Monthly Archives: April 2022

Bush and Putin share a laugh together at the Crawford Summit on November 15, 2001Reuters

Former US President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin briefly bonded in 2001.

They held a summit in a rural Texas town of 705 people where Bush owns a nearby ranch.

Putin and his wife stayed at the ranch, and later, the two presidents took questions from local students.

Two months after the September 11 attacks, Russian President Vladimir Putin joined former US President George W. Bush in a rural Texan town of 700 people, where Bush owns the nearby Prairie Chapel ranch. The two leaders also spoke at a high school, after winding down at the ranch, according to NPR.

The now-unimaginable meeting took place in Crawford, Texas, on November 15, 2001, and was billed as the Crawford Summit, with both presidents less than a year into their first terms in office.

It was an era when Putin admired Bush and Russia was trying to normalize relationships with the West after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The meeting reflected a positive moment in American and Russian relations and a glimpse of Putin early in his rise to power in Russia.

"We had a great dinner last night; we had a little Texas barbecue, pecan pie, a little Texas music. And I think the President really enjoyed himself," Bush told the students, according to the George W. Bush White House archives. "I told him he was welcome to come back next August to get a true taste of Crawford. He said, fine, and maybe you'd like to go to Siberia in the winter."

During his speech, Bush mentioned that Putin and his wife Lyudmila stayed the night at his Prairie Chapel ranch.

"It's my honor also to introduce President Putin to Crawford. I bet a lot of folks here, particularly the older folks, never dreamt that an American President would be bringing the Russian President to Crawford, Texas." Bush said. "A lot of people never really dreamt that an American President and a Russian President could have established the friendship that we have. We were enemies for a long period of time."

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Bush added that "we're working together to break the old ties, to establish a new spirit of cooperation and trust so that we can work together to make the world more peaceful." His speech largely focused on combatting terrorism and seeing Russia as a partner in that fight.

Bush and Putin share a laugh together at the Crawford Summit on November 15, 2001Reuters

"On our way here, we didn't expect at all that things would be so warm and homey as they were at the ranch of President Bush here," Putin said. "Yesterday, we had a surprise, but today's meeting is yet another and very pleasant surprise, indeed, for us. Indeed, in any country, the backbone of any country is not only the people who live in the capitals but also and mostly, the people who live hundreds and thousands of miles from the capital."

Putin's comments largely lauded Russian contributions to the US and highlighted shared cultural histories by way of migration.

Students then asked questions about the US invasion of Afghanistan, a war that was only two months old at the time. One student asked the two leaders, " How do you think the fall of the Taliban government will affect women's rights?"

Bush spoke first, saying that "there's no question the Taliban is the most repressive, backward group of people we have seen on the face of the Earth in a long period of time, including and particularly how they treat women."

Bush and Putin in front of a Texas mural at the Crawford Summit on November 15, 2001Reuters

He told the students he wanted Putin to speak on the topic of human rights as well. Putin answered next, saying that "in Afghanistan, this phenomenon has taken an extreme form, and the disrespect of human rights has acquired extreme dimensions."

"Overall, women in Afghanistan are basically not treated as people," Putin said.

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Putin once spoke with George W. Bush at a rural Texas high ...

Russia-Ukraine War Updates: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said Russias large-scale offensive in the eastern Donbas region had begun. We can now confirm that Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, which they have been preparing for a long time. A large part of the Russian army is now dedicated to this offensive, he said on Telegram. No matter how many Russian soldiers are brought here, we will fight. We will defend ourselves.

Fighting has intensified in eastern Ukraine after Russia withdrew troops from the region around the capital Kyiv and refocused its efforts on the Donbas region that pro-Moscow separatists have partly controlled since 2014.

Shortly before Zelenskys address, the regional governor of the eastern Lugansk region Sergiy Gaiday also announced the beginning of Russias much-anticipated attack. Its hell. The offensive has begun, the one weve been talking about for weeks. Theres constant fighting in Rubizhne and Popasna, fighting in other peaceful cities, he said on Facebook.

