A former Russian diplomat leaves Russia over the war with a newborn son and ends up on twelve-hour factory shifts in Galilee. A smartwatch full of English words gets him into a doctoral program. Now he asks why Russians abroad still face their troubles alone, and proposes a way out.
Since 2022, hundreds of thousands of Russians have fled Putin's war, most of them young, educated and politically active. Yet in 2022, Russians filed only about 18,400 asylum claims in Europe, and fewer than a third were granted. Many ended up in Armenia, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Israel instead.
In April 2025, Sudan's Rapid Support Forces seized an airstrip at the Al-Atrun oasis in Darfur and pushed toward Libya. A route to the border would let them receive weapons from Marshal Haftar and export the gold that funds their war. Russia has dealt with both sides, trading weapons for access to Sudan's gold.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Israel's newspapers covered the war in four languages and in four different ways. Hebrew papers condemned Russia with caution, English ones spoke of a barbaric invasion, and Arabic ones barely noticed the war. Russian-language outlets were free of Kremlin propaganda.
In February 2022, 16 Israeli outlets in Hebrew, English, Arabic and Russian covered Russia's invasion of Ukraine differently. All but the Arabic press sided with Ukraine and focused on Jewish refugees, but none urged a break with Moscow. Why did one war look so different in one country?
In 2017, near Sudan's Abu Hamad gold mine, Wagner mercenaries reportedly shot dead at least 73 protesters, including children. Prigozhin's firm mined gold with near-forced labor and mercury, helping Omar al-Bashir evade sanctions. Now Sudan lies in ruins after a civil war that has displaced 11 million people.