We talk about our experience trying to get out of Russia amid the mobilization panic, when men and families were (and still are) making a rush for the borders. Originally we were supposed to leave by car through Finland but at the last minute, when the border became packed with people, we switched our plans and took a bus from St. Petersburg to Estonia, through the old fortress border towns of Ivangorod and Narva.
Looking at Narva from Ivangorod.
The situation on the both borders was grim. On the Russian side, Ukrainians were being held up for hours while people with American citizenship were singled out for questioning. Meanwhile, Estonia had already closed its border to Russians with regular EU visas. But then even Russians with non-EU dual citizenship — like American or Israeli — were at a risk of being turned back by Estonian border guards just because they were Russian. We weren’t really liked by anyone on either side. But in the end we got through anyway.
Despite our sleep deprivation and low energy levels, we do our best to talk about all this all on the episode. We also talk about the political situation inside Russia as we saw it.
—Yasha
PS: We had to record this ep on our phones. So the quality isn’t great.
Want to know more? Check out previous episodes of The Russians.
Previously on the subject:
