He took his suitcase and fled to Finland. As soon as he heard Russian President Vladimir Putin announce a “partial mobilization” for war in Ukraine, Alex, a former Russian officer, chose to leave his country.
“I don’t want to kill my Slavic people, my brothers, my sisters,” the 40-year-old told AFP from a modest hotel room in the Nordic country, where he arrived on Thursday. “I have a physical disgust to be in the presence of our Russian citizens who support the war,” explains the man who is now a computer engineer.
Born in Crimea, a peninsula in southern Ukraine annexed by Russia in 2014, Alex testifies without his full identity being revealed, for fear of the consequences for his wife and daughter whom he had to leave behind in Russia. “They are hostages, if my face appears they risk prison,” said the former soldier.
Too few demonstrators against the mobilization
Because of his past as an officer, Alex fears being among those whom Russia wants to mobilize for the Ukrainian front. “I was in the army for eight years (…) I have the rank of officer. I am the first threatened, ”he pleads.
For him, “everything changed” when he took part in a demonstration in Saint Petersburg the day after the mobilization was announced and saw that so few of his fellow citizens were taking part.
It was then, he says, that he understood that there was “nothing more to do” for Russia and that he was convinced that the country was going to collapse: “I know what that the Russian army is from within, I am deeply convinced that Putin will lose. “Slaves who don’t want to fight will never defeat anyone in their life,” assures the former officer.
His parents consider him a traitor
Born in Sevastopol, Crimea, before the fall of the USSR, Alex had a Ukrainian passport for a time, but he was unable to keep his dual nationality when he began his military career. Today, his parents consider him a “traitor” and he “would not be surprised” if his mother reported him to the FSB, the Russian intelligence service.
Faced with an influx of Russians at its border since Vladimir Putin’s mobilization order on Wednesday, Finland announced on Friday that it would “significantly restrict” their access to the Nordic country, which has already become a transit point this summer for the rest. from Europe.