Former ally of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny arrived in the capital of Bulgaria on February 25, 2022. He first went to the Russian embassy in Sofia with a sign “Stop the war.”
It is also reported that he participated in protests against the war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and asked for asylum in Bulgaria. He was afraid that in Russia he would be mobilized and sent to the front.
However, three courts in Bulgaria denied him asylum. They recognized his fears as insignificant and added that the likelihood of him being sent to the war against Ukraine was not high, although he had already received a summons.
“There is no reason to believe that the official authorities in the Russian Federation are indiscriminately carrying out mass repressions against citizens who express dissatisfaction with the president’s policies in one way or another,” the court’s decision noted.
The court also added that there were no serious and confirmed grounds to believe that, solely on the basis of Stotsky’s stay on the territory of the Russian Federation, he was in real danger of persecution.
Departure of Russians from the country due to possible repressions
After the start of the invasion of Ukraine, a number of citizens of the Russian Federation tried to protest, but they were suppressed by the security forces, and later the legislators tightened the possibilities for holding such protests.
Thousands of Russians were arrested, hundreds of them sent to jail. Russian media reported that hundreds of thousands of Russians left the country after the start of the war, and then after Putin’s announcement of the so-called “partial mobilization.”
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2023-05-30 19:09:17
