Many of the recent Jewish immigrants to Israel since Russia invaded Ukraine three weeks ago are Russians, Channel 12 news reports.
Some of them tell the network they fear their country will be cut off from the world amid the harsh Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over the war.
Others say they are worried about being imprisoned for their involvement in anti-war protests.
“They can put me in jail for many years just because I want to say my opinion on the government. Some people are approached by the police only because they wrote on Facebook that they are not happy with the situation,” says 27-year-old Ivan Grantovski, who participated in protests against Russia’s invasion in 2014.
According to the network, many of the new Russian immigrants are moving to Tel Aviv. There are no official numbers yet, but Channel 12 estimates several thousand Russian immigrants have arrived since the war began on February 24.
According to the Immigration Ministry, 4,940 new immigrants have arrived from Ukraine and surrounding nations, mainly Russia and Belarus.
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