Russians overwhelmingly approve of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to polls inside Russia. But for those who aren’t so supportive, Gregory Frolov has a solution: emigration.
On May 31, Frolov, a Russian who left his homeland for the United States, helped launch EmigRussia, an organization that aids Russians looking to emigrate to Ukraine. EmigRussia was started in response to growing numbers of Russians looking to flee from a country that has clamped down on civil liberties in recent years.
The number of applications by Russian nationals seeking asylum abroad have been increasing since 2010. In 2014, 24,000 Russians sought political asylum abroad, twice more than in 2011, according the United Nations Refugee Agency. Many of these nationals have fallen out of favor with the government, making it dangerous to return.
Frolov is motivated by what he sees as a small but growing group of Russian dissenters.
EmigRussia’s parent foundation, Free Russia, is a Washington-based organization that mobilizes the Russian diaspora to promote democracy in the country they fled. While Free Russia focuses on Russians who have already left, EmigRussia, the organization’s first Ukrainian outpost, targets Russians who have yet to leave.
“I believe we are in a special place in history. There are huge numbers of refugees and political immigrants who are fleeing from the aggressor country to the victim country,” Frolov said. That any Russians, let alone increasing numbers of them, are fleeing to a country fighting a war on its territory is indicative of a tremendous decline in Russia’s political freedom, he said.
EmigRussia is run by Frolov, alongside chief organizer and Kyiv coordinator Yulia Arkhipova, who moved from Russia to Ukraine. Under Free Russia, the Kyiv-based project is funded by individual contributions, the Russian business community in the U.S., and a few American pro-democracy foundations, including the Henry M. Jackson Foundation.
The number of Russian nationals seeking asylum in Ukraine is growing each year, but the number remains small — only 175 in 2014, up from 115 in 2013.
Frolov suspects that many Russian emigrants to Ukraine are politically motivated, even if they do not apply for asylum. “The only people who are applying for refugee status in Ukraine are those who do not have a choice,” Frolov said. Those who can are legalized because they have relatives in Ukraine, or by conducting volunteer work. What is clear, he said, is that those applying for asylum are fleeing political persecution in Russia.
EmigRussia offers a simple solution for politically persecuted Russians–just leave. But even this proves not to be so simple
Russia is increasingly limiting its citizens’ rights to travel abroad. In 2010, the Russian Federal Bailiff Service introduced travel bans for citizens that owe money to the government–the ban affected 500,000 people in 2012. A new proposal published in May could slap Russians who “justify” terrorism online (i.e. write an extremist Facebook post) with a five-year travel ban, all without the involvement of a court.
But even for those who can leave, the Ukrainian State Migration Service has been reluctant to offer asylum to Russians seeking refugee status. Though more and more Russian nationals are seeking asylum in Ukraine, few of the applications are successful. In 2015, only 49 people were granted refugee status; 599 were turned away, according to the UN Refugee Agency. Only 11 Russians were granted asylum.
Frolov explains why the State Migration Service accepts so few asylum applicants. According to Frolov, the Ukrainian Immigration Service has collaborated with Russian authorities in the past, and continues to do so. Applicants are often refused asylum because their cases are not deemed politically motivated. “People are persecuted for economic crimes, but in fact, they are all political,” Frolov said.
The Ukrainian State Migration Service has rejected applications on the grounds that Russia is a democratic country and does not persecute its citizens, according to the Ukrainian Pravda. Frolov considers this the most egregious reason that Russian nationals are not granted asylum.
When Alexei Vetrov, an opposition activist from Nizhniy Novgorod, sought asylum in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Pravda reported that his application was denied on the grounds that Russia does not persecute its critics. Human Rights Watch author Yulia Gorbunova claims this ignores the corrosion of civil society in Russia over the past few years.
Pyotr Lyubchenkov, a Russian dissident and now member of Odessa’s self-defense forces, was denied refugee status by two different courts in January 2015 and February 2016 before an Odesa court ruled that the Migration Service must grant asylum. During the court hearings, a representative of the State Migration Service argued that that Russia was a democracy and thus would not persecute the dangerous extremist, according to the Kyiv Post.
Behind the scenes, EmigRussia will work to find a “narrow corridor,” Frolov said, to help Russians immigrate successfully to Ukraine, especially those applying for asylum. It will support applications by collaborating with Russian human rights organizations to back up applications, with Ukrainian nonprofits, and with the Ukrainian Immigration Service to understand what makes a successful application.
Ukraine’s track record shows it is not necessarily opposed to accepting refugees. In February 2015, a bill was introduced in parliament to streamline the immigration process. Though the bill received overwhelming support in the parliament (only seven voted against the bill in a second overall vote) and was supported publicly by President Poroshenko, it got stuck after the first hearing. No progress has been made since June 2015.
“This law was driven by the Ukrainian government, the Ukrainian parliament,” Frolov said, indicating that what EmigRussia envisions is not something radical or new. “We would be satisfied with this law. We don’t want to push the government more than this.”
Given the tentative signs of support for such a bill, Frolov is optimistic that political will in Ukraine can be changed toward Russian immigrants. “I think this situation will be solved. It is not a stone that cannot be moved. These are questions about the strategic planning of a modern state, and Russian immigrants could build a dialogue with the pro-democracy Ukrainians,” Frolov said.
EmigRussia is motivated by a humanitarian goal to ease rising polarization among Russians and Ukrainians in Ukraine. “The big social issue for us is to overcome mistrust. A huge level of hatred has been provoked between nations,” Frolov said. “The people are a great instrument to talking and seeing each other in a different view.”
Frolov wants to spread the message that Russians moving to Ukraine are on the side of democracy, upending assumptions about why Russian emerges move to Ukraine. “We want to show that these are people who cannot stay in Russia because of the atmosphere of hatred,” Frolov said. “They are not KGB agents. They are not here to culturally invade, to build a New Russia.”
Along with information for potential émigrés, EmigRussia.org will feature stories of Russian émigrés to debunk these myths. The first story on the site is an interview with Yekatirina Makarevich, a former television producer who left the industry and immigrated for “political reasons.” But she has not sought asylum in Ukraine. It is posted under the title, “Immigration—it’s not scary at all.”
