Originally Posted by
B Fraser
The beaches in the Gulf states are crowded with draft dodgers.
There are also many tens of thousands of mostly younger Russians that have fled to places like Georgia and Uzbekistan. There are a fair few, mostly young, Russian vloggers on YouTube now, giving their perspective on their country's actions. I've been following a few for some time, from the first young man that had to get out of Russia in a hurry ("Zack the Russian") for protesting, to many others that didn't openly condemn the war at first, but most of whom are now using stronger and stronger language to show their dislike of what Putin is doing in Ukraine.
These seem to be bright, articulate, well-educated Russian young people, and the stories they tell are of many thousands like tham moving out of Russia. This started before mobilisation, too, so doesn't seem to be purely driven by dodging the draft. Undoubtedly some have moved for economic reasons, too. Those making a living producing Russian lifestyle and travel vlogs will have had to move as they could no longer receive income due to sanctions.