By Murad Rakhimov | 2026-06-24

In Yekaterinburg, the line for international passports grew so long that people outside began writing their names in a notebook to hold their place. One woman has tried to collect her passport since March 4. Each time, up to 100 people stood ahead of her.

The scene repeats across Russia. As more citizens look to leave, many cannot get the one document that would let them go.

Long lines now wind through nearly every Interior Ministry office issuing passports in Moscow and other large cities. The state's Gosuslugi services portal labels these offices "heavily congested," the independent outlet Verstka reported. Is it a coincidence, or a signal from the Kremlin?

Lines 100 people deep

When a Verstka reporter tried to apply through Gosuslugi, the portal offered no "free" or "moderately busy" office anywhere in Moscow -- out of more than 100. Every choice triggered the same warning: few slots remain, and booking will be difficult.

Verstka found similar conditions in Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kazan and Krasnodar. Novosibirsk and Samara fared slightly better.

Russians have aired their frustration online since March 2026. A Moscow woman said she and her husband had been trying to book an appointment since December. A Saint Petersburg resident said she still could not collect her passport after three months. She arrived at 9:40 a.m., just after the 9 a.m. opening, to find a line already stretching to 2 p.m.

Officials say nothing is wrong. Police in Yekaterinburg blamed rising demand and said they were working to improve service. The Interior Ministry in the Novosibirsk region said the delays were not widespread.

In 2024, Russia issued 6.5 million international passports -- up 9.2% from 2023 and the highest total in a decade. The government has not released figures for 2025. The share of Russians holding a passport climbed from 25% in 2016 to 29% by the fall of 2022, according to the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM). VCIOM posted that data one day before the government announced its "partial mobilization."

Coincidence or quiet directive?

After that 2022 mobilization, an estimated 500,000 to 1.3 million people fled Russia. Some later returned, but the outflow rose again in late 2025.

Russian blogger and human rights activist Aleksandr Kim sees no conspiracy. He said passports were hard to get right after the invasion simply because so many people wanted out, and the same pressure explains today's lines, he told Kontur. To Kim, the crush confirms forecasts of a new emigration wave.

"Even now, many people would like to leave -- significantly more than before the war," Kim said. He urged Russians to renew their documents early, before a passport expires and before they risk arrest or a digital draft summons. He noted that Russians can now hold a second international passport without canceling the first.

Galym Ageleuov, an expert in Kazakhstan, a country that has absorbed many Russian émigrés, reads it differently. He said Putin's administration wants to keep mobilization going and feed more men into the war. A directive followed, he told Kontur: hold back passports from anyone who might be sent to the front.

Several forces are pushing people out, Ageleuov said. Many reject the regime and the war, want to travel freely again and hope to wait out the crackdown on civil rights. Others fear a new draft, and rumors of one have grown louder. On June 1, Andrey Gurulyov, a State Duma deputy from the United Russia party, wrote on Telegram that senior officials had decided in principle on a large new mobilization for the fall.

"Nobody wants to be cannon fodder and die for Putin's 'traditional values and greatness,'" Ageleuov said, citing Ukrainian claims that 1,000 Russian soldiers die each day.

Some emigrants simply want to visit relatives or spend the summer at home in peace. Others hope to run businesses in Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia or Kyrgyzstan. The last three do not yet require an international passport.

An exodus of skilled, capable people would damage Russia's economy and competitiveness, Ageleuov said. The war, he added, has stripped the country's appeal and turned it into a totalitarian-authoritarian monster -- the opposite of what ordinary people want.

"Peace, economic prosperity, stability, and friendly relations with neighbors -- this is exactly what all normal Russians want," he said. "Stepping into the river of war is easy, but getting out will not be simple. There will be a price to pay."

Blocking the young

Alisher Ilkhamov, director of the London-based think tank Central Asia Due Diligence, also points back to 2022. Then, he told Kontur, the Kremlin lured contract soldiers with cash bonuses and let people leave freely. Mobilization steadied the front after Russian retreats from the Kyiv, Kharkiv and Kherson regions. Afterward, the government returned to contract recruitment to calm the public and draw skilled workers back.

Now the front has turned toward Ukraine, and contracts no longer cover the losses, Ilkhamov said. He believes the Kremlin is preparing to force conscription again. A weakening economy and new internet limits add to the pressure to leave.

This time, he said, officials are quietly blocking young people from going. "There is no direct ban yet," Ilkhamov said, but staff appear to have orders to stall passports. He expects anger among the young to grow.

"I don't know how Putin plans to handle this. Most likely, by reverting to Stalinist methods," he said.