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(CNN) --
Vadim says he fell into depression last month after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military draft to send hundreds of thousands of recruits to fight in Ukraine.
"I was silent," says the 28-year-old engineer, explaining that he simply stopped talking while at work.
"I was angry and scared."
When Russia's invasion of Ukraine began in February, Vadim says he took to the streets of Moscow to protest, but Putin's September 21 order to recruit at least 300,000 men to fight seemed like a point of no return.
"We don't want this war," says Vadim.
"We cannot change something in our country, although we have tried."
He decided that he had only one option left.
Several days after Putin's draft order, he said a tearful goodbye to his grandmother and left his Moscow home, perhaps forever.
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Vadim, 28 years old, an engineer from Moscow.
Vadim and his friend Alexei traveled as fast as they could to Russia's border with the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, where they queued for three days to cross.
"We fled Russia because we want to live," says Alexei.
"We are afraid that they will send us to Ukraine."
Both men asked not to be identified to protect loved ones left behind in Russia.
Last week in Almaty, Kazakhstan's commercial capital, they lined up with more than 150 other newly arrived Russians outside a government registration center as part of an exodus of people escaping military service.
Russians queuing at a registration center in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Express opinion leaving Russia
More than 200,000 Russians have arrived in Kazakhstan following Putin's announcement of compulsory military service, according to the Kazakh government.
And it's not hard to spot the Russian newcomers at Almaty's main train station.
It seems that every hour young Slavs with backpacks come off the train, looking slightly dazed as they check their phones for directions.
They come from cities all over Russia: Yaroslavl, Togliati, St. Petersburg, Kazan.
When asked why they have left, they all say the same thing: mobilization.
"It's not something I want to be involved in," says a 30-year-old computer programmer named Sergei.
He is sitting on a bench outside the train station with his wife, Irina.
The couple, backpacks and mats rolled up, say they hope to travel to Turkey and hopefully apply for Schengen visas for Europe.
Sergei and his wife, Irina, outside the train station in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Most of the new Russian exiles spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity.
Giorgi, a writer in his 30s from Yekaterinburg, says he fled to Kazakhstan last week after having panic attacks thinking he might be dragged into the army.
"How can I participate in a war without the desire to win it?" he asks.
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Now he is trying to find an apartment in Almaty and hopes that his wife and young son will be able to visit him in the winter.
Faced with the challenge of trying to make a living in a foreign city, Giorgi reckons his difficulties are minimal compared to those of Ukrainians, who were forced to flee by the millions after Russia attacked their cities and towns.
Unlike Ukrainians, who fight valiantly for their homeland, Giorgi says that Russians who dodge the draft like him can be considered both "a refugee and an aggressor" by virtue of their citizenship.
"I didn't support his war, I never did," says Giorgi.
"But somehow I am still linked to the state by my passport."
Giorgi, a writer in his 30s from Yekaterinburg, Russia, left his wife and young son to establish a new life in Almaty.
Central Asian hospitality
The new Russian exiles are not technically refugees, in part because the Russian government is not yet officially at war with Ukraine.
According to the Kremlin, Russia is conducting a "special military operation" against its Ukrainian neighbor.
Currently, Russian citizens can enter Kazakhstan for short periods with their national identity documents, and the president of the Central Asian country has urged his compatriots to welcome the new arrivals.
"Most of them are forced to leave due to the desperate situation. We must take care of them and ensure their safety," President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in late September.
An informal grassroots effort has sprung up across Kazakhstan to help feed and temporarily house Russians.
"They are fleeing, they are afraid," says Ekaterina Korotkaya, an Almaty journalist who has helped coordinate assistance to the newly arrived Russians.
Almira Orlova, an Almaty-based nutritionist, says she has helped at least 26 Russians find accommodation.
"They would come to my apartment, stay for a while and then stay at my friends' apartments," he says.
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But she notes that she did not receive the same hospitality when she moved with her Russian husband to Moscow several years ago.
So Russian landlords repeatedly refused to rent her apartments because she was "Asian," she said.
"When I told them I was Kazakh, they said 'sorry, I can't'. And we couldn't find an apartment for two months," says Orlova.
"Central Asians who went to Russia for labor migration face serious discrimination in Russia," says Kadyr Toktogulov, a former Kyrgyz ambassador to the United States and Canada.
The former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan has also seen a large "reverse migration" of Russians fleeing the draft.
"I don't think Russians who come to Central Asia fleeing conscription have the same kind of problems or face the kind of discrimination that citizens of the Central Asian republics have suffered for years in Russia," says Toktogulov.
Toktogulov claims that his own family recently rented an apartment in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, from a newly arrived Russian.
Brain drain
Real estate experts say the flood of Russian exiles has already sent rents soaring in Almaty, the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek and other cities in the region.
The impact is also being felt in commercial real estate, as many Russians look to work remotely.
"Not only individuals are coming, but big (Russian) companies and corporate businesses are moving their companies to Kazakhstan," says Madina Abilpanova, managing partner of DM Associates, an Almaty-based real estate company.
Madina Abilpanova, managing partner of DM Associates in Almaty.
She says Russian companies have contacted her, seeking to relocate hundreds of their employees in an effort to protect them from military recruitment.
"They are willing to move immediately, to pay whatever we want, but we don't have spaces," says Abilpanova.
He speaks to CNN at City Hub, a
co-working
space in central Almaty, where desks are filled with young Russians working quietly on laptops.
Newcomers from Russia work in a co-working space in Almaty.
Abilpanova says that all of these clients had arrived in Kazakhstan in the last two weeks.
As she spoke, another young Russian man with a giant backpack came through the door.
The business owners had to turn it down because there was no room.
"It's kind of like a tsunami for us," says Abilpanova.
"Every day they come like this."
Vadim, the Moscow engineer recently arrived in Kazakhstan, says his company is sponsoring him and 15 other employees to move to the firm's Almaty office.
"My boss is against the (Russian) government," says Vadim.
Unlike many other Russians who suddenly fled into exile, Vadim can count on a salary for the time being.
But he doesn't know when - or if - he will be able to see his grandmother in Moscow.
"I hope to see her again," says Vadim, tearful.
"But I don't know how much time she has left. I hope I can come back one day at least to bury her."
CNN's Mayumi Maruyama contributed to this report.
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