@ae12c717 

There certainly is, but that part is now largely living outside of Russia. Everyone else are hostages of the system - in a culture that largely relies on both parents working, childcare provided by grandparents and the wife, very few women will support emigration. They don’t feel safe moving to another country and this is mostly based in uncertainty (plus some of the general Russian media propaganda about “rotten West”, which works on unconscious level).

So they are choosing between a big uncertainty that affects the whole family and involves severing ties with their extended family and friends in Russia, and a moderate uncertainty of their husband being mobilised and killed. In that context and that culture choosing the latter is  a choice  that looks rational for a woman with children and mortgage.

Of course, myself and my wife know very well this choice is flawed because I have been in Russia and EU plenty of times and I’ve actually emigrated from Poland to UK, and even if Brexit happened 10x I wouldn’t like to live in today’s Russia, and I see the whole emigration thing as strategically beneficial, even with all the little annoyances associated with moving from country to country. But my friends in Russia don’t have any of this experience, so they’re doomed to make flawed decisions.

And here we return to the topic of allegiance to Putin: because if you don’t emigrate from #Russia you have declare support for Putin at least on the surface, because otherwise you will be discriminated against by  everyone around. And not only yourself,  but most importantly your children will be. How do you explain to them that other children and teachers call them “traitors” because you told them not to wear “Z” or support “SMO”?

And few parents will resist   if their children’s wellbeing is on stake 🤷 

 @ae12c717 

Just to add to the above, they are hostages, but they are hostages of a system they built themselves or at least helped to build by not giving a fuck and hoping for “моя хата скрая”. I had a lot of similar discussions last year, especially when mobilisation started in #Russia. A few people asked me for help with getting them or their kids into EU or Israel, and I’ve done everything they asked me for - found contacts, procedures, NGOs etc. Ultimately none of them did actually emigrate, they all seemed to believe Putin’s promise of “partial mobilisation”. I find that stupid and I told them that straight in their face and don’t have much to tell them anymore when they complain about their children being forced to wave “Z” swastika in school, because that was their choice that came with these consequences 🤷