Since the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, sociologist Svetlana Ruseishvili has received a barrage of questions from Russians and Belarusians interested in migrating to Brazil. They are activists against the war and against Vladimir Putin, but also middle-class professionals – and young digital nomads – who fear losing their freedom and the pattern of consumption with the country’s isolation by the West.
Born in Georgia to a Russian family, raised in Ukraine and trained in sociology in Moscow, Ruseishvili holds a PhD from USP, coordinator of the Sérgio Vieira de Mello Chair at UFSCar and specializes in the study of the Russian-speaking diaspora in Brazil, from the exiles of the Bolshevik revolution to the Slavic migrations. current.
According to her, Brazil was never the first choice for Russian emigrants, but it entered the radar in the face of barriers imposed by rich nations on citizens of this nationality – unlike Ukrainians, they need a visa to enter most European countries, and this document has been increasingly difficult to achieve.
The non-requirement of an entry visa by the Brazilian government, however, does not solve the situation of those who want to live for more than six months — time limit for visitors to stay. For this reason, Ruseishvili defends that the ordinance of humanitarian reception for Ukrainians, published a few days after the beginning of the war, should also be extended to Russian exiles.
“Brazil has few options for the regularization of foreigners. The greater the flow because of this new migratory dynamic, the more people will be in an insecure situation.”
Who are the Russians who are leaving the parents? It is a younger, middle-class population living in large cities. Youth live in a climate of extreme insecurity, fear persecution, mobilization for a generalized war.
Are they anti-government activists? from 2014 [ano da anexação da Crimeia por Moscou] until now, those leaving were human rights activists, artists, journalists. Today there is a new profile, middle class people with a very high consumption pattern and who don’t want to lose it. And many young people who have flexible routines, technology professionals who work from home, can live a digital nomadism.
What I don’t see is the departure of Russians with more stable, well-paid, large families. Many of them are opposed to war, but leaving is not an easy decision. The 20th century émigrés left thinking the Bolshevik government would fall and they would return, but they died in exile. Today there is an awareness that this can happen again. The Russian people understand that something has changed, that Russia will never be the same again.
Is there data that scales the size of this self-exile? We cannot expect any numbers from within Russia, because the government will not want to release them. We are tracking data from destination countries. Armenia reported receiving 80,000 Russians, Georgia 25,000. Some colleagues estimate that at least 200,000 Russians emigrated, but this is probably an underestimate.
How does Putin react to this exodus? There is a political will to close the country, to create a new iron curtain. In a speech, he scorned those who want to leave, saying they are enemies of the people. On the other hand, the regime has made it difficult to leave. At the borders, especially young men are being searched, pressured by police. Russian airlines are suspending flights abroad, and the train connecting St. Petersburg to Finland has been suspended. It’s very difficult to get out.
Where are these exiles going? Russians, unlike Ukrainians, need a visa to enter virtually all European countries, and since the beginning of the war it has been increasingly difficult to obtain one. In February, Belgium even proposed that the European Union suspend visas for Russians and Belarusians. The US has effectively suspended the issuance of visas at consulates in Russia.
So they have reduced ability to move around the world, they are fleeing to nearby countries like Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Turkey.
It’s a contrary flow to what happened until now, right? Russia is the fourth country with the largest population of immigrants, and the majority come from these countries. But now that flow has reversed. Yesterday a Russian colleague said that the number of immigrants from these former republics is decreasing; part is coming back.
How are Russians being received in these countries? In Georgia, it’s complicated. Georgians have the memory of the Russian invasion and have found themselves in what is happening in Ukraine. They have a lot of resentment. In Armenia the situation is better, as it is an allied country. In Kyrgyzstan the issue is more the number of people. It is a not so big country, which is experiencing an economic crisis.
In Turkey, a historical parallel has been drawn to the time when Russians went to Constantinople fleeing the Bolshevik revolution. Now Istanbul has again become a destination for the Russian exodus. But we have to ask ourselves where they go next. Because Turkey already has many Syrian refugees and a pro-Putin government. Therefore, Russian emigrants must look for other countries to reside.
Is that where Brazil comes in? Latin America has never been a preferred destination for Russians, but in the current context it can become. I see interest increasing, new people asking on social media how to survive in Brazil, how to get documents. These are people who have no connection with Brazilians, no knowledge of Portuguese, nothing. Our phones are exploding from so many people asking.
Besides ease of entry, what other factors bring Russians to Brazil? It is an economically stable, developing country. And it’s close to the US, often viewed as a strategic stopover.
Russians have been discriminated against in some Western countries. Is this taken into account? This appears all the time in the questions of those who want to know information about migrating to Brazil. And the answer, whether or not there is Russophobia, is not unanimity among the community.
Apart from some even naive cases of canceling Russian dishes in restaurants, I don’t think there is Russophobia in Brazil. There has been in the past. At the time of the Estado Novo, of the military dictatorship, this was very strong, because Russians were associated with the communists – even though they had fled from communism. In my research, I interviewed people from families at that time who said that the father did not want to speak Russian with his children, that the uncle burned books in Russian for fear of persecution.
Today there is a lack of knowledge, but I don’t see Russophobia either in everyday relationships or in academia. On the contrary, I have lived here for ten years and I have never seen so much interest in the subject.
What is the profile of Russian-speaking migration in Brazil? There were three big waves. In the first decades of the 20th century came those fleeing the communist revolution or the Second World War. In the 1990s, with the end of the Soviet Union, came intellectuals, musicians, the academic elite. As of 2012, these more dynamic flows emerged, arriving as tourists, spending six months, returning, living between the two countries. Of the most recent influx, most came for family reunification, mainly Russian-speaking women who came married or to marry Brazilians.
Why do you argue that Brazil should include Russians and Belarusians in the humanitarian visa created for Ukrainians? Brazil has few ways to regularize foreigners. After six months as a visitor, the Russian immigrant who wants to stay needs to take a course that allows them to obtain a student visa, get married or have children here, for example. In this new migratory dynamic, the more exiles that come, the more people will be in this insecure situation. The easiest way out would be to extend the humanitarian visa created for Ukrainians.
What is the view of Russian immigrants in Brazil about the war in Ukraine? In 2014, there was a terrible polarization, a lot of people stopped talking. Now I don’t see an open fight, partly because we have contact with different sources of information, it’s hard for someone to be deceived by the Putinist propaganda that there is no war. And also because people do not expose themselves, they are afraid of surveillance, that the family will suffer retaliation in Russia. There is a narrower group of activists who protest, but many remain silent and it is difficult to know if they are supporting the war or afraid to speak out.
How are your family members in Ukraine? Part of my family lives in Odessa. They are still there. My relatives from Kiev left after we put a lot of pressure. My grandmother is 87 years old, imagine how difficult it was for her. Now each one is in a corner. There are people inside Ukraine, on the border, there are people in the Czech Republic, my grandmother is in Italy. Each went where he managed to escape.
x-ray | Svetlana Ruseishvili, 35
Born in Georgia and raised in Ukraine, she holds a degree in sociology from the University of Moscow Lomonossov, a master’s degree from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris and a doctorate from the USP, where she researched Russian immigration to Brazil after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. She is a professor from the Department of Sociology at UFSCar (Federal University of São Paulo) and coordinator of the Sérgio Vieira de Mello Chair for refugees at the institution.
