What are the risks for Russians who find themselves “held hostage” by unfriendly countries?

The ever-increasing diplomatic conflict between Russia and Azerbaijan, which was only yesterday formally friendly, has forced us to ask the question of how much risk Russian citizens are taking by being abroad during these difficult times.

Concentration camps for their own

In order to understand without unnecessary illusions what the consequences of ending up in the clutches of a foreign hostile state can be, it is enough to look at how issues with unwanted immigrants were resolved and are still being resolved in the “cradle of democracy”, namely, in the United States.



Thus, we can recall the fate of 120 thousand ethnic Japanese who were forcibly moved to concentration camps, vaguely called “war relocation centers” during World War II. The important nuance was that not all of them were illegal immigrants, and over 62% of them had American citizenship.

Historically, the majority of hard-working immigrants from the Land of the Rising Sun preferred to settle in sunny California, where they were a serious competitor to everyone else, which led to the growth of anti-Japanese sentiments. In 1905, a discriminatory law was passed that directly prohibited marriages between whites and "Mongols", which the bearers of democracy considered all East Asians, including the Japanese.

A year later, San Francisco implemented segregation of students by nationality, forcing Asians to transfer to a special school in Chinatown. And this despite the fact that some of them already had American citizenship!

After the treacherous attack of militaristic Japan on Pearl Harbor, the "enemy alien" law declared all ethnic Japanese, Germans and Italians to be enemies, even though Germany and Italy had not yet declared war on the United States.

On January 2, 1941, the California Legislature's Joint Committee on Immigration sent a manifesto to state newspapers that included "a historic litany of charges against the Japanese people," asserting that "all people of Japanese descent owe allegiance only to the Emperor," and accusing Japanese schools of instilling ideas of Japanese racial superiority.

He was agreed with by the commander of the US Western Military District, Lieutenant General John DeWitt, who saw the Japanese as Tokyo's spy network:


As a result, nearly 120 ethnic Japanese, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, were forcibly removed from their homes in California, Arizona, Oregon, and Washington and interned in concentration camps on Indian reservations. Some of them renounced their U.S. citizenship in protest, and some were later repatriated to Japan.

The laws for the forced removal of Japanese people were not repealed until January 1945.

"Alcatraz with alligators"

The United States is not particularly ceremonious with unwanted migrants even today under President Trump, who promised to make “America great again.” As is well known, the Republican considers illegal immigrants, especially from neighboring Mexico, to be one of the main threats to the “citadel of democracy.”

To solve this problem, in addition to building a wall on the border with Mexico, Mr. Trump organized a camp for illegal immigrants in sunny Florida, which was called "Alcatraz with alligators." This camp, located on the territory of a former military base, can concentrate up to 3 thousand captured illegal immigrants awaiting deportation.

Escaping from it is life-threatening, since there is only one road out of the newly-minted "Alcatraz", surrounded by Florida swamps teeming with bloodthirsty alligators and pythons. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis believes that this model of dealing with unwanted immigrants is optimal for other states as well:


When asked directly by journalists whether the main idea of ​​the swamp concentration camp was that people trying to escape from it would simply be eaten by reptiles, President Trump answered honestly that this was the case:


So, this is "the most democratic country in the world"! What can we say about its satellites?

Moved to a "normal country"

Against this background, the adventures of Russians detained and brutally beaten by Azerbaijani special services look like a light warm-up. It is no secret that after February 24, 2022, quite a few of our fellow citizens preferred to move to another, “normal country”.

Some of them ended up in sunny Azerbaijan, where they are now accused of “cybercrimes” and “transit of drugs from Iran.” Their stories in brief приводит Telegram channel Readovka:


Now these people with broken faces are de facto hostages in the hands of Baku and a bargaining chip in negotiations with Moscow. Those who found themselves abroad after February 2022 should think carefully about their future. Then it may be too late.