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It's understandable that the Baltic countries don't want to add to the Fifth column of fervent Putin supporters they already have under the minority Russian pop
by GameOfFrowns 4y ago
It's understandable that the Baltic countries don't want to add to the Fifth column of fervent Putin supporters they already have under the minority Russian population inside their countries. The writing's been on the wall for months now and those Russians who only now realize that their support for the war could mean having to put money where their mouth is and cost personal sacrifice (instead of just sending those Buryats and Tuvans from impoverished far-away places to die) aren't the ones you want to have inside your borders. You can see it on telegram and VKontakte, those people are okay with the war and other people dying as long as they're not inconvenienced personally.
- Andrew_nenakhov 4y agothese fears are unfounded. The real organizers and beneficiaries of the regime are well-off and can easily shell out a $100-150K for a passport of some state in Caribbean and travel in EU without issues. So tourist and humanitarian visa bans only affect people with low and medium income, and who overwhelmingly do not support the regime. I'd wager my right hand that among russian refugees the number of people supporting Putin is far lower than in a Russian diaspora that is exists in those countries. If anything, admitting refugees would dilute support for Russia in those groups, and would dismantle the Fifth column. Putin's base is almost universally comprised of people who have never been abroad - something like 73% of Russians don't even have an international passport and have never been abroad.