Indias exports to Russia have resumed with containers carrying goods including tea, rice, fruits, coffee, marine products and confectionery shipping out last week, Economic Times quoted people with knowledge of the matter. The report stated that banks led by Russias largest lender, Sberbank, are facilitating settlement of bilateral trade moving largely through ports in Georgia. The transactions are happening through Sberbank, Ajay Sahai, director general and CEO, Federation of Indian Export Organisations, was quoted as saying. We have just shipped 60 containers of non-basmati rice to Russia, each weighing 22,000 kg, said Ashwin Shah, director at Shah Nanji Nagji Exports, a leading exporter of rice to Russia. Payment for our rice is being handled by Russia-based Alfa Bank. Bank of Maharashtra is our Indian bank.

Russias Military Sites Now Visible on Google: Google Maps made Russias strategic facilities visible to users Monday, revealing the details of the countrys military infrastructure, The Moscow Times reported. Now everyone can see [Russian military infrastructure] with a resolution of about 0.5 meters per pixel, tweeted the Ukrainian armed forces. Satellite images of military facilities are traditionally blurred, or displayed in lower quality, by Google Maps to protect their classified status. The move comes amid strained relations between Russia and US tech giant Google.

Russian shelling killed at least eight civilians in eastern Ukraine on Monday, according to local authorities. Regional governor of the eastern Lugansk region Sergiy Gaiday said four people died as they tried to flee the city of Kreminna in Lugansk, which Russian forces captured on Monday.

Russia claims arms depot hit: Russias army says it has destroyed a large depot of foreign weapons recently delivered to Ukraine near the western city of Lviv one of 16 Ukrainian military sites it claims to have destroyed on Monday. Russian planes in the morning struck a logistics centre holding large batches of foreign weaponry, delivered to Ukraine over the past six days by the United States and European countries, and destroyed them, says Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov.

Eight Killed in East: Russian strikes have killed at least eight civilians in the embattled eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, local authorities say. Four died as they tried to escape the city of Kreminna which Russian forces captured earlier on Monday, Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday says on Telegram. Four others died in Russian bombing in the neighbouring region of Donetsk, says regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.

7 Killed in Lviv, 3 in Kharkiv: Five powerful Russian missiles hit the western city of Lviv, killing at least seven people and wounding eight, local officials say. Russian shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, killed at least three people.

EU Condemns Indiscriminate Strikes: The European Union condemns indiscriminate and illegal shelling of civilians by Russian forces, in a statement by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. Attacks on Lviv and other cities in western Ukraine show that no part of the country is spared from the Kremlins senseless onslaught, he said.

Putin Honours Bucha-linked Brigade: Russian President Vladimir Putin bestows an honorary title on a brigade accused by Ukraine of war crimes and mass killings in the town of Bucha. A decree signed by Putin gives the 64th Motor Rifle Brigade the title of Guards for defending the Motherland and state interests and praises the mass heroism and valour, tenacity and courage of its members.

Tycoon Seeks Prisoner Exchange: Russian state television broadcasts a video of two men it says are captured Britons, asking to be exchanged for Viktor Medvedchuk, a recently captured wealthy Ukrainian tycoon close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ukraines security services then put out a video of Medvedchuk asking to be exchanged for Ukrainian civilians and soldiers trapped in the strategic besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol.

Civilian Evacuations Paused: Ukraine says it is halting civilian evacuations from the frontline towns and cities in the east of the country for a second day. In violation of international humanitarian law, the Russian occupiers have not stopped blocking and shelling humanitarian routes, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk posts on social media Monday.

Nearly 5 mn Fled Ukraine, Says UN: More than 4.9 million Ukrainians have fled their country following the Russian invasion, says the UNs refugee agency, the UNHCR. It says 4,934,415 Ukrainians have now quit the country, up more than 65,000 on the previous day.

