In Astana, an employee of the Federal Security Service, Mikhail Zhilin, who fled to Kazakhstan after the start of mobilization, was arrested for 40 days, journalist Yevgenia Baltatarova said . The court did this after Zhilin tried to leave Kazakhstan and fly to Armenia. After this time, he should be extradited to Russia, Kazakhstan refused him refugee status.
Zhilin, 36, worked as an engineer at the Center for Special Communications and Information of the FSO in Novosibirsk. He was engaged in servicing government communications, had access to state secrets, so he was forbidden to leave. After President Vladimir Putin announced the mobilization, Zhilin illegally crossed the border into Kazakhstan. His wife said that she entered Kazakhstan with her children through the Koyanbai border checkpoint, and Zhilin himself went through the forests near the village of Yernazar. When he was leaving the forest, he met an unknown man. The wife assumes that he reported him to the border guards.
In Russia, a FSO major is charged under articles on desertion and illegal border crossing. In Kazakhstan, Zhilin tried to apply for refugee status, but the country refused him.
According to his wife, a certain "general" had already visited the family's neighbors in Russia and was interested in where the Zhilins were now. In addition, the security forces also came to the school where the children studied: they said that there was a summons for Zhilin. Friends of the family, with whom they crossed the border together and who returned to Russia in November, were also asked about Mikhail.