Putin to Shut Borders for Conscription Age Men as Huge Queues Form: Report

Vladimir Putin is reportedly preparing to block men of conscription age from leaving the country as queues of people try to flee from Russia.

Large crowds have been seen at the borders of neighboring countries like Georgia and Finland in the aftermath of President Putin's announcement of a partial mobilization this week.

According to independent Russian media outlet Meduza, the ban will be announced by the Kremlin after the end of the ongoing referendums in the four regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya.

Meduza mentioned two sources within the Kremlin as indicating that the ban will officially come into force on September 28. Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin for comment.

On September 21, Putin announced "a partial military mobilization" which defense minister Sergei Shoigu later specified could call up to 300,000 reservists to join the country's army's efforts in Ukraine.

The Russian leader's announcement has raised fears over an escalation of the war in Ukraine, which in Russia is still known as a "special military operation," and has triggered protests across the country.

According to reports, searches for flights out of the country skyrocketed in Russia only minutes after Putin's announcement on September 21, and long queues starting forming at the country's borders with people trying to flee before being drafted.

Jake Cordell, a reporter at Reuters, wrote on Sunday that "there are 2,500 cars currently queueing to get into Georgia from Russia on the only border point between the two countries. It's a 36-hour wait."

Another Reuters reporter, Felix Light, was at the border between Russia and Georgia.

"The Georgia-Russia border at Verkhny Lars is often tailed-back, but the social media footage of it today is insane. Spot the guys crossing on scooters, avoiding the ban on pedestrians," he wrote on Twitter sharing a video from the border.

Faced with a likely influx of Russians trying to avoid being drafted into the army and being sent to Ukraine, some European countries have shut their borders to Russian travelers.

Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia had already closed their borders to most Russians on September 19 in response to the war in Ukraine. After Putin's speech on Wednesday, the Baltic states say they will not open their borders to Russian men fleeing mobilization, with Lithuania saying they would consider each case individually.

On Friday, Finland—another country affected by the sudden exodus of Russian men out of the country—shut its borders with Russia. The Finnish Foreign Ministry justified the decision saying that offering visas to so many Russians avoiding conscription would cause "serious damage to Finland's international position."

Experts think it would be hard for those who fit the Kremlin's criteria for mobilization to refuse to respond to the military call-up, as they would likely be treated as traitors and deemed unpatriotic.