After the announcement of a military mobilization to fight in Ukraine, on September 21, 2022, Ivan Nesterov fled Russia to avoid being forcibly recruited. But, six months later, falling into a depression, he returned.

“I left a few days after the announcement of the mobilization, with a mixture of emotions, in particular panic”, confides to AFP this muscular man with a shaved and tattooed head, aged 35 and trainer in a gym. sports in Moscow.

He then took a plane to the Urals, then a bus to Siberia, and, finally, a car to Kazakhstan, in Central Asia, passing, “ironically”, through a village called “Oukrainets” (” Ukrainian” in Russian).

In Kostanaï, in the north of Kazakhstan, where he settled, he quickly found a job in a boxing club. “They didn’t even ask me for my degree,” he wonders. A Kazakh family takes him in.

According to him, this departure is then a way to “protest” against Russian power, when he had never dared to participate in a demonstration or give his opinion on social networks. “I wanted to finally tear myself away from the system,” he says.

Hundreds of thousands of young Russians refusing to participate in the campaign in Ukraine fled their country after the announcement of the mobilization, in particular to former Soviet republics such as Kazakhstan, where they could go without a visa.

But, almost a year later, the return of some of these exiles, which is very difficult to quantify because most of them try to remain discreet, is making itself felt in Russia.

“Those who have returned believe that the risk (of being mobilized) has decreased,” political scientist Konstantin Kalatchev told AFP.

As early as October 2022, the Russian Ministry of Defense assured that this first “partial” mobilization, triggered when Moscow was experiencing difficulties on the front, was over after the recruitment of 300,000 men.

The Kremlin army also launched a massive voluntary recruitment campaign in the spring, allaying the fear of being forcibly mobilized.

In addition to this danger considered lesser, “financial difficulties and family ties also push (the exiles) to return”, notes Konstantin Kalachev.

Ivan Nesterov confirms. In Kazakhstan, after the euphoria of the first weeks, he admits to having gradually fallen into depression.

“I missed my homeland. My friends, the places that were dear to me. It was very hard psychologically. I no longer wanted to work. I realized that I earned four times less here,” he says.

At the beginning of April, he chose to return. “When I landed in Moscow, I felt enormous relief, despite all the consequences that may await me.”

Because the risk of a new mobilization, following the evolution of the fighting on the front, remains present. No decree officially ended the one ordered in September 2022.

According to testimonies on social networks, Russian military offices continue to send summonses to men who can be mobilized, to “check” their situation and update military registers.

The authorities also created in April the possibility of sending acts of mobilization by e-mail, whereas previously they had to be delivered by hand, which allowed many Russians to ignore them.

Faced with this persistent threat, the expert Konstantin Kalatchev estimates that a large part of the exiles who have returned to Russia “are ready to leave at any time”, if “their financial capacities allow it”.

Ivan does not rule out a new start either. He is worried about the rumor of a new mobilization in the fall.

“I also see that new laws are being passed, that the country is closing in. As a friend used to tell me: the homeland is important, but it is better to be a living coward than a brave dead one,” he said. he.

He recalls that upon arriving in Kazakhstan, “his first emotion” was that of a “sense of freedom”: “I could openly say whatever I thought, without risking ending up in prison”.

While he was in exile, his older sister, whom he considers “much braver” than him, was arrested by the police in Russia “because she was wearing a yellow hat and a blue scarf”, colors of the Ukrainian flag.

Accused of “resistance to the police”, she was forced to leave the country to avoid the repression which, in Russia, strikes thousands of anonymous people who have chosen to publicly oppose the conflict.

20/08/2023 11:26:33 –          Moscow (AFP) –          © 2023 AFP