Social media video from Russia’s land borders with several countries shows long lines of traffic trying to leave the country a day after President Vladimir Putin announced a “partial mobilization”. There were queues at the border crossings to Kazakhstan, Georgia and Mongolia. A video showed dozens of vehicles lining up at the Zemo Larsi/Verkhny Lars checkpoint on the Georgia-Russia border on Wednesday night. That line appears to have grown on Thursday. A video showed a long queue stretching into the mountains behind the crossing, with one man commenting that it was five to six kilometres. Another posted Thursday showed long lines at Khaykhta Pass in Mongolia. One man spoke via video recorded at Troitsk Pass in Kazakhstan, where dozens of cars were lined up Thursday morning. “This is Troitsk, queues of trucks and passenger vehicles… you can’t see the beginning or the end of this queue… everyone, everyone is leaving Russia, all kinds.” A senior Kazakh official, Maulen Ashimbaev, had said Kazakhstan could not restrict Russian citizens from entering the country, Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported earlier Thursday. However, Ashimbaev, the speaker of Kazakhstan’s upper house of parliament, said that to get a residence permit, applicants must have a set of documents that comply with the law. It is difficult to compare the current traffic flow with the average in the absence of official data. Flights from Russia to visa-free countries continue to be very busy and often sell out. A search on the Aviasales website showed no seats available on the Moscow-Istanbul one-way economy flights until Sunday — with the lowest price nearly $2,900. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday dismissed reports of airports overflowing with people trying to leave Russia after the announcement, calling it “exaggeration” and “fake news”.
