FLASH
Shkruar nga Pyotr Voronov
From special flights to FSB cells: The indirect cooperation that is closing the escape routes for the Russian opposition, turning asylum seekers into deportation statistics and conscripted soldiers for the Ukrainian front...
On December 7, a complex, meticulously coordinated deportation operation was launched by the United States, marking a drastic shift in migration policies. A special flight, filled with citizens from Iran, Russia, and several Arab countries, left the American runway on an itinerary that was unimaginable until yesterday.
After a technical stop in Cairo, most of the passengers were transferred to a plane bound for Kuwait, while a group of 60 Russians were isolated and sent on a special flight directly to Moscow. The plane touched down in the Russian capital on the morning of December 9, thus ending the desperate journey of those who once hoped that America would be their last refuge.
This logistical operation is an absolute novelty of the Trump administration. Under Biden or his predecessors, such direct deportations to Russia were never practiced. Today, this cold pragmatism of mass deportations seems to have created a silent “line” of communication between Washington and the Kremlin, where people are treated simply as commodities for exchange.
Dmitry Valuev, head of the organization “Russian America for Democracy in Russia,” confirms that this “surrender” has immediate and brutal consequences. As soon as they landed on the runway, the deportees were met not by relatives, but by FSB officers. The interrogation began right there.
So Zair Siamiulin was immediately arrested on charges of fraud - a well-known repressive tool of Putin to eliminate opponents. Meanwhile, other men of military age were handed conscription notices, forcing them to report to mobilization offices to be sent to the war front in Ukraine.
This flight was the fourth for 2025, proving that this expulsion machine is now operating with complete regularity.
The end of “preferential treatment” and the new deportation machinery
Immigration lawyer Lia Dzhamilova notes that these special flights mark the end of any consideration or care for asylum seekers from the post-Soviet space. “There has always been a tough approach to immigrants. But before this was mainly applied to Latin Americans or Africans. Now, the Trump administration has abandoned the careful treatment of Russian-speakers. They are no longer seen as victims of a regime, but as numbers to be crossed off the lists,” she emphasizes.
This paradigm shift is well-funded. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has already purchased its own Boeing aircraft, with the goal of becoming completely independent of charter flights by 2026.
This elimination of commercial flights has also closed the last "path" of escape for Russians. Because before, during transit in third countries, many of them managed to seek protection elsewhere or escape. Now, with government aircraft, the Arizona-Cairo-Moscow route is a corridor without any emergency exits.
The collapse of the asylum system and courts under military orders
The statistics show a frightening decline in hope. From just 58 Russians deported in 2022, the number has increased to 455 in 2024, and this year is expected to break all records. Although the increase began under President Biden with the holding of Russians in detention centers, Trump took the situation to the extreme by closing the CBP One program.
Now, anyone who crosses the border is arrested on the spot, regardless of the political threat that awaits them at home. To end the legal delays, the White House has taken an unprecedented step: firing civilian judges who were deemed “too liberal” and replacing them with military lawyers from the Pentagon.
The latter, accustomed to the discipline of the order, issue deportation orders in 78 percent of cases. The asylum approval rate for Russians has fallen from 72 to just 46 percent. The new courts are knowingly ignoring evidence of persecution, such as criminal cases in Russia or the applicants’ inclusion on the Kremlin’s “terrorist” lists.
"You could be Navalny himself, and still be denied asylum in today's America," Jamilova says bitterly.
Hunting within the country: The quotas and horrors of detention
The situation for the Russian diaspora within the US has become extremely precarious. ICE is operating under pressure from Stephen Miller's strict quotas: initially 1,000 and now 3,000 detentions per day. This pressure has forced officers to carry out massive raids, using masked agents and unmarked vehicles.
Truck drivers, a profession that employs thousands of Russian immigrants, have been targeted. Arrests are happening everywhere: in kindergartens, at workplaces, and during routine checks. ICE officers admit in confidence that they are arresting people with no criminal records just to fill the required numbers.
“Nothing personal, we need them to fill the quotas” has become the new motto of the system. For those who end up in detention centers like Fort Bliss, reality has turned into a living hell. The number of detainees has increased by 70 percent, forcing people to sleep on the floor in extreme and unsanitary conditions. Reports speak of systematic violence, physical torture and unjustified isolation. With 30 deaths recorded in one year - the highest number in two decades - the system seems designed to break the will of migrants before they even board the plane that will repatriate them.
Collective punishment and the end of the illusion
The final blow came after several high-profile crimes committed by foreign nationals. These events were used as a pretext by the administration to suspend refugee applications from 39 countries, including Russia and former Soviet republics.
This decision has blocked everything from citizenship ceremonies to the extension of work visas. Today, Russians in America seeking asylum face an existential threat. Russian immigrants are trapped between an American system that seeks to deport them at all costs, and a Russian machine that awaits them at the airport in handcuffs or in combat uniform.
This indirect collaboration is destroying the lives of those who believed that freedom had an address in the West. As Dimitri Valuev says: “We must prepare for even more difficult times. Security is now a luxury that we no longer have!” / Adapted from “The Insider”
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