Theoretically Putin could all up 25 million – Prices for flights out of Russia soar after Putin’s reservists call-up Access to the comments – My Comments
[It's interesting to see the size of the Russian manpower pool. Let's see what happens first with the possible 300,000 that they might use. As for those fleeing Russia, this could be the last time they set foot in Russia. Unless Russia loses the war, they will never be able to return. They'll be jailed. The Russian Duma will enact a law that will jail people for 10 years if they avoid callup. For the Jews, chaos is always what they want. They stuff things up for everyone else and the common Whites have to pay the price while the Jews run away. We're definitely heading into yet more turmoil! But this is good. I don't want to see a return to Liberalism. Never. That's DEATH for ALL OF US. I think those who will actually flee Russia will be a tiny portion of the population. Those who refuse callup and to fight will also be tiny compared to the mass. The vast majority will do as they are told. That is the fate of the common man I'm afraid. Jan]
Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a partial mobilisation to reinforce his troops in Ukraine sparked a rush on airline websites on Wednesday to try to leave Russia as soon as possible.
The mobilisation initially concerns 300,000 reservists, but according to the Ministry of Defence, a total of 25 million Russians could be called up.
Searches in Russia for the terms "tickets" and "aeroplane" more than doubled from 08:00 CEST on Wednesday compared with the start of the week, according to the Google Trends statistical tool, which tracks how often a word was typed on Google.
The request "to leave Russia" was carried out 100 times more in the morning than in normal times.
Tickets for direct flights to destinations closest to Russia — Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan — are all sold out for Wednesday, according to the Aviasales.ru site, very popular in Russia for buying their tickets.
Meanwhile, flights from Russia to Istanbul — which since the onset of Western sanctions have been one of the main routes out of the country — with Turkish Airlines are sold out until Saturday.
The next available flight with Air Serbia — from Russia to Belgrade — is not until Monday, 26 September.
Domestic flights to cities close to the country’s borders have also exploded. Tickets from Moscow to Vladikavkaz near the border with Georgia have been costing €750, against around €70 normally.
An online petition on the change.org site to denounce the mobilisation gathered 160,000 signatures in a few hours.