A growing number of high-level Russian officials including former generals and intelligence agents are defecting to the West, emboldened and disgruntled by the Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian dissident who fled to France from Russia in 2015, has been helping the fleeing Russian officials defecting to the West, a report in CNN said.
Osechkin currently works as an investigative journalist and anti-corruption activist and founded Gulagu.net in 2011, a human rights organization targeting corruption and torture in Russia.
The website has overseen a string of high-profile investigations accusing Russian institutions and ministries of crimes.
But, ever since the beginning of Ukraine war in February last year, it has sparked “a big wave” of Russian officials leaving their homeland, Osechkin said.
Many of those fleeing Russia are low-level soldiers, however, among them are far senior officers including an ex-government minister and a former three-star Russian general. The report claimed that an ex-officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and Wagner mercenaries are also among those who have fled their homeland.
Earlier this month, Osechkin also helped a former Wagner commander who fled Russia on foot into Norway to claim asylum. The former soldier was afraid for his life after he refused to renew his contract with the group.
“When the person is in the very high level, they understand very well how the machine of Putin’s regime worked and they have a very good understanding that if they open (up about it), it’s very high risk of the act of terrorism with Novichok or killers,” Osechkin reportedly CNN.
However, in return for such escapes from Russia, Osechkin takes information about the inner workings in Moscow. The information is then handed to the European intelligence agencies, with whom Osechkin has regular contact.
The information ranges from military documents to information on corruption and architectural plan of a building, which may not be useful but helps in building up a picture.
Former FSB officer, who fled from Russia, said that there is growing desperation over Kremlin’s chances in Ukraine and driving many of his colleagues to look for an escape.
But the job is not as easy as it seems. Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown his determination to hunt the Kremlin’s perceived enemies overseas. Osechkin, who is in Russia’s ‘wanted list’, has been arrested in absentia in Russia.
He was also targeted by assassins at his house last year in September as he spotted red lasers on his wall and fled to safety.
“The last 10 years I do a lot of things to protect the human rights and other people. But in this moment, I understood that my mission to help other people created a very high risk to my family,” Osechkin said, according to the report.
The Russian dissident is now under full protection of the French police.
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