{"id":1442504,"date":"2022-04-17T11:15:15","date_gmt":"2022-04-17T15:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1442504"},"modified":"2022-04-17T11:15:25","modified_gmt":"2022-04-17T15:15:25","slug":"russians-flee-putin-regime-to-join-ukraine-refugees-enjoying-safety-in-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/russians-flee-putin-regime-to-join-ukraine-refugees-enjoying-safety-in-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Russians Flee Putin Regime to Join Ukraine Refugees Enjoying Safety in Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frussians-flee-putin-regime-to-join-ukraine-refugees-enjoying-safety-in-israel%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1442504&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">ISRAEL (AFP) \u2013 The moment Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, Russian filmmakers Anna Shishova-Bogolyubova and Dmitry Bogolyubov knew they had to leave Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were the next on the list,\u201d the couple told AFP in their borrowed flat in Rehovot, a quiet Israeli city 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>Once you\u2019re on the list of alleged \u201cforeign agents\u201d, you face a life of \u201cself-censorship or, sooner or later, prison\u201d, said Bogolyubov, who directed the German-financed 2019 documentary \u201cTown of Glory\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The film portrays President Vladimir Putin\u2019s use of references related to the fight against Nazi Germany to establish his authority in Russian villages.<\/p>\n<p>As its international isolation has deepened, Moscow has come to view all movies made with foreign financing with suspicion, including documentaries, and the couple said theirs was no exception.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cOver the past few years, we felt threatened. In the past few months in particular, people were spying on us and taking photographs on our film sets,\u201d Shishova-Bogolyubova said.<\/p>\n<p>The couple decided to continue working in Russia but, taking advantage of their Jewish ancestry, they obtained Israeli citizenship just in case.<\/p>\n<p>Israel\u2019s Law of Return gives the right of citizenship to anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent, a criterion that tens of thousands in both Russia and Ukraine meet.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Opposition to war<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Since Russian troops invaded on February 24, nearly 24,000 Ukrainians have fled to Israel, some but not all taking advantage of the law, according to immigration ministry figures.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>They have been joined by around 10,000 Russians, an Israeli immigration official told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost of those are young graduates, from the urban middle class,\u201d the official said, asking not to be identified.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>Like the Bogolyubovs, Moscow-born linguist Olga Romanova had prepared for the day when she no longer felt safe in Russia.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_20678894\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1240035674.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-20678894\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1240035674-1024x683-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"990\" height=\"660\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Moscow-born linguist Olga Romanova poses for a picture at her son\u2019s home in the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim in the West Bank on the outskirts of Jerusalem on March 29, 2022. (MENAHEM KAHANA\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>She applied for an Israeli passport after Putin\u2019s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI always thought that one day I would join my children in Israel, but it was then that I realised that things were going wrong in Russia,\u201d the 69-year told AFP in her son\u2019s house outside Jerusalem surrounded by photographs of her grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p>When the invasion started on the morning of February 24, \u201cit was proof that I needed to leave as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe war in Ukraine is incompatible with my way of thinking and my moral values. It makes me sick,\u201d she said, fighting back the tears.<\/p>\n<p><strong>New home or stopover?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The wave of immigration from Ukraine and Russia over the past seven weeks is the largest Israel has seen since the early 1990s when the collapse of the Soviet Union prompted hundreds of thousands to seek a new life on the shores of the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHere, we feel safe and we can sleep peacefully once more,\u201d said Shishova-Bogolyubova.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy four-year-old daughter, who is diabetic, is completely taken care of.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut we don\u2019t know if we will stay \u2014 that depends on our work. Right now, we just want to live for the moment and recover from our emotions. Afterwards, we will see.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_20344610\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2022\/03\/GettyImages-1239133868-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-20344610\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1239133868-1-1024x683-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"990\" height=\"660\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>A woman holds up an anti-war sign reading in English \u201cstop the war\u201d and in the other hand a cartoon depicting Russia\u2019s president Vladimir Putin as a cockroach being sprayed with insecticide, during a protest against Russia\u2019s military invasion of Ukraine, in Israel\u2019s Mediterranean coastal city of Tel Aviv on March 12, 2022. (JACK GUEZ\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sergey, a violinist who asked to be referred to by a pseudonym for fear of retribution, left Moscow for Israel with his pianist wife and three young children but expects to move on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know if we\u2019ll stay here. We\u2019ll probably go somewhere else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Even for those who qualify for citizenship, Israel can be a terra incognita for new arrivals and nostalgia for Russia is never far below the surface.<\/p>\n<p>Romanova, the linguist, found space in her 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of luggage for just two books, one an academic work, the other a novel by famed Russian novelist Mikhail Bulgakov which always accompanies her on her travels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI lost my country. It was stolen from me. It was taken by Putin and those KGB thugs,\u201d she said wistfully.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISRAEL (AFP) \u2013 The moment Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, Russian filmmakers Anna Shishova-Bogolyubova and Dmitry Bogolyubov knew they had to leave Moscow. \u201cWe were the next on the list,\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1442504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1442504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1442504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1442504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1442504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}