Moscow Job Losses: Some 200,000 employees of foreign companies in Moscow could lose their jobs due to sanctions over Russias military campaign in Ukraine, the citys mayor says. Sergei Sobyanin says authorities had last week approved a $41-million programme to support employment in the Russian capital.

Russian troops have dropped bunker bombs on the Mariupol steel plant, the commander of Azov Regiment of the National Guard, Denys Prokopenko, said. Russian occupational forces, and their proxy know about the civilians, and they keep willingly firing on the factory, Prokopenko added.

A senior Pentagon official on Monday confirmed that the first shipment of the USD 800 million military packages arrived at the Ukraine border. There have been four flights from the United States arriving into the theatre just yesterday, the official said, as quoted by The Guardian. This is a part of the new defence aid tranche signed by US president Joe Biden last week, which includes the supply of helicopters, Humvees, and armoured personnel carriers.

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Russia-Ukraine War Latest Updates: Google Maps Unblurs ...

Eighty yearsago this Monday, in the early months of World War II when Japan was gobbling up much of Asia after sinking Americas battleship fleet at Pearl Harbor,16 B-25bombers under the command of Lt. Col. James H.Doolittlelaunched from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet to strike Tokyo in a daring, one-way raid.Little physical damage was done. But thepsychological effectwas massive.The invulnerability of Japan promised by the senior military was shattered.

It is a good thing that Russian President Vladimir Putin, like many Americans today, is probably not well versed in this history.With the sinking of his Black Sea Fleet flag ship, theMoskva, presumably by UkrainesNeptunecruise missiles (or utterincompetenceby the crew), Putin needs some shock and awe of his own to recover from this equivalent of the Doolittle raid.What might that be?

Given theinfluxof presidents and prime ministers to Kyiv in support of the Zelensky government and the magnificent Ukrainian resistance, the White House is considering dispatching a senior representative.No doubt President Biden is carefullyevaluatingwhether he should make that trip.Or would sending the vice president orsecretariesof state or defense be appropriate?

If Biden were to go, most Americans would likely support him. But serious blowback would be inevitable.The president would be at personal risk.If he were to be targeted or killed, what would be the response, if one existed?

Republicans would label such a trip as reckless in the extreme. Should disaster occur, many will ask if the vice president is ready or capable of assuming the duties of chief executive and commander in chief.And if anyone other than the president were chosen, given all theother heads of state and government who have made the trek to Kyiv, would that comparison be politically damaging to Biden?

From Putins perspective, how might the Kremlin exploit such a visit regardless of who represented the U.S.?Even a Cabinet secretary would be a tempting target.As Ukraines army has done its best inkilling Russian generals, Putin would like to even the score.

In war, assassination of heads of state has been exceedingly rare.Winston Churchill reportedly believed that after the U.S. entered World War II and the battle had reversed,killing Hitlerwas a bad idea.The fuhrer was the Allies best weapon in that his so-called genius had turned to gotterdammerung.Killing Hitler might have led to a successor who sought peace and thus derail the aim of unconditional surrender.

The most successful example in World War II of a directed assassination against a major leader was the plan to intercept and shoot down the aircraft carrying Japans senior admiral and the architect of Pearl Harbor,Isokuro Yamamoto,in 1943 over the South Pacific.The plan worked perfectly as envisaged by the U.S. Pacific Fleet commander, Admiral Chester Nimitz.

From Putins perspective, clearly Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is aprime target.If Zelensky were killed, who would replace him? And would a successor have the samecharisma to rally the nation and the West?And if President Bidenwere also in Kyiv, would that not raise the ante?

Obviously, any visit by an American dignitary would be wrapped in the utmost secrecy and security. But suppose that Russian intelligence assessed that there was a probability of a Biden visit at a certain time and date. Given the huge losses Russian forces have suffered and theMoskvadebacle, how might former KGB Lt. Col. Putin evaluate his options?

Unlike AmericasSEAL Team Sixthat dispatchedOsama bin Ladenin 2011, Putin does not have that option.Hence, the only certain, or near certain, means to ensure elimination of the presidents could be through anuclear attackobliterating Kyiv and killing possibly hundreds of thousands of people.In Putins mind, could such a barbarically stunning act so paralyze any U.S. and NATO response and force a victory in Ukraine, however defined and regardless of whether Biden were there?

Dangerous in the extreme, such a decision could provoke a thermonuclear war.One of the more frightening aspects of this ghastly invasion is that this scenario is no longer confined to fiction or Hollywood action films. And a further nagging problem for President Biden is that if he does not go to Kyiv and there was serious speculation he might, clearly his adversaries and critics would challenge his courage.

Oh, for the days of Jimmy Doolittle!

Harlan Ullman, Ph.D, is senior adviser at Washington, D.C.s Atlantic Council and the primary author of shock and awe. His latestbook is,The Fifth Horseman and the New MAD: How Massive Attacks of Disruption Became the Looming Existential Danger to a Divided Nation and the World at Large.

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Putins gambit: To kill a president | The Hill

1. Ukraine Latest: Putin Popularity Still High as Russian Elite Question War's Toll  Bloomberg
2. A growing number of Kremlin insiders are questioning Putin's war in Ukraine, and believe it will set Russia back decades: report  Yahoo News
3. Putin Purges Advisors but He's Responsible for Misinformation  Business Insider
4. Lonely Putin Is Losing Control of His Own Spiraling Minions  The Daily Beast
5. Analysis: War, economy could weaken Putin's place as leader  The Associated Press - en Espaol
6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Ukraine Latest: Putin Popularity Still High as Russian Elite Question War's Toll - Bloomberg

Russian business tycoon Oleg Tinkov attends a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russia, June 7, 2019.

Maxim Shemetov | Reuters

Sanctioned Russian digital bank founder Oleg Tinkov on Tuesday blasted his nation's "insane" war against Ukraine and called on Western nations to give Russia's leader Vladimir Putin "a clear exit to save his face and stop this massacre."

Tinkov, in an impassioned Instagram post, also claimed that "90% of Russians are AGAINST this war!" He also argued that the remaining 10% are "morons," and that the Russian army has been exposed as 'sh---y."

The screed by the founder of TCS Group Holding and the digital Tinkoff Bank came weeks after the United Kingdom sanctioned Tinkov, freezing his personal assets in the U.K. The U.K. also sanctioned a number of other Russian individuals and entities.

Before Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, the 54-year-old Tinkov's wealth had been estimated at more than $4.42 billion.

But Forbes reported last month that he had lost his status as a billionaire, as his shares in Tinkoff Bank tanked in value since November.

"I do not see ONE beneficiary of this insane war!" Tinkov wrote in Russian in his Instagram post. "Innocent people and soldiers are dying. The generals woke up from a hangover, realized they had a sh---y army."

"And how will the army be good if everything else in the country is s--t and dirty in nepotism."

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"Kremlin officials are shocked that not only they, but also their children will not go to the Mediterranean in the summer," Tinkov wrote. "Businessmen are trying to salvage what remains of property."

"Of course there are morons drawing Z" the symbol in Russia for support of the invasion of Ukraine "but morons in any country [are] 10%."

"Dear 'collective West' please give Mr. Putin a clear exit to save his face and stop this massacre," Tinkov wrote in closing. "Please be more rational and humanitarian."

Tinkov on Oct. 1 pleaded guilty to tax fraud in a United States criminal case, where federal prosecutors said he had filed a false tax return when he renounced his American citizenship in 2013.

He agreed as part of his sentence to pay more than $500 million in penalties to settle that case, which was more than double the amount he had sought to avoid paying the U.S. Treasury in taxes when he renounced his citizenship and tried to conceal large stock gains from the sale of shares in TCS.

Tinkov had fought extradition from the U.K. to the U.S. successfully after being indicted in 2019.

"In public records, Tinkov has disclosed that he is undergoing a UK-based intensive treatment plan for acute myeloid leukemia and graft versus host disease, which has rendered him immunocompromised and unable to safely travel in the foreseeable future," the U.S. Justice Department said in October.

