Young mothers push strollers among citizens resting in the shade on a hot summer day in a park in central Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. This is a common sight in this middle-class region, but there was one difference. All these mothers speak Russian.
Thousands of Russians have flocked to Argentina since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine over a year ago. Among those who have traveled more than 16,000 kilometers including layovers, there are pregnant women who are about to give birth. Despite repeated economic crises and nearly 100% inflation, Argentina has become a refuge from the war for Russians, whose travels are limited by the crackdown on dissidents and strict visa restrictions.
One of the babies in the stroller is one-month-old Lionel Zuev. His parents arrived in Argentina late last year and gave their baby the same name as the country’s football hero, Lionel Messi. Lionel became an Argentinian under the law that children born in her country are recognized as Argentinian, and her parents have already been granted residence permits. She will also be able to apply for her citizenship within two years.
“Before last November, there was no such plan,” said 34-year-old mother Yulia Zueva. “When she was with other pregnant women, they were all saying, ‘We’re going to Argentina,’ and that got her interested,” she continued.
More than 22,000 Russians have entered the country since the beginning of last year, according to the Argentine immigration agency. However, around 60% of them have already left the country. There are no data on destinations. The largest number of people entering the country was in the period from October to December last year. In February, 33 pregnant women were on board an Ethiopian Airlines flight arriving via Addis Ababa.
brain drain
Most of these Russians are highly skilled workers. Russians may help fill a talent shortage in Argentina, which has seen highly educated people migrate to Europe in recent years out of fear of economic instability. More than 32,800 Argentines entered the country in 2021, the most since at least 2008, according to data from the Spanish Statistics Office.
On the other hand, Russia has lost a large amount of human resources, and a brain drain on a scale comparable to that after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 has progressed. One million people left the country last year alone. Some have returned, but most are building a new foundation for life in parts of the former Soviet Union, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Southeast Asia, where visa restrictions are lax for Russians. According to local reports, there are also permanent residents in parts of Central and South America, such as Brazil.
Argentina has defaulted nine times on its sovereign debt, but many migrants seem unperturbed by their precarious lives in the country. The economic turmoil may be the same in Russia, but many people bring their savings and continue to work remotely, and the impact of high inflation was initially mitigated.
Victoria Bagataya (35), who entered the country in January, is due to give birth before the end of the month. She plans to work in tourism with her husband, as she did when she lived in southern Russia. “She loves Russia, but things are going to get worse in the next 10 years. She wants to give her daughter every chance,” she said.
Victoria Bagataya, nine months pregnant, in her Buenos Aires apartment.
Photographer: Sarah Pabst/Bloomberg
news-rsf-original-reference paywall">Original title:Russians Choose Argentina’s 100% Inflation Over Putin’s War(excerpt)
