At least 200,000 Russians left the country after President Vladimir Putin’s mobilization order, in an exodus that’s causing turmoil at borders and stirring fears in neighboring states about potential instability.
While Russia hasn’t released official data, statistics from Georgia, Kazakhstan and the European Union show the scale of the departures. The total is likely an underestimate as other nearby countries popular with Russians including Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey haven’t disclosed arrival figures.
On a mountain highway at the border with Georgia, thousands of vehicles formed lines stretching for miles as Russian men eligible for the call-up flocked to escape to the Caucasus state that Putin’s army invaded in 2008. The situation is "apocalyptic — it’s like in the movies,” said Vladimir, a 30-year-old Muscovite who walked into Georgia’s Larsi with his youngest child fearing the border would be closed to potential draftees, his wife and older child remaining with their car in the traffic jams.