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Sanctioned Russian bank founder Oleg Tinkov condemns 'insane' Ukraine war, calls on West to give Putin face-saving exit - CNBC

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President Biden again blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for much of inflation in the United States, while warning that the war in Ukraine will "continue to take its toll" on the worlds economy.

During remarks in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the president acknowledged that American families are "struggling with higher prices" amid record-high inflation, but again said the reason for the surge was due the COVID-19 pandemic and Putins unprecedented war in Ukraine.

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION RESUMES OIL AND GAS LEASES ON FEDERAL LANDS AS GASOLINE PRICES SOAR

"The second big reason for inflation is Vladimir Putin. Not a joke," Biden said Tuesday. "Putins invasion of Ukraine has driven up gas prices and food prices all over the world."

Biden said that last month, "about 70% of the increase in inflation was a consequence of Putins price hike."

Former President Trump has long referred to his political rival as "Sleepy" Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Inflation numbers were released last week revealing a new four-decade high in March as Russias war in Ukraine fueled rapid price gains for oil and gas that wiped out the benefits of rising wages for most Americans.

The consumer price index rose 8.5% in March from a year ago, according to the Labor Department report released Tuesday, marking the fastest increase since January 1982 when inflation hit 8.4% The CPI, which measures a bevy of goods ranging from gasoline and health care to groceries and rents, jumped 1.2% in the one-month period from January.

At grocery stores, Americans have seen meat prices increase by 14.8%, fish by 10.9%, eggs by 11.2%, milk by 13.3%, fruits and vegetables by 8.1%, and coffee by 11.2% since last year.

As for gas prices, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans have been paying 32% more for energy than last year, and 48% more for gasoline.

Biden, last month, announced a ban on all imports of Russian oil, gas and energy to the United States, targeting the "main artery" of Russia's economy amid Russian President Vladimir Putins war on Ukraine, but warned that the ban would cost American families.

WHITE HOUSE BLAMES RUSSIA FOR RECORD-HIGH GAS PRICES, COINING '#PUTINPRICEHIKE'

Russian oil accounts for about one-thirdof Europes oil imports, but is just under 10% of U.S. overall imports.

"Im doing everything I can to bring down the price to address Putins price hike," the president said Tuesday, recalling his administrations move last month to release 1 million barrels of oil each day for the next six months from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to combat soaring gasoline prices.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Roscosmos space agency employees at a rocket assembly factory during his visit to the Vostochny cosmodrome. (Evgeny Biyatov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Last week, the Department of Interior announced that it will resume the sale of oil and gas leases on federal land beginning this week.

The Bureau of Land Management will begin issuing final environmental assessments and sale notices on Monday for future oil and gas projects and will offer for lease "approximately 173 parcels on roughly 144,000 acres, an 80 percent reduction from the acreage originally nominated," BLM stated.

Biden had said during the campaign that he wanted to end such leases and put a moratorium on them the first day of his presidency. The administration, in making the announcement, sought to emphasize that it was trying to reopen drilling responsibly.

"How we manage our public lands and waters says everything about what we value as a nation," Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. "For too long, the federal oil and gas leasing programs have prioritized the wants of extractive industries above local communities, the natural environment, the impact on our air and water, the needs of Tribal Nations, and, moreover, other uses of our shared public lands."

BIDEN BLAMES PUTIN, COVID FOR RECORD-HIGH INFLATION IN US

And last month, upon announcing the move, Biden said his plan would release around 180 million additional barrels from the strategic petroleum reserve, which would leave the already-depleted stockpile down to around 388 million barrels, the lowest level since March 1984.

But the White House said the "historic" release would provide oil supply to "serve as a bridge until the end of the year when domestic production ramps up."

The president spoke Tuesday with European allies and partners and noted that he has gotten other countries to also "release petroleum from their reserves."

"So we work with the U.S. oil producers to ramp up the production, and we coordinate this release with our partners and allies around the world," the president said, adding that since his announcement, 30 countries have agreed to "60 million additional barrels a day on the market," calling it "the largest collected reserve release in history."

