“Hundreds of deserters and draft dodgers have fled to neighboring ex-Soviet countries where they are now stuck in limbo”
ASTANA, Kazakhstan – Russian officer Farkhad Ziganshin had prepared himself for a life of military service since a young age.
He could never have imagined that one day he would become a deserter and flee the country.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed everything.
“I don’t support what’s happening in Ukraine, I don’t support the government we’ve had for so many years,” Ziganshin, 24, told AFP in Kazakhstan, where he fled in Sept. 2022 after Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s first military mobilization since World War II.
Faced with a choice between taking part in a war of aggression or going to prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine, hundreds of deserters and draft dodgers have fled to neighboring ex-Soviet countries where they are now stuck in limbo.
Russian authorities have opened a criminal case against Ziganshin for abandoning his unit. He does not feel safe in Kazakhstan and fears he might be deported to Russia.
But it is hard for men like him to seek refuge in the West because many Russian servicemen do not have the Russian passport that allows travel to Europe and only have documents that permit them to reach neighbors such as Kazakhstan or Armenia.
Anti-war activists urge European and US policymakers to do more to help men like Ziganshin, who are hunted at home and viewed with suspicion in the West.
While in Kazakhstan, Ziganshin was briefly arrested twice, most recently in June.
He is not giving up, however. He openly speaks of his opposition to Putin and the war in Ukraine with foreign journalists.
Together with other opponents of the war he has recorded videos to encourage Russians to flee the battlefield as part of an initiative dubbed “Farewell to arms.”
In one such video, a serviceman sets fire to a uniform bearing the letter “Z,” a symbol of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, before heading for the nearest forest.
“No one attacked your homeland,” says a message at the end of the clip. “We have already refused to take part in a criminal war. You should too.”
‘Live with dignity’
Ziganshin went to a military boarding school at the age of 10 and graduated from a military academy that prepares Russian tank commanders.
He describes the Russian armed forces as a “great school of life.”
But when Russia invaded Ukraine, he realized this was not the army he wanted to dedicate his life to.
He managed to resign, only to learn the next day that a military mobilization had been declared and that he would be deployed to Ukraine, along with around 300,000 other men.
Ziganshin packed up in a hurry and fled to neighboring Kazakhstan. Afraid of being sent back to Moscow, where he will be criminally prosecuted, he has been trying to acquire a visa to travel to France.
Kazakh rights campaigner Artur Alkhastov said Russian deserters stand virtually no chance of receiving refugee status in the Central Asian country.
“We’ve got really strong diplomatic ties with Russia,” said Alkhastov.
Campaigners have also accused local authorities of facilitating the arrests of Russians who have sought refuge in Kazakhstan.
Mikhail Zhilin of the Russian Federal Guard Service fled to Kazakhstan to avoid the draft, illegally crossing the border. He was sent back to Russia and last year sentenced to six and a half years in prison.
Russian contract soldier Kamil Kasimov, who also fled to Kazakhstan, this spring was detained and taken to a Russian military base in the town of Priozyorsk in central Kazakhstan, according to activists.
Ziganshin shudders at the thought of being sent back to Russia where he faces a long prison term. His Kazakh residence permit has expired.
“I’m young, I want to do something with my life, I want to live with dignity,” he said.
Other Russian army deserters have fled to Armenia in the South Caucasus.
But like Kazakhstan, activists say the country hosting a Russian military base is also not a safe destination.
Two Russian deserters have been detained by Russian military personnel in Armenia over the past two years.
European countries remain out of bounds, said Ivan Chuviliaev, spokesman for anti-war Russian project Idite Lesom (“Get lost”), which has been helping Russians to desert and leave the country.
“They have no documents to put a visa in,” he said.
