MOSCOW – Friday afternoons at the Chop-Chop Barbershop in central Moscow are usually bustling, but at the start of the recent weekend, only one out of four chairs were occupied.
The manager, a woman named Olya, said: “We would normally be full by now, but about half of our customers are already empty. Many of the clients – along with half the barbers – have fled Russia to avoid President Vladimir Putin’s campaign to mobilize hundreds of thousands of people for a military campaign in Ukraine.
Many men had to stand in the street for fear of being handed draft notices. When Olya arrived for work last Friday, she said, she witnessed authorities at each of the four subway station exits, checking paperwork.
Her boyfriend, a barber at the salon, has also run away, and the separation is taking its toll.
“Every day is hard,” admits Olya, who, like the other women interviewed, does not want to use her last name for fear of reprisal. “It was difficult for me to know what to do. We always plan as a couple.”
She is hardly alone. While there are still plenty of men in a city of 12 million, across the capital their presence has shrunk considerably – in restaurants, in hipster communities and at social gatherings like dinner and party. This is especially true among the city’s intellectuals, who often have disposable income and a passport to travel abroad.
Some of the men repelled by the invasion of Ukraine left when war broke out; Others who oppose the Kremlin have generally fled because they fear imprisonment or oppression. But most of the men who have left in recent weeks are either called up to the army, want to avoid the draft, or worry that Russia could close its borders if Putin declares martial law.
No one knows exactly how many men have left since Mr. Putin announced what he called “partial deployment”. But hundreds of thousands of people have already left. Mr. Putin said on Friday that at least 220,000 had been drafted.
At least 200,000 men have come to the neighboring country KazakhstanAccording to the authorities there, Russians can enter without a passport. Tens of thousands more have fled to Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Israel, Argentina and Western Europe.
“I feel like we are a country of women now,” said Stanislava, a 33-year-old photographer, at a recent birthday party attended by mostly women. “I was looking for male friends to help me move some stuff, and I realized that nearly all of them had already left.”
Many married women remained in Moscow when their husbands fled, after receiving povestka – a draft notice – or before one could arrive.
“Me and my friends get together to drink, talk and support each other, to feel that we are not alone,” said Liza, whose husband, a lawyer for a large multinational company, said a few days before Mr. Putin announced the mobilization. He quit his job and fled to a Western European country, but Liza, 43, stayed because their daughter was in school and all her grandparents were in Russia.
Women whose husbands were arrested also suffered from loneliness – but theirs was overshadowed by fear that their partner might not come back to life.
Last week at a voenkomat, or military commission, in northwest Moscow, wives, mothers and children gathered to say goodbye to loved ones being transported to combat.
“These men are like toys in the hands of children,” said Ekaterina, 27, whose husband, Vladimir, 25, was collecting her rations and was moments from being transferred to a training camp outside. outside Moscow. “They’re just fodder.” She wishes he evaded the summons, saying that she’d rather spend a few years in prison than return home dead.
If Muslims could enjoy a hedonistic summer that feels like nothing has changed since the invasion of Ukraine, the situation would have been much different with the onset of winter and its aftermath. war, including sanctions, became more apparent.
On Monday, the mayor of Moscow announced that fundraising in the capital had officially ended. But many businesses have felt the downturn. In the two weeks after the call, the number of orders in Moscow restaurants with checkout averaged more than 1,500 rubles – about $25 – reduce 29% increase over the same period last year. Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender, closed 529 branches in September alone Kommersant newspapers.
Many downtown storefronts are bare, with “RENT” signs hanging from the windows. Even Russia’s top airline, Aeroflot, has closed its offices on posh Petrovka Street. Nearby, the store front windows where Western designers continued to change their mannequins throughout the summer were finally plastered with paper.
Aleksei Ermilov, founder of Chop-Chop, said: “It reminds me of Athens in 2008, comparing Moscow to the Greek capital during the global financial crisis.
Mr. Ermilov said that of the 70 barbershops in his franchise, the ones in Moscow and St.Petersburg mostly felt the absence of men.
“We can see massive displacement in Moscow and St.
Local media report attendance at one of the biggest strip clubs in Moscow has dropped by 60% and there are also fewer security guards because they have been mobilized or have fled.
Meanwhile, downloads of dating apps have increased significantly in countries where Russian men have fled. In Armenia, the number of new registrations on a dating app, Mamba, has increased by 135%, a company representative told RBK, a Russian financial news agency. In Georgia and Turkey, the rate of new downloads is above 110 percent, while in Kazakhstan the figure is up 32 percent.
Tatiana, a 36-year-old who works in tech sales, said: “All the most sensible people were gone, as she watched a billiards game with friends at a social club for women at trendy Stoleshnikov Lane. “The dating pool has shrunk by at least 50 percent.”
During the summer, the alley is filled with amusing trendy Russian youths. But on a recent Saturday night, it was relatively deserted.
Tatiana said many of her clients have left, but she says she will stay. Her job doesn’t allow teleworking, and she says she doesn’t want her big dog sitting on the plane.
But other Muslims still plan to leave. Another member of the women’s club, 21-year-old Alisa, said she had just graduated and wanted to save enough money to leave Russia after her friends finished their studies so they could rent a place together in the country. outside.
“I don’t see any future here in Russia, at least not while Putin is in power,” she said.
For the men who stayed, navigating the city became stressful.
“I try to drive around because they can issue draft summons on the street and beside trains,” says Aleksandr Perepelkin, marketing director and editor of Blueprint, a fashion and culture publication. Underground.
Mr. Perepelkin stayed in Russia because he felt obliged to his more than 100 employees to keep the company afloat. But now his office reminds him of the early months of the coronavirus pandemic because of all the missing people. He and his business partners didn’t know what to do.
“Marketing is the kind of business you do in ordinary life,” but not in wartime, he said in a chic cafe and co-working space. The cafe is almost exclusively women, and there is a group that celebrates birthdays with flower arranging classes.
At Chop-Chop barbershop, Mr. Ermilov, the founder, said the same thing. At the end of September, he set off for Israel, and now he plans to open a business with no physical presence in his home country and with “less geographical risk”.
Inside Russia, barber shop managers are talking about possibly expanding services to female customers.
“We talked about reorienting the business,” says Olya, the manager. “But it is not possible to plan now, when the duration of the plan has changed to about a week.”
Oleg Matsnev contribution reports from Berlin and Alina Lobzina from London.