Biden said that nations are "coming together to help deny Putin the ability to weaponize energy resources against American families and families in Europe and around the world."

"The fact is that we are in a situation where the war in Ukraine is going to continue to take its toll on the world economy," Biden said.

The president said the U.S. would take on the "challenges" of inflation from "a position of strength."

"Im more optimistic about America today than I have ever been in my whole career because I see the future thats within our grasp," the president said. "We cant be afraid, though."

"Were the only nation on Earth that has always turned every single solitary crisis weve had into an opportunitythats exactly what were going to do today," he continued.

Biden added: "If we do it togetherit is about being together, the United States of Americathere is not a single thing we cant do."

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Biden blames Putin for inflation, warns war in Ukraine will 'continue to take its toll' on economy - Fox News

Historian Jeremy Black has given a withering diagnosis of Putins invasion, finding multiple parallels between it and Russias war with Japan in 1904-5. The historic war did not end well for Russia - and neither will todays, warns Mr Black. The first key similarity is the sinking of Russias flagship vessel, the Moskva.

It was claimed by the Kremlin that the ship sank due to ammunition exploding on board during stormy weather - but this was later contradicted by images which appeared to show the ship riddled with explosions on calm seas.

There have been conflicting claims on Russian state media about the true fate of the ship, and even a suspiciously short and silent video released by their military claiming to show the crew safe and sound.

The lengths Putin appears to be going to to downplay the victory for Ukraine that the ships sinking represents perhaps indicates how devastating a loss it is for Russia - and for Mr Black, it rings very familiar.

Writing for the Telegraph, he said: The last time the Russian Navy suffered a comparable blow was at the battle of Tsushima, in the final stages of the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5.

Across the two days of the battle, two thirds of the Russian fleet was sunk and a number of surviving ships captured.

It was a disastrous defeat, and it is not the only striking parallel between then and now.

Another key way in which history is repeating itself is in Russias humiliation at the hands of a foe who was presumed to be inferior.

Speaking of the Russo-Japanese war, Mr Black wrote: the result was a calamity for the Russian regime.

It was the first time in the modern era that a European power was defeated by an Asian nation, and not just any Asian nation but one that had been an isolationist feudal state a few decades earlier.

The sense of national humiliation was acute for Russia as it ought to be again today, as the world witnesses the supposed cream of the Russian military being ground to a halt by a nation that, so Putins logic goes, is not even a real country.

To be fair to the Russian despot, his FSB officers tasked with assessing Ukraines strength reportedly gave a disingenuously positive view of a possible Russia invasion, both for fear of displeasing their tyrannical leader and because they had no idea such an event was even being considered.

READ MORE:Best fighter jets in world: Top war planes ranked[INSIGHT]

Mr Black also highlighted the difference between Russia and Japans military technology in 1904, with Russia woefully ill-equipped for the war.

This is one element that does not ring quite so true today, with Russias military widely regarded as more expensive and technologically advanced than Ukraines.

However, Ukraine has seen substantial military support from western NATO countries, while Russia has seen repeated logistical failures and crumbling morale hamper their progress.

Where Putins war does appear to echo that of Tsar Nicholas II is in his inability to learn, as Mr Black calls it, the dangers of a wartime leader digging in his heels.

Mr Black stated that during the Russo-Japanese war, the crucial contrast that opened up was between the early arrogant and in part racist assumptions of the Russian leadership and the reality of an intractable conflict.

So also today. Instead of facing up to the difficulties his military faces, President Putin is renewing his assault, shifting the focus to the Donbas presumably in the conviction that this time he will be more successful.

Tsar Nicholas II had opportunities to negotiate peace but decided against it in favour of military aggression, wrote Mr Black - a disastrous decision which led to open revolt and a full revolution just over ten years later.

He concluded: If I were Vladimir Putin, I would find enough in the story to worry me.

