Deserters will be eligible for EU visas even after Europe shuts its door to all other Russian ex-soldiers in its next round of sanctions, but the move still smacks of “populism” and could backfire.

“Visas shall be refused to individuals who are serving, or have served, in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, or any paramilitary, military-affiliated, or irregular armed group associated with, controlled by, or acting at the direction of, the Russian government since February 2022,” said the draft text of the 21st round of EU sanctions on Russia, to be on adopted 13 July, and seen by EUobserver.

But this “shall not apply in cases where a member state considers that entry or transit through its territory is required for humanitarian purposes, national interests, international obligations, or relates to dissidents or defectors from the [Russian] armed forces,” it added.

The measure was meant to improve EU security due to “Russia’s wider hybrid warfare strategies”, the draft also said.

Russian saboteurs aside, another risk was criminality by violent veterans with PTSD or alcoholism.

It was also seen as being against EU values to let war criminals come for holidays in Europe.

But when looked at more closely, the measures might be worse than useless.

“I understand the logic, but in my view this is a populist measure … in the fifth year of the war, EU politicians need to show voters they’re taking action,” said Andrey Pivovarov from The Anti-War Committee, an international group which helped Russian asylum seekers.

The measures might be useless because “real saboteurs and spies do not apply for visas while indicating their military specialisation and service experience,” he said.

And what was worse, “these sanctions will only create problems for those fleeing the war,” he added.

“By closing the border to ex-soldiers, we are more likely to play into [Russian president Vladimir] Putin’s hands, limiting their options, while creating a propaganda talking point: ‘No one wants you and there’s nowhere to run’,” he said.

“Every one fewer Russian soldier at the front is a contribution to the defence against aggression,” Pivovarov said.

And the EU derogation for Russian deserters was also less welcoming than it looked.

They might get a ‘Type-D’ humanitarian visa letting them stay in one or other EU state for 90 days, but then what?

Baltic states have previously declined visa-extensions for Russians on grounds they had once played in an army-affiliated football club, even though half of all football clubs have had military links since Soviet times.

Meanwhile, even Russian dissidents who applied for EU asylum faced 80 percent rejection rates.

“For those ex-soldiers who managed to get out, it is difficult to prove that continuing to serve would have created a risk of committing war crimes … which is a mandatory criterion for granting asylum under the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees,” said Anastasia Burakova from Ark, another group helping Russian asylum seekers.

And one Russian deserter whom EUobserver spoke to, Artem Vovchenko, had no intention of seeking EU shelter after one bad experience in the West, when the US deported him to Russia in 2025 to face jail (he escaped again).

Cold War brain-drain

In the broader picture, welcoming Russian deserters was just one way of weakening Putin.

In the Cold War, Western countries also had a brain-drain foreign policy of welcoming Russian scientists and intellectuals to degrade Soviet power, but the zeitgeist was different 40 years ago, before far-right populists seized control of EU immigration politics.

And so, for Pivovarov, a more strategic approach would be for the EU to lower its visa and asylum portcullis, but do robust security screening of individuals seeking to flee here.

“Filtering is necessary: whether the person committed crimes, what exactly he did in the army … and, indeed, perhaps he can provide useful testimony or information,” he said.

“If there are grounds for asylum, that’s one track. If not, he should be given the opportunity to leave for another country outside the EU. The risk that he may remain illegally can be mitigated by keeping him in a camp while his case is being considered,” Pivovarov said.