Vadim says he plunged into despair final month after Russian President Vladimir Putin introduced a navy draft to ship a whole lot of 1000's of conscripts to struggle in Ukraine.
"I used to be silent," the 28-year-old engineer says, explaining that he merely stopped speaking whereas at work.
"I used to be indignant and afraid."
Vadim says he took to the streets of Moscow to protest when Russia's invasion of Ukraine started in February — however Putin's September 21 order to draft at the least 300,000 males to struggle felt like a degree of no return.
"We do not need this struggle," Vadim says.
"We will not change one thing in our nation, although we've got tried."
He determined he had just one possibility left. A number of days after Putin's draft order, he bid his grandmother a tearful farewell and left his residence in Moscow — doubtlessly ceaselessly.
Ukrainian troopers embrace as Russians retreat
Vadim and his pal Alexei traveled as quick as they may to Russia's border with the previous Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, the place they waited in line for 3 days to cross.
"We ran away from Russia as a result of we need to reside," Alexei says.
"We're afraid that we will be despatched to Ukraine."
Each males requested to not be recognized, to guard family members left behind in Russia.
Final week, in Kazakhstan's business capital Almaty, they stood according to greater than 150 different just lately arrived Russians outdoors a authorities registration centre — a part of an exodus of draft dodgers.
Voting with their ft
Greater than 200,000 Russians have streamed into Kazakhstan following Putin's conscription announcement, in keeping with the Kazakh authorities.
And it is not arduous to identify the brand new Russian arrivals on the primary railway station in Almaty.
Each hour, it appears, younger Slavic males emerge from the prepare carrying backpacks, trying barely dazed whereas consulting their telephones for instructions.
They arrive from cities throughout Russia: Yaroslavl, Togliati, St Petersburg, Kazan. When requested why they've left all of them say the identical factor: mobilisation.
"It isn't one thing I need to take part in," says a 30-year outdated pc programmer named Sergei.
He sat on a bench outdoors the prepare station along with his spouse, Irina. The couple, clutching backpacks and rolled up sleeping pads, stated they hoped to journey on to Turkey and hopefully apply for Schengen visas to Europe.
Many of the new Russian exiles spoke to CNN on situation of anonymity.
Giorgi, a author in his late 30s from Ekaterinburg, says he fled to Kazakhstan final week after struggling panic assaults on the thought he could possibly be dragged into the navy.
"How can I participate in a struggle and not using a want to win this struggle?" he asks.
He's now looking for an house in Almaty and hopes that his spouse and younger son can go to him within the winter.
Confronted with the problem of making an attempt to make a residing in a overseas metropolis, Giorgi recognises that his hardships pale compared to Ukrainians, who have been pressured to flee by the thousands and thousands after Russia attacked their cities and cities.
In contrast to Ukrainians, who struggle bravely for his or her homeland, Giorgi says Russian draft dodgers like himself will be considered as each "a refugee and an aggressor" by advantage of their citizenship.
"I didn't help his struggle, I by no means did," Giorgi says.
"However one way or the other I am nonetheless related with the state due to my passport."
Central Asian hospitality
The brand new Russian exiles are usually not technically refugees, partially as a result of the Russian authorities nonetheless is not formally at struggle with Ukraine. Based on the Kremlin, Russia is conducting a "particular navy operation" in opposition to its Ukrainian neighbour.
Russian residents are at the moment capable of enter Kazakhstan for brief intervals with their nationwide ID playing cards — and the Central Asian nation's president has urged his compatriots to welcome the brand new arrivals.
"Most of them are pressured to depart due to the hopeless scenario. We should handle them and guarantee their security," President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev stated in late September.
A casual grassroots effort has sprung up throughout Kazakhstan to assist quickly feed and home the Russians.
"They're working, they're afraid," says Ekaterina Korotkaya, an Almaty-based journalist who helped coordinate help to newly-arrived Russians.
Almira Orlova, a nutritionist based mostly in Almaty, says she has helped discover housing for at the least 26 Russians.
"They might arrive to my house, keep for some time, then keep within the flats of my pals," she says.
However she factors out that she didn't obtain the identical hospitality when she moved along with her Russian husband to Moscow a number of years in the past.
Russian landlords repeatedly refused to lease her flats as a result of she was "Asian", she says.
"Once I informed them that I am Kazakh, they stated 'I am sorry I actually can not' and we weren't capable of finding an house for 2 months," Orlova says.
"Residents of Central Asia who went to Russia for labour migration functions face some critical discrimination in Russia," says Kadyr Toktogulov, former ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to the USA and Canada.
The previous Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan has additionally seen a big "reverse migration" of Russians fleeing the draft.
"I do not suppose that Russians coming to Central Asia which can be fleeing the draft might be having the identical form of issues or dealing with the form of discrimination that residents of Central Asian republics have been dealing with for years in Russia," says Toktogulov.
Toktogulov says his family just lately rented out an house within the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek to a newly arrived Russian man.
Mind drain
Actual property specialists say the flood of Russian exiles has already despatched rents skyrocketing in Almaty, the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek and different cities within the area.
The impression can also be being felt in business actual property, as many Russians search to work remotely.
"It isn't solely people coming, the massive [Russian] firms and company enterprise, they're transferring their firms to Kazakhstan," says Madina Abilpanova, a managing companion at DM Associates, an actual property agency based mostly in Almaty.
She says Russian firms have approached her, trying to relocate a whole lot of their staff in an effort to guard them from navy conscription.
"They're prepared to maneuver instantly, to pay no matter we wish, however we do not have areas," Abilpanova says.
She speaks to CNN at Metropolis Hub, a co-working house in central Almaty, the place the desks are crammed with younger Russians labouring silently on their laptops.
Abilpanova says all of those purchasers had arrived in Kazakhstan throughout the previous two weeks.
As she spoke, one other younger Russian man carrying a large backpack walked within the door. The enterprise house owners needed to flip him away as a result of there was no room.
"It is one thing like a tsunami for us," Abilpanova says.
"On daily basis they arrive in like this."
Vadim, the engineer from Moscow who just lately arrived in Kazakhstan, says his firm is sponsoring him and 15 different staff to switch to the agency's Almaty workplace.
"My boss is in opposition to the [Russian] authorities," Vadim says.
In contrast to many different Russians who instantly fled into exile, Vadim can rely on incomes a wage in the intervening time.
However he doesn't know when — or if — he'll ever see his grandmother in Moscow.
The massive companies making an exodus from Russia
"I very a lot hope to see her once more," Vadim says, his eyes welling up with tears.
"However I do not understand how a lot time she has left. I hope that I can return someday at the least to bury her."