‘All the people I know are in panic’

Putin’s move to enlist thousands for war sparks fearful exodus and protests across the country

TALLI NN, E S TONIA Long lines of cars on roads snaking to Russia’s border crossings with Georgia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia, and similar queues at airports.

Angry demonstrations — not just in Moscow and St. Petersburg — but in the remote far north province of Yakutia and in the southern region of Dagestan, with women chasing a police officer and shouting, “No to war!”

Five days after President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization to call up hundreds of thousands of reservists to fight in Ukraine, the move has triggered outraged protests, a fearful exodus and acts of violence across the vast country.

“Panic. All the people I know are in panic,” said David, a Russian who gave only his first name out of fear of reprisals, in an interview with The Associated Press at a border crossing with Georgia. “We are running from the regime that kills people.”

While the Kremlin had wanted to promote its orchestrated referendums in occupied parts of Ukraine as a joyful event, with those regions expected to join Russia in a move similar to the annexation of Crimea in 2014, it instead is dealing with instability and chaos at home.

State-run rallies were held in Moscow and other cities celebrating the referendums even before the conclusion of several days of balloting that has been denounced as preordained, phoney and illegitimate by Kyiv and the West.

In his address on Wednesday announcing the mobilization, Putin said the Kremlin would “support” the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in their push to be incorporated into Russia.

But the mood in Russia has been anything but festive.

Fears are running high that Moscow might close the borders to men of fighting age after the referendums in Ukraine end, prompting long lines of cars at Russia's frontiers. Telegram chats dedicated to some of these crossings swelled with thousands of new users.

The lines apparently persisted Monday. The online service Yandex Maps showed a 18-kilometre traffic jam on a road in Russia’s region of North Ossetia that leads up to the border with Georgia, and the regional branch of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, deployed an armoured vehicle to the crossing.

Officials told Russia’s RBC news site that the action came “just in case the reservists want to break through the (border) checkpoint and leave the country without completing any border formalities,” promising not to restrict any exits.

“Call-up notices are being served to everyone. Nobody knows who will receive one tomorrow and therefore we decided with friends for the time being to rest in a beautiful country,” said Roman Isif, a Russian who crossed into Larsi, Georgia, in an interview with AP.

Long queues and crowds were reported Sunday in at least two of four Moscow airports. Tickets to destinations still available to Russians after the European Union halted all direct flights — such as Turkey, Armenia, Serbia and Dubai — have been sold out for days, despite exorbitant prices.

Russian media — including staterun outlets — reported Monday that border guards have started turning men away at the border, citing mobilization law. It wasn't immediately clear how widespread the practice was.

Although state television painted a rosy picture of the mobilization drive, with Russia 1 TV on Sunday showing crowds of eager men lining up to enlist “in almost every region,” the reality was different.

Enlistment offices and other administrative buildings have been set on fire since the start of the call-up. Although such incidents, usually involving Molotov cocktails, have been common during the seven-month-old invasion, they have grown in number and frequency after Putin's speech.

Russian independent news outlets counted at least 17 such incidents in recent days, on top of 37 before the mobilization was announced.