After the mass restriction of the Internet, many people in Russia have talked about emigrating to Belarus. However, the desire to replace one dictatorship with another is a sign of infantility, believes Ivan Preobrazhensky.
Russians who received a draft for the army can no longer escape the clutches of the Russian digital Gulag through Belarus, taking advantage of the lack of reliable border control between the two allied countries.
There is already the first registered case of a man who had a draft and wanted to go to Belarus. This again raises the question of whether it makes sense to emigrate from Russia to the neighboring “brotherly” country, just because Telegram is not yet blocked there.
Interest in Belarus is growing
Even many Russian oppositionists in exile often imagine Belarus as an operetta – that is, not a very serious dictatorship. How many times have I heard that the situation there is “almost like in Russia”.
Even now, when the usurper of power in the country, Alexander Lukashenko, has gradually begun to release some hostages – which, of course, is not happening just like that, but in exchange for various concessions such as the partial lifting of sanctions – there are still more political prisoners in Belarus than in the incomparably larger Russia, human rights activists claim.
Do Russians still remember the brutal suppression of protests after the presidential elections in Belarus? When they arrive in Minsk, they are more likely to admire the cleanliness and order on the streets, the natural products (no matter that some of them may have been grown in the zone of radioactive contamination from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant).
The cards of some Belarusian banks are still accepted in a number of foreign countries, even in the EU. And now there is another reason for admiration - the availability of mobile Internet. Russians - and this is confirmed by statistics - have even begun to look at real estate in Belarus much more often. Local experts say that it is not yet clear whether this is a sustainable trend, but they confirm the increased interest.
From the thorn to the hawthorn
How is this growing interest in Belarus explained? At first glance - with dissatisfaction with the situation in Russia and the restriction of freedoms on the Internet. This not only hinders communication, but also destroys entire businesses built over years, which unexpectedly outraged even lifestyle bloggers. But are these people who claim that their politics are far-fetched, really fallen from another planet and do not understand that by moving to Belarus, they are moving from a thorn to a hawthorn?
Some may really not see the simplest things. But the majority is more likely to be attracted by the easiest option for emigration. By moving to Belarus, they believe, they will not have to change either the language, or the “traditional values“, unlike “Geyropa“, or even their apolitical attitudes. In general, however, this is the same Russia - only without war and with the Internet. And it must be said honestly that among those who declare their readiness to emigrate in 2026, there are quite a few people who ideologically sympathize with Putin in almost everything, but they do not like the activities of Roskomnadzor.
Immature Russian society
However, there is a third group - those who understand that Belarus is also a dictatorship, and an ally of Russia, and who do not want to remain in the conditional "Russian world". It is very likely that after 2022 they will have already traveled abroad - for a longer period or to visit friends. They understand that emigration is complicated (and perhaps this is what Russian propaganda told them). That is why they are afraid to leave with one suitcase, as those who were not ready to support the war against Ukraine for moral reasons did in 2022, or those who, after the start of mobilization, decided that their life was the highest value.
For such people, the first step is important, the first step into the terrible unknown. They may be among the users of social networks who in recent weeks have been actively searching on Google (until Roskomnadzor blocked them) for “moving to Belarus“.
And this is how “Belarus“, as it is called in Russia, begins to look like the best option for such a planned relocation. However, replacing one dictatorship with another, which are closely related to each other, is not a change in life, but a self-deception and an illusion. By the way, infantile behavior in general has long been characteristic of the immature Russian society, which is unable to defend itself from the aggression of the state.
This text expresses the opinion of the author and may not coincide with the positions of the Bulgarian editorial office and the State News Agency as a whole.