Famous Russians Who Have Fled the Country Since the Invasion of Ukraine

Alla Pugacheva and Maxim Galkin are a Russian celebrity couple, she a pop star and he a comedian. The couple left Russia for Israel in March, but Pugacheva returned in August in the hopes of influencing her millions of fans. When the government declared her husband a foreign agent, she wrote on Instagram that the war in Ukraine was “turning our country into a pariah.” The authorities began investigating her as a result, and in October, she returned to Israel to join her husband.

Chubais, formerly a confidante of President Vladimir Putin, is credited with spearheading Russia’s privatization efforts in the 1990s. He left his post as a special envoy on the environment in March after Russia invaded Ukraine, and reported left the country as a result. Over the summer it was reported that the 67-year-old Chubais was in a European hospital suffering from symptoms of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological condition.

Anton Dolin is one of Russia’s best-known film critics. He left Russia with his family for Latvia a week after the invasion of Ukraine. “The Russian culture we knew until today ceased to exist on February 24 [the day the invasion began],” Dolin said in the German journal DW.

Rap performer Face, whose real name is Ivan Timofeevich Dryomin, has said his music has been heavily censored and several of his concerts have been shut down by the police. A relative of his confirmed that he left the country but did not say where he went. Face later said on an Instagram post reported on Sky News’s website that “our state has forced me and my loved ones to leave our house, our land.” The Russian Ministry of Justice has labeled him a foreign agent.

Noted literary critic Galina Yuzefovich left Russia with her family for southern Turkey following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yuzefovich, who likened the current climate in Russia to that of Nazi Germany, said fleeing Russia was “a privilege” because those who are leaving can afford to do so.

State-controlled news agency Tass said TV host and journalist Ksenia Sobchak left Russia and entered Lithuania using an Israeli passport in late October. Sobchak, rumored to be Vladimir Putin’s god-daughter, was accused by Russian authorities of extortion, according to a report on Yahoo! News.

Lilia Gildeyeva, a television news presenter for the state-funded Russian TV channel NTV – once acknowledged by President Putin for “achievements in developing mass media” – left her job and her country after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Though Gildeyeva never openly criticized the government, she feared that she would not be allowed to leave if she waited too long.

Accomplished writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya has been in Berlin since March. She does not know if she will return. “Russians and Ukrainians have close ties,” said Ulitskaya, 79, in an interview with German journal DW. “There are numerous Ukrainian-Russian families, and children with mixed identities. In the past, such families usually spoke Russian; now it will be the other way around. Like it or not, Russia is strengthening Ukraine as a political nation – as a result of this war.”

One of Russia’s prima ballerinas. Olga Smirnova of the renowned Bolshoi Ballet, left Russia, and in March joined the Dutch National Ballet as a principal. Smirnova, whose grandfather is Ukrainian, said in a statement republished by the Dutch National Ballet that “I never thought I would be ashamed of Russia. I have always been proud of talented Russian people, of our cultural and athletic achievements. But now I feel that a line has been drawn that separates the before and the after.”

Formerly considered Russia’s most popular television personality, Urgant hosted a late-night talk show called “Evening Urgant” for a decade – until it was taken off the air in February, following his expressions of opposition to the invasion of Ukraine. He and his wife left the country for Israel on March 11.

In September, Ruben Vardanyan, the former chief executive officer and shareholder of the Troika Dialog investment bank, renounced his Russian citizenship. The 54-year-old Vardanyan, who holds an Armenian passport, announced that he would be moving to the mostly Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan.

Literary and theater scholar Valery Zolotukhin moved to Armenia with his wife and 7-year-old daughter after Russia invaded Ukraine. “I don’t want to live behind a new iron curtain,” he told The Guardian. “I just had a feeling that there was no future in Russia.

Filmmaker and blogger Yuri Dud fled Russia after it invaded Ukraine in February. He now works in Turkey. Dud is one of Russia’s most popular YouTubers, with 10 million subscribers. He was added to Russia’s list of foreign agents after he interviewed opponents of the war and those helping Ukrainian refugees.

Rock star Zemfira (born Zemfira Talgatovna Ramazanova) and her partner, actress Renata Litvinova, have left Russia and are in Paris. Zemfira came under fire for holding a concert on the day of the invasion of Ukraine, Feb. 24, but was reported to have left the country the same day. In March, Zemfira released an anti-war music video called ‘Don’t shoot,” containing footage from Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine as well as from anti-war protests in Moscow, according to the Moscow Times.

Zhanna Agalakova, a foreign correspondent working in the West for Russia’s state-run Channel One, announced at a press conference in Paris in March that she “left Channel One precisely because the war started” and has no intention of returning to Russia. Agalakova said at the press conference that the channel’s reporting of the annexation of Crimea and separatist movement in the Donbas region of Ukraine was “propaganda.”

Russian journalist Olesya Ostapchuk, who claims family connections to Ukraine, told Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Current Time that she left Russia because it “bombing members of my family. What’s more, I was hearing on national TV that everything was great and that Russia was not bombing anyone.”