Fleeing Russians follow path of 1917 refugees to Istanbul

By ROBERT BADENDIECK and MEHMET GUZEL
Associated Press

ISTANBUL (AP) — Vladimir Putin’s military draft “changed everything” for the tens of thousands of Russians who have fled their country since the Russian leader’s mobilization was announced last month. That’s according to recent arrivals in Istanbul. One 28-year-old left St. Petersburg last week, part of a torrent of Russian men escaping their homeland following Putin’s Sept. 21 declaration of a “partial mobilization” for the war in Ukraine. He said he feared being drafted. The situation in the past two weeks is not unlike the aftermath of Russia’s 1917 revolution, when hundreds of thousands of “white Russians” found refuge in Istanbul while fleeing the Bolsheviks.