“Two Russians called me one day, after having each shot themselves in the leg to avoid being conscripted into the army. But when they arrived at the hospital, they were made to understand that when they would be even sent to the front, at the end of their convalescence.” Grigory Sverdlin could recount hundreds of such acts of despair.
Since the announcement of the partial mobilization in September 2022, which tore 300,000 men from their homes to send them to fight in Ukraine, this native of Saint Petersburg has been helping distraught Russians escape the battlefield. Former director of an NGO helping the homeless, he launched his project “Iditié Lessom”(“get out”, in Russian) from the Georgian capital Tbilisi, where he has been exiled since March 2022, “to prevent more Russians from participating in this filthy war”.
Quickly, dozens of volunteers – anti-war Russians who had taken refuge abroad – volunteered to support him. The forty-year-old has been juggling for two years between his work as a consultant for companies and the organization of a real “non-violent resistance movement”. A movement that continues to grow: the Telegram channel of “Iditié Lessom” is crumbling under calls for help. In total, “we provided assistance to more than 25,000 Russians, among whom around 2,000 deserted from the front,” he told L’Express.
Between 10 and 15 years in prison for deserters
Concretely, the volunteers of “Iditié Lessom” give valuable advice to those who do not want to fight: under no circumstances go to military enlistment offices, under penalty of being directly shipped to the front; change residence after not responding to a summons; leave Russia preferably via the border with Belarus, the least controlled.
It is more complicated to come to the aid of those already enlisted on the front. “We cannot help them as long as they are in Ukraine,” explains Grigory Sverdlin. “They must leave the occupied territories on their own, taking advantage of permission to first return home, to Russia. “
Thanks to a clandestine network also present in Russia, deserters can receive financial assistance to leave the country, psychological support and benefit from a temporary “hideout” in Russia. “Many can remain hidden for months,” says Grigory Sverdlin. The risks are enormous: if the authorities find them, these deserters face a heavy prison sentence – between ten and fifteen years.
Requests for help have intensified in recent weeks, since the announcement of the conscription campaign intended to recruit 150,000 men, aged 18 to 30, for military service. “Around 130 new people call us every day” to try to avoid being enlisted, assures Grigory Sverdlin.
Even if conscripts are not supposed to be sent directly to war, many are afraid of being mobilized in the long term, since the State Duma (the lower house of the Russian Parliament) authorized in April 2023 to transform them into soldiers professionals from the end of their service. “The authorities often make young conscripts sign military contracts under psychological or physical pressure,” explains Ivan Tchouvilyaïev, member of “Iditié Lessom”. With growing rumors of a likely Russian offensive in Kharkiv this summer, more and more Russians want to leave before it is too late.
“Coward”, “traitor”
Igor, a deserter helped by the association, does not regret his choice. Originally from the city of Ufa, in Bashkiria, this construction worker learns that he is being mobilized by two police officers who are pounding on his door in the middle of the night. “They make me sign a paper and ask me to clock in at “voenkomat” No. 10 [NDLR : bureau d’enrôlement militaire] the next morning”. He will not go. With his wife, he goes to hide in another apartment, where the couple remains cloistered for seven months. Until this day in May 2023 when Igor is arrested by the police. Then hell begins. “They offered to send me to a border defense unit in Russia. I accepted. But I landed in Ukraine, in the town of Markivka, on the other side of the border!”, he relates.
In Ukraine, faced with his refusal to fight, his “kombrig” (brigade commander) sent him for several days to the “pit” – a hole dug in the ground reserved for drunkards and recalcitrants. After four days without eating or drinking, Igor still refuses to give in. “They threw the worst insults at me, called me a traitor, a coward…” he remembers. The man, who multiplies administrative appeals for procedural defects in his assignment, then understands that he will never be able to escape the war machine. “Even if I went to prison for refusing to fight, I would be forced to sign a contract in the Storm Z battalions, prisoner ‘cannon fodder’ units sent to the most dangerous areas. By staying in Russia, he there was no other possible outcome than war,” he summarizes. On the advice of “Iditié Lessom”, he took advantage of permission to leave the country last March thanks to a long journey: after returning to Ufa, he reached Moscow, Smolensk (400 kilometers east of the capital), then Minsk, the Belarusian capital, without having undergone any control when crossing the border, from where he finally flies to Armenia.
Extraditions and kidnappings abroad
Along with Kazakhstan, this small Caucasian country is one of the preferred destinations for Russian defectors – they do not need to show a passport (an ID card is enough) and can stay for several months without a visa. But despite the thousands of kilometers that separate them from Russia, the fear of being caught up in the war in Ukraine is constantly present. In these two former Soviet republics, still under the influence of the Kremlin, local authorities have already arrested Russians wanted in their country. Worse, in Armenia, two deserters were kidnapped by Russian secret services in the town of Gyumri, where Moscow has a major military base. One of them, Dmitri Setrakov, is now languishing in a prison in Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
The Holy Grail for these deserters would be to reach European soil, but the path is strewn with pitfalls. “European legislation is very unaccommodating and almost never grants them residence permits,” sighs Grigory Sverdlin. And even if they manage to access European territory, their security is never 100% guaranteed. Maxime Kouzminov, a former pilot in the Russian air force who took refuge in Spain, deserted with the help of the Ukrainian services in August 2023, a spectacular escape which allowed the Kiev army to recover a Mi-8 helicopter. A few months later, in February, his body was found riddled with bullets in an underground car park in Alicante. A clear warning from the Kremlin to those who would be tempted to desert, typical of the methods of Putin’s henchmen.
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