Rising Tide of Political Emigration a National Tragedy for Russia, Martynov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 5 – “2021 will go down in Russian history as a new era of political emigration,” one in which people are leaving in massive numbers not because they don’t want to live in Russia or because they are looking for a better life abroad but because they are being drive out by a regime set on repressing all their hopes, Kirill Martynov says.

            The political editor of Novaya gazeta says that the political terror the regime has unleashed has forced “young patriots to leave, leaving behind only conformists and those who have nothing to lose” and are prepared to take the risks of remaining face to face with the dictatorship (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2021/08/05/razgrom-i-shataniia).

            Many of those leaving because of being labelled foreign agents or undesirable people and being subject to harassment and the threat of prison are not going far, only to Georgia or Lithuania, from which they hope to be able to continue to fight for what they believe in, Martynov continues.

            And some are going into “internal emigration” by keeping quiet and leaving politics. “Some of these people with pride now write in Facebook about their new occupation – somewhere in Yandex. There for the time being it is secure,” although for how much longer no one knows.

            Civic-minded Russians have only four options: give up one’s principles and collaborate with the regime, work as a janitor and stay out of the sight of the authorities, continue to work in politics even at the risk of prison or worse, or become part of “the new Russian political diaspora in Tbilisi” or another capital.

            “Russia doesn’t value its people at all,” the editor continues. They are leaving, and Russia will be the poorer for it for a long time to come. The political struggle will continue. But the future of these people and of Russia isn’t one to envy. Russia itself will have to suffer “a shameful defeat” in order that they will be able to return.

            And the question on the minds of all is simply this: “How old will we be when that happens and in the meantime how will we live out the only life we have?”