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Two Top Russian Officials Seek Asylum in France in Exchange for War Crimes Testimonies

Following Putin’s decision to partially mobilise 300,000 reservists, several Russians have sought a way out of the country in order to avoid conscription.

October 17, 2022
Two Top Russian Officials Seek Asylum in France in Exchange for War Crimes Testimonies
Russians fleeing the war at a customs check-point at the Russia-Georgia border
IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES

Russian human rights activist Vladimir Osechkin revealed on Friday that two top Russian officials—a female Federal Security Services (FSB) officer and a high-ranking official from the Kremlin-linked paramilitary company Wagner Group—are seeking political asylum in France.

The FSB intelligence officer has reportedly brought “serious insider information” regarding the Ukraine war, counterintelligence department, the Russian Defence Ministry, and “corruption schemes of the FSB.”

In a similar vein, the Wagner official has confirmed that the Wagner Group was established under the Defence Ministry at the direction of the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service. He also gave details of “how the state established a system of financing” and “how these secret units were involved in subversive work” in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine.

“Now each of them will testify about war crimes, and hopefully, they’ll have the opportunity to cooperate with the international investigation and testify against Yevgeny Prigozhin [Wagner chief] and others from the [President Vladimir] Putin regime,” Osechkin said.

Osechkin described it as a “bizarre” and “extraordinary” situation, noting that both of them were on the same plane and initially became suspicious of one another as they were applying for asylum “in sync.”

Osechkin revealed that “a number of people who were directly involved with the Putin regime have left Russia,” including a chairman of a court who flew to another European Union (EU) member state. The unnamed chairman is apparently “giving fairly detailed and consistent testimony about how the FSB and the Putin administration absorbed the independent judicial system and subjugated the judges, turning the whole system into a branch rubber-stamping decisions after a phone call from their handlers.”

Following Putin’s decision to partially mobilise 300,000 reservists, several Russians have sought a way out of the country. 

Earlier this month, two Russians sailed away to St Lawrence Island in Alaska from the eastern coast of Russia to “avoid compulsory military service.” Republican Senators from Alaska, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, have urged the Biden administration to “prioritise capabilities in the Arctic – including infrastructure, Coast Guard assets, ports and strategic defense assets” to secure the US’ national security. However, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy said that though it was surprise, they “don’t anticipate a continual stream of individuals” from Russia and considered it to be a “one-off” incident. 

In August, paratrooper Pavel Filatiev, who fought in Kherson and Mykolaiv, fled Russia and sought asylum in France after publishing a book called “ZOV” condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, fearing persecution. Though he was not aware of a criminal case being filed against him, Filatiev reasoned, “When I heard the higher-ups were calling for me to be sentenced to 15 years in prison for fake news, I realised that I wouldn’t get anywhere here and my lawyers couldn’t do anything for me in Russia.”

He claims that about 10% of Russian soldiers believe in the Ukraine war while the rest are “terrorised.” “It’s not because they want to fight, it’s because they are in conditions that make it very difficult for them to quit,” he noted.

In the book, which he self-published on Russian social media platform VKontakte in August, he wrote, “We had no moral right to attack another country, especially the people closest to us,” adding that Russia had “started a terrible war.”

In another instance in August, a Russian living on the disputed Kunashiri island swam 20 kilometres to Hokkaido in an effort to seek asylum in Japan.