September 28 at the Verkhniy Lars Russian-Georgian border crossing: People leave Russia by car and on foot, many of them men who want to evade recruitment for Putin’s Ukraine campaign.
Photo: dpa/AP/Shakh Aivazov
Members of the federal government have repeatedly stated in the past that they want to work to ensure that Russian conscientious objectors and deserters find unbureaucratic admission in Germany and the EU. But now that hundreds of thousands of men are fleeing Russia because of the partial mobilization ordered by the Kremlin, the traffic light coalition is rowing back. Among other things, the co-chairman of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Omid Nouripour, said that entry and asylum procedures are only possible with a careful examination of individual cases. Otherwise there is a risk of Russian agents and saboteurs infiltrating.
Consequently, on Friday night, not only the CDU/CSU and AfD, but also the traffic light parties rejected an application by the left-wing faction calling for Russians to be issued humanitarian visas unbureaucratically. The Left Party’s paper states that the Bundestag is calling on the government to “immediately take all necessary measures at national and European level to ensure that Russian deserters and conscientious objectors who want to escape the war in Ukraine by fleeing can safely enter the Ukraine EU or to Germany«. The Left MP Clara Bünger reminded the plenum that Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) had announced exactly this a week ago. She had even told the editorial network Germany that Russian deserters would “usually” receive protection in Germany and could apply for asylum here because of political persecution.
On Thursday evening, Bünger also recalled that in Russia the legal regulations on refusing to obey orders and desertion in times of mobilization were not tightened until September 20. People who do not want to shoot Ukrainians face up to 15 years in prison.
In the Bundestag plenary session, it was CDU MP Moritz Oppelt, of all people, who stated that people have a right to political asylum under Article 16a of the Basic Law if they evade a military operation by fleeing, in which there is a “high probability that they will be directly or indirectly involved involved in war crimes’. If you follow the German news, this probability is given throughout the Russian war on Ukrainian national territory.
However, Oppelt insisted on a strict individual assessment. The Christian Democrat vehemently rejected humanitarian visas to enter Germany and to examine asylum applications on German territory. This is exactly what two AfD speakers did, one of them non-affiliated because he is considered too fascinated by Nazism even within the far-right party.
Oppelt also pointed out that with the admission of 1.1 million people from the Ukraine, capacities had been exhausted and that Germany could not tolerate the “hasty mass admission” of Russians. He praised Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who had “called back” Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) who had prematurely invited conscientious objectors. Scholz had assured that there would be no “German solo efforts” in this matter.
However, a coordinated approach in the EU means in practice that there will hardly be any admissions by Russians, because several EU member states and Finland have already stopped all entry of Russian refugees.
Interestingly, the Greens MP Julian Pahlke made a passionate plea for the humanitarian admission of Russian conscientious objectors – without commenting on the left-wing motion. He also recalled the many arrests of men who did not want to go to war. And that the right to asylum should not be tied to “attitude tests”. Anyone “who doesn’t want to shoot at our Ukrainian allies” must be welcome in Germany. When granting humanitarian visas, all leeway must be used, Pahlke demanded.
By the way: In April, the Bundestag had called on Russian soldiers in a joint resolution to “lay down their arms” and claimed that “the path to the German and European asylum procedure” was open to them.
