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Hundreds of thousands fled Russia after the Ukraine invasion, fearing the draft and widening repression. Talks toward a possible truce have done little to allay their fears.
April 6, 2025, 12:01 a.m. ET
President Trump has said he trusts President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to abide by any peace deal on Ukraine they negotiate. Many Russians who fled the country in the early months of the war are not so sure.
Nor do they have much faith that the conditions that drove them abroad — including a crackdown on any political dissent — will change anytime soon, whether Mr. Trump manages to broker a cease-fire or not. For the moment, those talks appear to have stalled since Mr. Putin rebuffed a proposal by Mr. Trump and Ukraine for a 30-day truce.
“The war will be over when Putin is over,” said Pavel Snop, a real-estate agent from St. Petersburg who fled to Turkey three years ago. He added, “Putin is going to keep bargaining: But he’s bargaining not for his country and its citizens, but for sanctions relief for himself and his friends.”
For the Kremlin, the future of some 800,000 Russians who fled their country after the invasion is a sensitive political and economic subject. Their existence is a stark reminder that many Russians opposed the war, or at least did not want to fight in it.
The exodus of so many people, who tend to be highly educated and work in professional fields that are in high demand, has also been damaging for the economy, experts say.
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