His forces face a similar humiliation and, though it could again be years in the making, defeat may yet mark the beginning of the end for this modern Tsars hideous reign.

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Putin on the brink of major 1905 humiliation after disastrous naval defeat - Express

Vinnytsia, Ukraine Nana Grinstein fled Russia because the Kremlins new laws punishing criticism of its so-called special operation in Ukraine may land her in jail.

Grinstein, a playwright, her husband Viktor, a video editor, and their 14-year-old daughter, Tonya, left behind the hysteria in Russia caused by the war in Ukraine, and the persecution of anyone who dares to say that President Vladimir Putins special operation is, in fact, a war.

The world that weve been building for years, that seemed unshakable, important and relevant, crumbled before my very eyes like it was made of cardboard, Grinstein told Al Jazeera from a rented apartment in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.

Arriving in Armenia in early March, the family found that tens of thousands of other Russians had made the journey before them, and they have witnessed the arrival of many more since.

Grinstein and her family fled Russia fearing the very real possibility of persecution for being, to use Putins own words, scum and national traitors slurs that have spurred a witch-hunt reminiscent of the Stalin-era purges.

The Grinsteins are now among at least 200,000 Russians who have abandoned their homes and jobs because they are disgusted by the Kremlins attack on Ukraine and the largely enthusiastic response to the war by their compatriots.

They want nothing to do with Putins sham-Imperial project and dont want to be associated with his war crimes, columnist Leonid Bershidsky wrote in mid-March.

Others [leave] because they cannot imagine living under the Soviet-style autarky to which Western sanctions have doomed Russia, he wrote.

The post-invasion flight from Russia is the latest but hardly the final chapter of the exodus of millions who cannot stand to live under Putins rule.

From 2000, when Putin was first elected president, to 2020, four to five million Russians have emigrated, according to research published by the Takie Dela magazine in October.

The figures werebased on surveys, official national data from dozens of countries from Kazakhstan to Canada as well as Russian statistics on the number of people who had cancelled their residence registration.

In the early 2000s, Russians migrated mostly to Europe and North America, but after 2014 more moved to former Soviet republics, the magazine reported.

The new tide of Russian migrants is huge and rising.

At least 200,000 people left Russia in the first 10 days of the war in Ukraine, according to calculations by Konstantin Sonin, a Russian-born economist at the University of Chicago.

The tragic exodus not seen for a century, Sonin wrote in atweet, where he compared the ongoing flight with the White Emigration that followed the 1917 Bolshevik revolution when some five million people fled the former Russian empire ending up in Germany, France, the United States, Argentina and China.

Among the emigres were novelist Vladimir Nabokov, composer Igor Stravinsky and Ukrainian-born helicopter designer Igor Sikorsky.

Nowadays, emigration is faster and far easier, especially for digital nomads who can live almost anywhere as long as there is access to broadband internet and online banking.

A survey of more than 2,000 emigrants conducted in mid-March by OK Russians, a nascent nonprofit that helps emigres, found that about a third of those who left were IT experts, managers of all sorts constituted another third, and the remainder were office workers and creative freelancers designers, bloggers, journalists.

The survey concluded that at least 300,000 Russians had left the country by March 16, mostly to Georgia, Turkey and Armenia.

Others have left for more exotic destinations.

When the war started, Leonid Shmelkov was on vacation in Sri Lanka.

The 39-year-old animator, whose My Own Personal Moose cartoon won a special prize at Germanys 2014 Berlin International Film Festival, decided to stay in Sri Lanka and urged a dozen friends to join him.

Shmelkov and his friends work on long-distance projects despite imperfect web access and power supply in Sri Lanka. They have learned how to get by living on an island where web access and the power supply are far from perfect.

Sri Lankas tourism-dependent economy nosedived because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and authorities have allowed thousands of Russian tourists to extend their stay because they are welcome of the business, Shmelkov said.

Reflecting on the conflict, Shmelkov feels that Moscow is not just at war with Kyiv.

