"There are journalists who flee because they have lost their jobs, there are those who flee simply because they oppose the war and President Vladimir Putin and lately also many men who didn't want to go to fight after the mobilization announced in September".
Eva Roporot is a thirty-year-old Moscow academic who works at the Istanbul office of Noah's Ark, a non-profit association founded by Russian dissidents and financed by donations, which deals with helping fugitives in the countries where they arrive.
According to the NGO, which also has offices in Armenia, Kazakhstan and Poland, between one and one and a half million Russian citizens have fled the country because of President Putin's war.
"Some come and go, others move to various countries and for this reason it is not easy to understand exactly how many have fled", underlines Roporot, while an article published in October by Forbes Russia, and contested by the Kremlin, spoke of over 700 thousand exiles who fled after the conflict.
"We offer various types of services: information on the countries where Russians can enter without the need for visas, legal assistance, we explain where they can apply for political asylum and we have also rented apartments where we temporarily host those who flee".
After the closure of the borders of various European countries, "where many hoped to go", many Russians have chosen to flee to Turkey, where upon entry they receive a 60-day visa,
According to the NGO, the number of applications for annual residence permits by Russians in Turkey increased in 2022 by more than 360% compared to last year.
"Many here feel in a sort of limbo, it is not a fully functioning democracy and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is speaking with Kiev but also with Moscow", says Roporot denouncing that many Russians in Istanbul fear that the Kremlin may ask Turkey to repatriate forced, on the basis of political reasons, for some of them already known at home as dissidents.
"The main problem for those who arrive is finding work, there is a language barrier and the economic situation is not very stable", explains Roporot.
Many of the exiles have problems because Russian payment networks have been restricted, there
Noah's Ark not only provides practical aid but also organizes cultural activities for the exiled community.
Last week "The trauma of the witness" was screened, a documentary on the Russians who fled to Istanbul, directed by Taya Zubova, who herself fled to Turkey.
There were a hundred spectators, almost all Russians, but in the end Kristina, a young Ukrainian, also took the floor and thanked those present in tears for being on Kiev's side.
In fact, some of them had participated shortly before in the daily protest sit-in of the Ukrainian community in front of the Consulate in Moscow.
"Shortly after my arrival they called me from Russia to tell me that the summons to go to the front had arrived", says Sergei, a Russian citizen, but with parents of Ukrainian origin, who fled as soon as he heard of the mobilization.
"When the war started I went to my family in Lugansk, to try to protect them but in the following months I chose to flee because I risked being hired by the new pro-Russian administration to go and fight against my people", says Igor instead, one of the Ukrainians present at the demonstration.