By Javier Castro Bugarin
Buenos Aires, (EFE).- Georgy Eliseev and Marina Morunova do not stop smiling. Accompanied by Uliyana, their six-month-old baby, this Russian couple radiates happiness on all four sides, delighted to live in a country, Argentina, which is full of “very open-minded” and “very kind” people.
“We do not know how long we will be (in Argentina), because with this situation… We just want to be calm and in a safe place,” Morunova asserted in a conversation with EFE in the Centennial Park in Buenos Aires, located very close to her new home. .
This couple represents by itself an increasingly visible trend in the Argentine streets: that of Russian families who, captivated by the quality of public services, the friendliness of the population and the bureaucratic facilities, choose to move in order to avoid the consequences of the war in Ukraine.
In the last year alone, some 2,400 Russian citizens began their residence procedures before the National Directorate of Migration, an organization that estimates more than 22,000 people of this nationality who have entered Argentina since the beginning of 2022.
Russian routines in Argentina
Eliseev and Morunova are about to celebrate a year in Buenos Aires, where they moved from Moscow as soon as the war began. They still do not handle Spanish very well – “thank you” and “perfecto” are their favorite words – but in this time they have already built a routine with which they are delighted.
“We work remotely in the first part of the day, due to the six-hour time difference with Moscow, and here we have many more hours of sunshine than in Russia, so it is very good to work in the morning and do what we want in the morning. second part of the day”, points out the father of the family.
During their stay in the Argentine capital, Eliseev and Morunova have met several Russian couples in a situation similar to theirs, such as Alya Lykhina and Vitali Biriukov, who traveled to the River Plate country in May last year with their Five sons.
“Some Russians who come here say: ‘ah, this is not like Russia, why do you have so many small shops, instead of just one big one?’ It is very different, you have to buy meat here, this other there… But for us it is fine, because we get used to it, ”Lykhina told EFE with her five-month-old baby Tanisha in her arms.
These two families are part of a phenomenon that caught the attention of the National Directorate of Migration: they are middle- and upper-class Russians, many of them with postgraduate courses, who live off savings or work for other countries in the finance sectors. or web design.
His decision to opt for Argentina is not accidental, since between this country and Russia there is a treaty that allows stays of 90 days without a visa for their respective citizens, something that many Russian women take advantage of to give birth on Argentine soil and, thus, way, speed up your residency procedures.
“It is a country with people who are very easy to live with, you don’t need too many papers… Everything is fine, you just have to take care of living and that’s it”, summarizes Eliseev.
actual residents
This migratory flow gained media relevance in the middle of last month, when six pregnant Russian citizens were detained at the Ezeiza International Airport, allegedly being “false tourists” who traveled to Argentina to have their babies, obtain citizenship and leave the country. .
“Argentina must act according to the law, because if it is possible to come here, have a baby and get a passport… People will do it, not only from Russia, but from other countries. If you don’t want that to happen, change the law,” stresses Lykhina, who considers what happened to these pregnant women “horrible.”
Beyond the specific interest in the Argentine passport, the truth is that hundreds of Russian families have traveled to Argentina to stay, to the point that Lykhina and Biriukov have enrolled five of their children in schools in Buenos Aires to start the school year. .
The data supports this reality: 327 Russian students (71 initial level, 194 primary and 62 secondary) started their classes in Buenos Aires public centers this Monday, according to the capital’s government, evidencing their parents’ interest in staying in Argentina.
“We have the plan to stay, because we like the level of education and we have six children (…). We want to live here and travel, that would be ideal”, says Lykhina.