Inside the Collapse: How Putin's Russia Turned Its Opponents into Exiles
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Over the past decade, we have witnessed a large-scale exodus of political opposition figures and civil society activists from Russia. This is not a spontaneous migration, nor one driven by personal ambition - it is a deliberate, strategically managed policy by the Kremlin to exile, neutralise, and effectively erase alternative political life within the country. The mechanism is not limited to prison sentences (although those remain a powerful tool), but also includes a subtler, more precise form of pressure that pushes people toward emigration.
Exile has long been a tool of the Russian state in its efforts to suppress what it perceives as "dangerous" intellectual or political energy. Tsar Nicholas I sent the Decembrists to Siberia. Under Nicholas II, there was mass emigration of socialist thinkers. In the Soviet era, the state expelled so-called "enemies of the people" - dissidents, physicists, philosophers, and former elites - or forced them to conform, collaborate, and eventually be destroyed by the system under Stalin's rule.
How Russia's Fake Spirituality Became a Key Weapon in the Kremlin's Disinformation Toolbox
Under Putin, Christianity has been turned into a political tool to spread false narratives about the war in Ukraine
Morten Hammeken and Pekka Kallioniemi
Modern Russia has invented nothing new - it has simply digitised and legalised the machinery of exile. Today, the process is formalised through courts, amendments to the criminal code, and the branding of individuals as "foreign agents". Most importantly, it manufactures a constant sense of vulnerability for anyone who dares to oppose Putin's regime. The Kremlin no longer needs to eliminate an enemy immediately; it first isolates them, drives them out of the political and social landscape. Emigration becomes not an act of freedom, but a reaction to an engineered trap.
As the saying goes, Russia's rulers have, for generations, expelled those who get in the way of their lies. Rather than seeking dialogue or fostering a system that accommodates differing political views - what we might ordinarily call democracy - the Kremlin has consciously chosen to divide society into "us" and "them".
The Geography of Modern Russian Exile
According to independent estimates, hundreds of thousands of Russians have left the country since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The main waves of emigration have headed toward Georgia, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, and other European states. This is not an economic migration. These people are leaving for political reasons - driven by fear for their freedom, safety, and the protection of their families.
The largest and most distinct group consists of political activists, lawyers, journalists, and human rights defenders. These are individuals whose work involves protest, exposing corruption, defending victims of political persecution, and resisting authoritarianism - even within the boundaries of the existing legal system. They have faced a stark choice: remain and face repression, accept Putin's political reality, or leave - forced into exile.
From my own experience working in the Navalny team in St. Petersburg, I saw the rise of a new, harsher system of political repression take shape. Lawyers, journalists, and activists quickly understood that even limited participation in anti-regime activity meant the end of any legal civic or political life in Russia. You would never again be allowed to run for office. You would not be permitted to register a political party. You would fail any application for civil service. And if you were already a government employee, you would soon be dismissed. And that was just the visible tip of the...
For digital and print editions, packed with exclusive investigations, analysis, features, and columns….
SUBSCRIBE
Over the past decade, we have witnessed a large-scale exodus of political opposition figures and civil society activists from Russia. This is not a spontaneous migration, nor one driven by personal ambition - it is a deliberate, strategically managed policy by the Kremlin to exile, neutralise, and effectively erase alternative political life within the country. The mechanism is not limited to prison sentences (although those remain a powerful tool), but also includes a subtler, more precise form of pressure that pushes people toward emigration.
Exile has long been a tool of the Russian state in its efforts to suppress what it perceives as "dangerous" intellectual or political energy. Tsar Nicholas I sent the Decembrists to Siberia. Under Nicholas II, there was mass emigration of socialist thinkers. In the Soviet era, the state expelled so-called "enemies of the people" - dissidents, physicists, philosophers, and former elites - or forced them to conform, collaborate, and eventually be destroyed by the system under Stalin's rule.
How Russia's Fake Spirituality Became a Key Weapon in the Kremlin's Disinformation Toolbox
Under Putin, Christianity has been turned into a political tool to spread false narratives about the war in Ukraine
Morten Hammeken and Pekka Kallioniemi
Modern Russia has invented nothing new - it has simply digitised and legalised the machinery of exile. Today, the process is formalised through courts, amendments to the criminal code, and the branding of individuals as "foreign agents". Most importantly, it manufactures a constant sense of vulnerability for anyone who dares to oppose Putin's regime. The Kremlin no longer needs to eliminate an enemy immediately; it first isolates them, drives them out of the political and social landscape. Emigration becomes not an act of freedom, but a reaction to an engineered trap.
As the saying goes, Russia's rulers have, for generations, expelled those who get in the way of their lies. Rather than seeking dialogue or fostering a system that accommodates differing political views - what we might ordinarily call democracy - the Kremlin has consciously chosen to divide society into "us" and "them".
The Geography of Modern Russian Exile
According to independent estimates, hundreds of thousands of Russians have left the country since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The main waves of emigration have headed toward Georgia, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, and other European states. This is not an economic migration. These people are leaving for political reasons - driven by fear for their freedom, safety, and the protection of their families.
The largest and most distinct group consists of political activists, lawyers, journalists, and human rights defenders. These are individuals whose work involves protest, exposing corruption, defending victims of political persecution, and resisting authoritarianism - even within the boundaries of the existing legal system. They have faced a stark choice: remain and face repression, accept Putin's political reality, or leave - forced into exile.
From my own experience working in the Navalny team in St. Petersburg, I saw the rise of a new, harsher system of political repression take shape. Lawyers, journalists, and activists quickly understood that even limited participation in anti-regime activity meant the end of any legal civic or political life in Russia. You would never again be allowed to run for office. You would not be permitted to register a political party. You would fail any application for civil service. And if you were already a government employee, you would soon be dismissed. And that was just the visible tip of the...
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