Putin’s order to mobilize reservists led to protests in Moscow.
In the center of the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, a large banner is attached to a building above a Ukrainian flag that reads: “Putin, The Hague is waiting for you.”
On city buses, electronic screens alternate between announcing your destination and declaring “love” for Ukraine with little hearts.
This week, Lithuania, along with Latvia, Estonia and Poland, banned entry to all Russian tourists, arguing that they should not enjoy democracy and freedom in Europe while their government attacks those same values in Ukraine.
The measure has generated concern among opposition activists Russian who are already abroad.
“It’s strange to ban people for being Russian, whether they support the Putin regime or not,” argues Anastasia Shevchenko, an activist who spent two years under house arrest for protesting against the Russian president.
When Russia invaded her neighbor, Shevchenko was serving a suspended sentence and any move, even an anti-war comment, could have landed her behind bars.
But Anastasia couldn’t bear to be silenced, so she packed two suitcases with her family’s belongings and all they fled in the middle of the night towards Lithuania.
“What is happening in Russia now is total fear,” Anastasia tells me, in Vilnius. “Many people are scared because we know that they can do anything. It’s not just prison or fines: they can kill you or poison you. It’s like a huge prison. The whole country“.
Since we spoke, Vladimir Putin has declared a partial mobilization of Russian reservists, the first real evidence of support for his invasion. The first signs do not look good.
In several cities protesters came out shouting “no to war!” and even “Putin to the trenches!”
More than a thousand people were arrested and some received citations at the police station.
but more russians they continue to head for the border by whatever route remains.
While lines to enter Finland are growing, Latvia and Estonia say escaping conscription is not grounds for asylum.
Lithuania is considering the cases individually, but the prime minister clarified that “it was not the duty of other countries to save Russians fleeing the mobilization.”
A building in the center of Vilnius displays an anti-Putin message on the Ukrainian flag.
Ukrainians have no sympathy for those who are now protesting against compulsory military service, when they themselves did not demonstrate against the killing of Ukrainian civilians.
Some see even the most persecuted Russian activists as cowards, because the risk they face for resisting President Putin is nothing compared to being bombed by his military.
Those activists, however, They insist that it is not that simple.
“Of course, we feel this responsibility. We should have taken the opportunity to change our country,” agrees former opposition deputy Dmitry Gudkov.
“Putin is a war criminal, he is killing people. But how can the Russians inside Russia stop Putin? It is not possible”.
Gudkov left Moscow long before the war, saying he was warned to leave or go to jail. Today, all prominent Russian opposition figures are in custody, dead or in exile.
So at a recent gathering in Vilnius, a slogan on stage called on those abroad to “be brave, like Ukraine,” but the mood was suffused with an air of helplessness.
In fact, many are now looking to Ukraine to do what they couldn’t do peacefully within Russia: defeat Putin.
“I think the West should increase military assistance to Ukraine, that’s the only option,” says Gudkov.
Alexei Navalny’s team agrees, but goes further. Since the opposition politician was jailed, dozens of his staff have moved to Vilnius to avoid being persecuted as “extremists”.
Leonid Volkov, adviser to Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, calls on the West for more sanctions against Russia.
“Putin made his biggest mistake when he invaded Ukraine. I think it drastically shortened the length of his reign,” Navalny’s right-hand man, Leonid Volkov, tells me.
This week’s call confirmed that belief, as across the country videos of men saying goodbye appear with tears from their families.
“Nobody attacked Russia, nobody needed these separations and these deaths,” Volkov wrote on Twitter. “But on February 24, a maniac led his country into a dead end.”
Navalny’s team has been trying to undermine support for the war through YouTube. The audience for his programs, held in Vilnius, it has doubled since the invasion.
They are also pushing for more Western sanctions, not visa bans against an entire nation.
They want Ukraine’s allies to look beyond President Putin’s inner circle and sanction those Volkov calls “war enablers,” a list of more than 6,000 names, from judges to state journalists.
“Our call to Western governments is to sanction all these people and present them with an exit strategy: tell them what they have to do to get off the list,” says Volkov.
“This will create divisions. Many will begin to jump ship and Putin’s system cannot function without them“, he adds.
Vladimir Putin in his speech on TV on September 21.
Since then, Russian troops have been forced to withdraw from large areas of Ukraine and President Putin has responded as usual: by escalating the situation.
Adding to the call is his threat to annex more Ukrainian land and another nuclear warning to the West.
Russia’s president has gambled big on this campaign and things could get much worse.
That leaves activist Anastasia Shevchenko struggling with a feeling of guilt for not being able to do more to stop it.
“I blame myself and it’s not a good feeling, believe me,” she admits.
But her decision to leave Russia was sealed when her son was asked at his elementary school to write a letter to the soldiers, wishing them victory.
Instead, the boy told them that they had no right to quarrel against your neighbors.
“I think all we can do now as Russians is apologize and protest against Vladimir Putin,” Anastasia says. “Because Putin personally is the reason for what is happening. What so many people are dying for.”
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