Investigation launched into order asking Russians to leave country amid blacklash over ‘whites only policy’

Sri Lanka has told hundreds of thousands of Russians and some Ukrainians staying in the country to escape the war that they must leave in the next two weeks, immigration officers said.

The immigration controller issued a notice to the tourism ministry asking Russian and Ukrainian people staying on extended tourist visas to leave Sri Lanka within two weeks from 23 February.

Just over 288,000 Russians and nearly 20,000 Ukrainians have traveled to Sri Lanka in the last two years since the war began, according to official data.

  • dugmeup@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    8 months ago

    God damn. I feel for people trying to escape a war and getting called up against their will.

    That is almost 300k people who think, feel, act, have families and create things that are going to get caught up in a meat grinder because of the Russian political elite

    • Municipal0379@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      8 months ago

      It’s not just the Russian political elite. On the street interviews and surveys routinely show a majority of Russians support the war in Ukraine. While there is certainly a sizable minority against the war it is still that, a minority.

      • awwwyissss@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        8 months ago

        You think people are being honest when a stranger asks them for their opinion of the war? Someone comes up to you in the street or an unknown number calls your phone and asks a question and you might go to jail for answering wrong…

        They don’t seem like reliable numbers.

        • DrRatso@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          8 months ago

          All true, but propaganda is strong in Russia. Before the war polls still put Putin support in the 80% range. And just as it did in 2014, his polls have only gone up with the war and disapproval has gone down. Some of that, of course, is explained by people masking their true opinion.

          That said, I think the more salient point is that people currently seeking refuge from Russia are much less likely to be supportive of Putin and the war.

    • awwwyissss@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      8 months ago

      Unfortunately it’s up to them to make a change in their country.

      • dugmeup@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        8 months ago

        I understand what you are saying. The problem is that this typically is made impossible by the regime. The brutality of these systems exist to protect and scare everyone into submission who is under that roof.

        The advantage of an external diaspora is to allow dissent and enable funding for the dissent from outside of that suppressive regime.

        I don’t think any internal alternatives exist or will be allowed to exist let alone be funded and run under the roof of Putin. The support will have to come from people who have had to run away to create the infrastructure needed for dissent to occur.

        • awwwyissss@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          8 months ago

          Russia has already overthrown two brutal, “suppressive” regimes in the past century.