Putin’s surprise announcement of partial mobilisation on Wednesday, thousands of young Russian men decided that the time had come to flee. Google searches for ways to leave Russia (as well as for ‘how to break your own arm’, another way out of military service) spiked. Flights sold out, and long lines of cars formed at usually-sleepy border crossings into Georgia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan – as well as the more conventional transit point to Finland.

But for most would-be refugees, escape from Putin’s Russia and possible involuntary service in Ukraine remains an impossible dream. Just a handful of countries – among them Turkey, Georgia and Armenia – accept Russians without visas, and they are already overflowing with refugees from the Putin regime. The visa section of the US embassy in Moscow has been closed since 2018 when the Russian government banned its nationals from working there as support staff.

Punishing people on the basis of their nationality – or even forcing potential visitors to prove that they have the correct political opinions before admitting them – is wrong, racist and frankly un-European

Over the summer Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland tried to lobby the EU to stop issuing visitor visas (which they emotively dubbed ‘tourist’ visas) altogether.