PSA: if you are in Russia, probably move out ASAP

Mod note – I'm making an impromptu judgment call to frontpage this. I'm not sure about that and will talk it over with other moderators and maybe reverse the decision later.

(In general we don't frontpage content that is newsy/non-timeless. We previously made the call to frontpage a fair amount of covid-content because it was just really useful to a lot of people to a degree that seemed to trump our usual concerns about non-timeless content. I'm worried about ending up in a world where we frontpage lots of Ukraine discussion to – it feels like a slippery slope towards just being a news-oriented site, which I want to push back against. But, this seems potentially time sensitive and important for our russian readers, of which we have a few)

Yes, this seems correct. Unfortunately it already sounds difficult to get out:

‘My future is taken away from me’: Russians flee to escape consequences of Moscow’s war | Russia | The Guardian

"Those seeking to leave faced a severe lack of available flights after western countries closed their airspace to Russian airlines. Moscow has also closed its airspace to much of the west in response.

Flights to Yerevan, Istanbul and Belgrade were completely sold out for the coming days while a one-way ticket to Dubai was priced at over £3,000 ($4,006) – compared with £250 ($334) in ordinary times – according to the flight aggregator Skyscanner. Train tickets from St Petersburg to Helsinki were also sold out on Thursday and Friday."

Also sounds from the article like border officials are extensively questioning folks at the border, scrolling through any private chats that haven't been deleted on messaging apps, etc. Be careful all.

Note: I've heard borders might get closed within the next 24 hours. I have NOT sanity checked this, I've just seen it signal boosted by a few rationalists who are (likely) following the same algorithm as me of "man, doesn't seem like there's much time to fact check before signal boosting."

More information here:

https://twitter.com/alexeyguzey/status/1499300550361460739?fbclid=IwAR06iAkAefBRZY7oVm76ZpqqCm84td7rK7GhXFeiX0M0J6V7hB5b78dJRpw 

According to my contact in Saint-Petersburg this warning is kinda late. It has already happened. It's not in the law yet but there are already major hurdles to leave the country and it's not about sanctions - it's from the Russian side.

Definitately scrub your phone before you leave. Not sure what's best though -- a full reset might look suspicious? My friend who managed to get out said the guard took their phone for almost an hour. They cleared web history and messages and weren't stopped. $3000 ticket price though!

Author had deactivated their account, or is no longer associated with this post.

Uh, how does someone do the second thing?

As far as I know, autocracies don't tend to close borders because they don't need people, unlike totalitarian regimes with an ideology. And in Russia in recent years, there have been periodic reports that the borders are about to be closed, probably encouraging the departure of people who do not support the actions of the authorities. But I will not insist on this, as I was mistaken in the forecast about the war, based on the same sources.

If you are leaving relatives or friends behind, consider developing some kind of code language, because people in Russia might be afraid to tell you their real opinions over the phone in plain speech.

How much would the drop in the value of the rouble and possibly the sanctions on financial systems effectively prevent emigration for many russians anyway?