Propaganda exaggerating the role Soviet forces played in the victory over Nazi Germany led to a cult of war that acted as a precursor to the current war hysteria in Russia, he explained.

Weve had some sort of a cult of war, a very wrong cult of war, not in the sense of lets do everything so that it doesnt happen again, Shmelkov told Al Jazeera.

The Russian government is waging two wars one against Ukraine and the other one against normal people in Russia.

Two-thirds of Russians feel pride, inspiration or joy about the war in Ukraine, according to a March 4 survey by the Levada Center, Russias last independent pollster. Only 18 percent felt anger, shame or depression at the war.

A resident of Moscow, who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, compared the current environment in Russia as being more like a plot in a Stephen King horror novel than to the anti-Utopia of George Orwells 1984.

I am surrounded by zombies. No one forces them, they support the war voluntarily and with joy. This is not Orwell, this is King, she said.

Propaganda-filled television shows are broadcast almost around the clock, and their influence on the hearts and minds is as devastating as nuclear weapons, she added.

Its killing everyone and everything, turning black into white and vice versa. Year after year, drop after drop, fake after fake.

Thousands of war critics have been jailed, harassed, their homes raided, subjected to smear campaigns, and physically attacked by unidentified thugs, human rights groups say.

This new witch-hunt surpasses any previous quashing of dissent under Putin, who said in mid-March that scum and national traitors should be purged.

For two decades, the argument has been that oppression and human rights violations are a necessary evil to ensure economic growth and stability, [but] in the end, Putins regime has neither, said Ivar Dale, a senior policy adviser with the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, a rights monitor.

The increasing brutality in Russian society has forced the countrys brightest to leave in search for a better future for their families, he told Al Jazeera.

Newly resident in Yerevan, Grinsteins professional and personal history is a reflection of the evolution of oppression in Russia.

The 51-year-old Muscovite penned scripts for award-winning movies and television shows, but it was her lesser-known writings that drew the ire of Russian authorities. Since 2011, she has been writing for Teatr.doc, Russias most political, persecuted, and outspoken theatre.

Grinstein based her plays on interviews and documents that described the lives of LGBTQ Russians, Muslim labour migrants and the post-WWII co-existence of Germans and Russian settlers in the Soviet-occupied Baltic exclave of Konigsberg.

For years, the Teatr.doc troupe faced threats, arrests and interrogations, but their shoestring-budget performances won accolades and awards.

When the war in Ukraine began in February, Grinstein tried to rally filmmakers she knew in opposition to the conflict. Her appeals were in vain, because too many of their film projects depended on government funding.

Grinsteins own family history epitomises the new divisions in Russian society and the not-so-distant Soviet past.

Her husband, Viktor, refrains from discussing the war with his elderly pro-Russian parents who live in the separatist-controlled southeastern region of Luhansk.

Her daughter, Tonya, saw how the Kremlins war propaganda affected her peers, who mostly cheered the invasion.

She was scared more than we were, Grinstein told Al Jazeera.

For Grinstein, their recent arrival in Armenia echoes another war that uprooted her family a generation ago.

She was born in 1971 in Baku, the capital of then-Soviet Azerbaijan, into an Armenian-Jewish family where she remembers wearing a classy dress to her high school graduation in 1988 and walking home past soldiers in armoured vehicles.

The troops were deployed by Moscow during the Azeri-Armenian tensions over Nagorno-Karabakh that would spark a war four years later.

Anti-Armenian pogroms in Azerbaijan soon forced the Grinsteins to leave for Armenia, from where she later moved to Moscow to study in a prestigious film school.

She realises now that despite her anti-war stance, her family will still be blamed for allowing Russias war against Ukraine to happen.

My forefathers were persecuted for being Jewish, then for being Armenian, and we will be persecuted for being Russian, she said.

What soothes her is working on plans to move to Germany, the immense hospitality of Armenians and the view in Yerevan she has of Armenias most sacred mountain.

I see Mount Ararat from my window, and thats inspiring, she said.

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Hundreds of thousands flee Russia and Putins two wars - Al Jazeera English