Magadan awaits relocants supporting Ukraine in case of return – Kommersant

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said during meetings, that it is better for the relocants, “rejoicing at the shots fired at Russia” and wanting Kyiv’s victory, not to return to the country, otherwise Magadan will be “secured” for them. According to him, such measures are needed to be honest “before those guys who fight and die for their country, for the safety of our citizens.” The day before, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov statedthat “the homeland cannot threaten citizens.”

“When we talk about relocants, the one who left the country and committed vile acts, rejoicing at the shots fired on the territory of the Russian Federation, wishing victory to the Nazi bloody Kiev regime, he must realize that not only is he not welcome here. But if he comes here, Magadan is guaranteed for him,” said Vyacheslav Volodin.

Mr. Volodin noted that Russia “does not need” those who migrate from state to state and then return back. “We arrived, kissed their boots, paid the money earned here by citizens of the Russian Federation to have their passports issued, and then they were expelled from there, and then they came here, we don’t need them,” he said.

As the speaker explained, this is necessary in order to be honest “to those guys who fight and die for their country.”

On October 9, Dmitry Peskov, answering the question whether Russians who had left for Israel since the beginning of hostilities in Ukraine and during mobilization were in any danger when returning to the country, said: “Listen, citizens of the Russian Federation live in many countries of the world, and the Russian Federation – this is their homeland. How can the homeland threaten?”

There is no exact data on how many Russians have left the country since February 2022. In September 2022, Rosstat reported that by this time 419 thousand people had left the country for one purpose or another, with a net outflow of 96 thousand people. In December 2022, the head of the Ministry of Digital Development, Maksut Shadayev, spoke in the State Duma about 100 thousand IT specialists who left the country. In February 2023, independent demographer Alexey Raksha spoke about the range of estimates of the number of citizens who left the Russian Federation in 2022, from 450 thousand to 800 thousand people.

Polina Motyzlevskaya