In Russia, speaking against war, Moscow has been teasing Ukraine since February 2022, you can target you quickly by authorities. Thousands of war-critical Russians have fled their country to avoid repression and criminal prosecution, and have found a new house in Germany. Some of them now to differentiate German politics.
From local Moscow politics to Germany Parliamentary elections
The 21 -year -old Ilya Makarov became politically active in the Izhevsk of her home in the Ural region soon after the Russia invasion of Ukraine. First, he tried to participate in local elections, but was registration as a candidate.
He left for the municipal council in Moscow with an antivatter campaign and did not participate. Officers’ reactions may occur rapidly. A week after the elections in September 2022, Makarov faced administrative allegations and was detained for 15 days.
Following the second arrest in January 2023, Makarov warned him that he could face potential criminal prosecution, so he decided to leave Russia and ended in a city insects in the southwest German state of Rhinland-Paletten.
Makarov said that he was not the first time whether he wanted to live in Germany. He said that “an urge to take an active stand” in the country he eventually lived to take over, he said.
Inspired by the European Parliament elections in July 2024, Makarov joined Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD). Makarov told DW that the Center-Left Party program aligned the most with its own views.
Makarov was assigned to work at the party information stand while campaigning in Russian and Ukrainian, which he learned while talking to local Ukrainian ahead of the German Parliamentary elections in February 2025. Their information booths were mostly established in districts with a large population of Russian and Ukrainian speaking voters. Makarov said that the work reminded him of road politics in Russia, in which voters shared their problems, which they helped gather and solve.
Moving forward, he wants to create a working group of members of the Russian and Ukrainian -speaking SPD party at the local level, including translating the campaign material and hosting discussion clubs from German for Russian speaking workers and party members.
Makarov said that he prefers to develop a career within the SPD after obtaining German citizenship, which he intends to apply in the future.
Moscow artist supports German liberals
35 -year -old artist and Moscow activist Anastasia Lukomskaya left Russia for the United Arab Emirates before the war started in Ukraine. After Russia’s attack on his neighbor, he realized that the bees were expanded for some time to attend the opposition rallies near it, there may be a danger.
In summer in 2023, she moved to Georgia and joined the youth political movement “Vesna,” or “Vasant” by Russian authorities. Lukomskaya later moved to Germany.
After knowing the political scenario of Germany in its government-transparency integration courses, Lukomskaya decided to join the Liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP).
“Even Russia had no political power that matches my thoughts so closely,” he explained to DW about his choice. That, for example, may be related to the party’s economic views and its support for Ukraine and Israel.
During the parliamentary election campaign in February, Lukomskaya, Bhi was engaged in road level campaign, which he used the experience gained as a volunteer for the late Russian opposition political Alexi Navalani’s 2018 presidential campaign.
Even though Anastasia Lukomskaya is uncertain about its political future, she wants to produce creative materials. She hopes to create an art that will convince the German Mains to vote for FDP, which did not make it in the German Parliament in the 2025 elections.
Threatened by police in Russia, then joined Greens in Germany
Ilya Zarnov, 21, which was born in Toliti in the industrial city in the south -west of Russia. He went to college in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Russia, Russia, where he participated in anti-war activities. As a result, his house was discovered by the police. Hey said that the authorities threatened him and brought him to the police station. After his release, Zarnov spoke to his lawyer and family, and fled to Serbia. In March 2023, he moved to leapzig and is living there anytime.
In early 2025, Zenov environmentalists joined the Green Party, saying they address issues that are important to them.
“I am a vegetarian, and care about environment, human rights and international thinking,” Zenov told DW. “I do not consider myself completely left, our values just match.”
Zenov admitted that it is still difficult for him to participate in German politics as a language barrier. But he participates in events organized by the party’s youth organization, Green Youth. Recently he was offered to join his work group on migrant matters, but has not yet decided whether to agree.
“I have experience as a migrant, but I lack a structural understanding of local problems,” Zenov explained, saying that he was not yet aware of what the party had to provide new insight to the party.
This does not mean that he is sitting silly. Zernov wants to organize a letter writing in the evening to support the leftist activists imprisoned in Russia. For a long time, once his German was sufficient, he would like to make a career within the Green Party.
But most importantly, he wants “be independent and find some minimum satice factions in life.”
Edited by: Carla Blekar
