The news of the departure of thousands of people hastily from Russia heading abroad as soon as President Vladimir Putin called up the reservists has been received with joy in Brussels ("The Russians are voting with their feet", celebrated this Thursday a community spokesman) but at the same time pose a delicate dilemma: should the countries of the European Union open their doors wide to potential deserters or, on the contrary, maintain the tightening of border policy decreed after suspending the agreement on visa facilitation?
Despite calls from Brussels to seek a common position, the response has been uneven in the different member states. The Baltic countries have made it clear that they do not consider fleeing Moscow's call-up to be enough to receive asylum in the EU, as Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas said on Thursday, insisting that this protection is granted to persecuted people. for their beliefs or ideas. Harder in his approaches, the head of the Latvian Interior, Edgar Rinkevics, defended that the Russians who are now fleeing the country cannot be considered conscientious objectors but did not react when their army began to massacre Ukrainians, also evoking security risks national, an allusion to the possible infiltration of secret agents of the Kremlin. Along the same lines, Estonia calls for tougher sanctions against Russia to spread discontent among the civilian population.
From Berlin, on the contrary, all "defectors" who oppose Putin's policies and risk "serious reprisals" for their actions have been encouraged to seek protection in the EU. "Anyone who bravely opposes Putin and puts himself in danger can apply for political asylum in Germany," said Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser. Since March, Berlin has granted protection to 438 Russian opponents, many of them journalists.
Beyond the political messages, in reality the granting of asylum is a process subject to an in-depth evaluation on a case-by-case basis and is not at all automatic. Faced with doubts about the application of this right on the borders of the Baltic countries with Russia, the European Commission recalled this Thursday that the EU countries "must guarantee" international law in this regard and not expel people who arrive and They request protection and, although the requests will be examined "case by case", he called on the European capitals to reach a common position in these cases.
It is, for the moment, a theoretical and political debate rather than a practical problem. Air transport data indicates that the majority of Russian citizens who have set foot in dust in recent days have done so in the direction of countries that do not require a visa or give them entry facilities, such as Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan or the Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
In view of the growing difficulties in obtaining plane tickets, it is not ruled out that the situation will change in the coming days. In fact, although the Government of Finland assured on Wednesday that the news about alleged entry queues at its border with Russia were false, today Thursday it indicated that the traffic is intensifying and there has been a slight increase in arrivals, 4,800 Russians in a day compared to 3,100 last Wednesday.
