State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said at the meeting that lists of all those who leave are being compiled at the Russian border. He is quoted by TASS.
“We are compiling lists of all those who are on the road now. Do you think they leave and no one sees who went, why did they go?
He added that many people abandon cars at the border and offered to give them to the families of those who went to war in Ukraine: “We also need to think about who to give these cars to. Maybe the families of those guys who went to fight. That will be right."
After the “partial” mobilization announced by Vladimir Putin, the Russians sold out air tickets for the next flights to visa-free countries in a few hours. A multi-kilometer traffic jam formed at the Russian-Georgian border checkpoint Upper Lars a day later, The Insider published a video taken from a copter. There are also queues of cars on the borders of Russia with Kazakhstan and Finland.
On Upper Lars, the queue of cars and people continues to grow, a humanitarian catastrophe is observed. The authorities were allowed to cross the border on a bicycle or scooter, and also promised to deploy mobile task forces there and at the entrance to North Ossetia to hand out subpoenas to everyone subject to mobilization. The day before, Russian armored personnel carriers arrived at the border with Georgia “in case the reservists want to break through the checkpoint without completing any border formalities to leave the country.”
To get to the checkpoint by car, you need to "pay" the road at several traffic police posts. The border guards take bribes for the passage of those liable for military service, many decide to walk many kilometers of mountain trails on foot – without warm clothes, food, water and with discharged phones. The Insider talked to eyewitnesses who managed to cross the Georgian border.