Refugees from the Kremlin to Bulgaria often find that they are not welcome there either.

October 10, 2023

SOPHIA

Amid the bustle of daily life, Andrei Karpov and Irina Dmitrieva, two Russian critics of the Kremlin whose asylum requests were rejected by Bulgaria, stood silently in front of government buildings in Sofia a week ago, holding a placard that read, "State Agency for Refugees against Russian refugees."

That message resonated with many Russians seeking asylum here, who overwhelmingly failed to convince State Refugee Agency (SRA) bureaucrats that their cases warranted such asylum.

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the total number of Russian citizens who have applied for asylum in Bulgaria has totaled 232, but only 15 of them have been granted refugee or humanitarian status so far, according to GAB data provided to RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service.

Why?

The agency says that in most cases applicants will face no risk of prosecution in Russia, where President Vladimir Putin has further tightened his grip since the war began, shutting down virtually all independent media, NGOs and any other remnants of civil society, while the State Duma, predominantly a rubber stamp in the lower house of parliament, has passed censorship laws.

"We can never feel safe at home after leaving a country where our hatred for Putin, his policies, his war was known to the authorities," Dmitrieva told RFE/RL. - "GAB pretends that there is no repression in Russia, no persecution of opponents of the regime, while thousands of Russians are in prison for far lesser statements than ours."

The GAB was not convinced by Karpov and Dmitrieva's three-day vigil

GAB was not convinced by Karpov and Dmitrieva's three-day vigil in front of the Council of Ministers, which oversees the refugee agency. The GAB accused them of trying to pressure "the agency to grant international protection to every Russian citizen who requests it, even those who do not meet the conditions," the RFE/RL GAB said in its comments.

While many are wary of speaking on the record, some refugee advocates have suggested that the attitudes of some GAB bureaucrats may reflect a general favorable view of Russia that many in Bulgaria still hold.

Bulgaria, a member of the EU and NATO, has strong cultural, historical and linguistic ties with Russia, although the Kremlin's war against Ukraine has caused serious cracks in that support.

Surge in EU arrivals

While exact figures are hard to come by, tens of thousands of Russians are believed to have left Russia, especially after Moscow announced a partial military mobilization on September 21, 2022. Georgia and Kazakhstan, former Soviet republics that offer visa-free travel to Russians, have become popular destinations.

The European Union experienced a surge in arrivals after the mobilization announcement. From Sept. 19 to 25, 66,000 Russian citizens entered the bloc. The number dropped to 53,000 in the week beginning Sept. 26, according to Frontex, the EU's border protection agency. Stricter EU visa policies and Russian measures to keep men of military age from leaving may have contributed to the drop in the number of departing Russians, the agency said. Most Russians entering the EU already have residence permits or visas, while others hold dual citizenship, Frontex noted.

According to Eurostat, Russian citizens filed 18,400 asylum applications in European countries in 2022, with Germany (3,855), France (3,350) and Poland (2,215) being the top destinations.

Other ways to obtain a residence permit

Asylum requests are not the only way for Russians to obtain a residence permit in Bulgaria. They can be granted if the applicant opens a business or will represent a company. However, this often requires significant financial resources or the presence of investments or real estate in Bulgaria.

The story of Karpov and Dmitrieva

For Karpov, trouble in his home country began on March 21, 2021, when he held a solitary picket in front of the Kremlin on Red Square in Moscow. (Under Russian law, a protester has the right to hold a solitary picket without prior notification to the authorities.)

Karpov held a banner reading "No to repression! Freedom for political prisoners." After about five minutes, the police intervened, taking him to the police station, where Karpov said he was beaten, resulting in a concussion, which a medical examination later revealed.

In addition to his solitary protest, Karpov has also come under scrutiny by Russian authorities by donating to Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Fund, which was deemed "extremist" by Russian authorities in June 2021.

After Russia's repression of the opposition intensified due to its aggression against Ukraine, Karpov was once again at the center of the authorities' attention. And he was not alone. More than 16,000 Russians were arrested for anti-war activities between February and July 2022, according to Russia's human rights monitor OVD-Info, an apparent peak of anti-war activity that has since declined.

Karpov was charged with "discrediting" the Russian army on social media, a criminal offense in Russia that carries up to five years in prison.

According to Karpov, the police offered him a deal: the criminal prosecution would be dropped if he agreed to sign a contract to serve in Ukraine. To stall for time, Karpov said he had lost his military identification and would only get a replacement in about a week. It worked, and Karpov fled his hometown of Trubchevsk in the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine. Like other refugees from Russia, Karpov first flew to Istanbul and then made his way to the border with Bulgaria by car. On November 9, 2022, at the Malko Tarnovo border crossing with Turkey, Karpov requested political asylum in Bulgaria. Karpov was held in limbo for several days until his documents were accepted by the GAB for processing on November 13, 2022.

Karpov was then transferred to a refugee camp in Sofia. It was only in February of that year that Karpov was interviewed by the GAB, and seven months later, in August, Karpov received the long-awaited news: his request for political asylum had been rejected.

The GAB first accused him of failing to provide the necessary documents to prove his refugee status, although Karpov claimed he had provided the necessary documents and had copies to prove it.

However, GAB later offered a more definitive reason, concluding that Karpov did not face "grounds for a well-founded fear of persecution" if he returned to Russia, noting that the situation there "cannot be defined as an armed conflict," according to an official document seen by RFE/RL that outlines the reasons why Karpov was denied humanitarian status. If someone does not have grounds for refugee status but is considered to be in mortal danger of being repatriated, they may be offered humanitarian status.

Dmitrieva arrived in Bulgaria in March 2022 with her 13-year-old daughter. Dmitrieva, from Moscow, said she is a veteran of anti-Putin demonstrations in her homeland that preceded Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Dmitrieva applied for asylum with the GAB on March 31, 2022, but her application was denied six months later, on September 21, 2022.

"When my daughter turned 14, she was interviewed separately by the GAB and was given a separate document for an asylum applicant. What really struck me was that it was not only me who was refused, but also her. We then had to appeal against the refusal in two courts. The situation is absurd," she said.

According to the GAB, "Dmitrieva's personal refugee history shows that she has no well-founded fear of persecution