Why are families of Russian elites still craving life in the west? – The world

The cursing is not a unique case, it writes Moscow Times (The Moscow Times).

Despite the promises of the Western capital to close the door to Russian regime and those who support them as an invasion of Ukraine, countless federal, regional and municipal officials have family members who still live and study in the West.

One Russian state official told Moscow Times that after the invasion of the full volume, he asked his son, who was studying in the UK, to return to Russia to be exposed to repression because he was a Russian citizen.

However, the official admitted that he still wants his son to finish education in the west.

Another official said she sent their daughter to school in one country of the European Union. The daughter later enrolled in college in the same country and now refuses to return to Russia.

« It’s 25 now and spent half of life outside Russia, living in the west. He doesn’t want to come home anymore, that I have to accept that her ‘home’ is no longer here, » said the official.

They both talked under the condition of anonymity.

Although officials are trying to keep these stories secretly, especially after the invasion of Ukraine again focused attention to where they are family members, there are many examples known to the public.

The sons of Vladimir Jacunina, former head of the state company of Russian Railways and the former Putin’s Allies and KGB officers, live and work abroad. One of them has British citizenship.

Svetlana gradvol, the oldest child of Radio Habirova, President Baškortostan, years live in Austria. She graduated from Vienna University of Economics and Business, and according to the information published by Regional Portal Prufy, it is married to the Austrian financial expert and is a photo studio in the capital of Austria.

The gradvolina younger sister, Rita Habirova, also lives abroad. After 2020 she graduated from the Royal College in London, he still lived in London and works in the Skin + Me Skin Care Marketing Sector, is stated in the investigation of Navalny Live.

One investigation from 2023. She found that Zerka Alekseus Zuravljeva, famous for warfare and Member of State Duma from Veronjeza, lives in Austria with her Austrian wife and not supporting war.

Julija Rišar, daughter of Sanctioned Governor of the Leningrad area Aleksandra Drozdenka has been lived in France for years, where companies and real estate have their own French husband.

That these cousins ​​are ordinary people, not children families with status and wealth (which is in many cases, their lives would look completely different, writes The Moscow Times.

For example, the quality of education in the average school in Russian regions is incomparable with the one obtained in private schools abroad.

The recent study of Russian economists of Ilje Prahova and Alan Gadzaon showed that the graduates from Russian regions achieve lower results in government exams compared to their peers from Moscow and St. Petersburg. This indicates serious differences in the total quality of school education and the availability of qualified teachers and mentors.

Even graduates from Russian regions with high ratings are more likely to enter lower ranked and less known universities due to lack of information on higher education or financial barriers.

« There are several good schools in St. Petersburg and has many more extracurricular programs than in schools in regions, » one colleague from St. Petersburg told us. For security reasons, we did not provide its name.

« But the average school in some suburb is probably terrible. I went in such a year in the year. The teachers constantly shouted us, and instead of classes of biology, we sang war songs. The visit to such a school is traumatic. »

Another acquaintance, who went to the village school in the suburbs of Veronjeza, told a similar experience.

« We had a pretty catastrophic school. There was a church nearby, and the priest often visited us by crazy, anti-heronial talony stories (herheritory) or how the water has a memory, » he told us.

« In the history of our school, there were only a few people who presented them as an example. Most of my friends went to technical schools. And after 11. grade, only few of them enrolled in Vorionža, which according to our school is considered successful.

Without talking about basic infrastructure. According to the project, at least 3,900 schools in Russia, at least 3,900 schools are not equipped with a sewerage system. In the republics of the Saha and Dagestan, the sewage system is missing in as many as 41 percent of school buildings.

Since the beginning of the full volume invasion, Russian laws have been trying to ban children from politicians and officials to study abroad, which probably aims to convince the public that elites stand by the Russian people at war time.

« If you want to change the world, start with yourself. Members should not have any nationality or property abroad, but they should live or study abroad, » said 2023. President of the State Duma Vjaceslav Volodin.

However, the fact that such a law has not yet passed a lot about how elites in Russia really look at their children abroad.

Where to pull the border between « good Russians » and the others? Do children should share guilt for complicity of their parents in war and regime represents? How much privacy deserve as people who did not choose to be public figures?

These are questions that European, British and American policy makers must face.

This does not even take into account the fact that a mass ban on the families of Russian officials would go to the Kremlin hand, further strengthening the narrative of discrimination against Russian citizens in the west.

However, one thing is certain: if the families of the Russian ruling class lead a comfortable life in the west, it reduces the chances of nuclear apocalypse.

There’s always some bright point, isn’t there?