Blinis in Buenos Aires

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Russian émigrés are buying apartments, beauty salons, restaurants, and other assets in Argentina and Brazil. They’ve brought popular Russian pastimes with them, too, noted the Wall Street Journal, like smoking tobacco from hookahs and eating beef shish kabobs rather than thick, South American-style steaks.

Meanwhile, in Bangkok, Thailand’s capital and largest city, popular Russian-language rock group Bi-2, whose members oppose Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has been playing in bars. Bi-2 performed for Vladimir Putin in 2019 but last year, lead singer Igor Bortnik said he felt “only disgust and squeamishness” when thinking of the Russian president.

And in the United Arab Emirates, Russian émigrés have transformed neighborhoods even as governments in Central Asian nations have been struggling to handle the influx, added Foreign Policy magazine. Kazakhstan, like some others, has put restrictions in place to limit their numbers. But elsewhere, countries formerly under Russian dominance during Soviet times, like Lithuania, are welcoming the migrants to help foster anti-Russian voices, too, CBS News reported.

These expatriates are among nearly a million people who have fled Russia since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to the Mixed Migration Center. Some left because they wanted to avoid dying on the Ukrainian front. Others are dissidents who face arrest and prosecution because they oppose the war. Then there are those who feared economic displacement if they remained at home.

“I understand perfectly well the general hatred for Russians and for everything Russian. I accept and understand it because what Russia is doing is wrong,” said Evgeniy Kosgorov, a Russian who fled to the former Soviet republic of Georgia, in an interview with Al Jazeera. “Every time I want to say that it’s difficult for the Russians who left, something inside me protests because Ukrainians have it more difficult than us.”

Now, however, Russia is striking back.

Thai officials came close to extraditing Bi-2 at the behest of Russian officials – until Australian and Israeli diplomats stepped in to protect them, reported the New York Times. At the same time, Russian lawmakers have adopted new measures to allow the Russian government to seize the property of Russian citizens living abroad who refuse to tow the Kremlin’s line or submit to Russian authority.

Other aspects of life are not easy for these Russian émigrés, either. Many who moved to Turkey must now move again due to rising living costs, residency hurdles and other issues, wrote Reuters. Some locals want them out because of bad behavior, for example, the “Russian-only” businesses in Thailand or a “White-Faces only” party for expats in Sri Lanka have sparked local resentment. Russian expats are also blamed for skyrocketing property prices and taking local jobs.

Many of these folks have gone to Serbia and Montenegro, where officials have welcomed them, instead of the European Union and Norway, which have banned Russian tourists. Some Russian expatriates who moved abroad in the last year or two have even returned home, Bloomberg added.

Not Svetlana, in her early 30s, who says she would like to. Currently in Serbia, she left after the Ukraine invasion because she felt at risk, but says she misses her former life.

“I never thought I’d have to leave, I planned to retire in Moscow,” she told the BBC. “I love Russia and I enjoyed my life.”