YouTuber fled Russia, today has over a million followers and criticizes Putin

Roman Abalin is a 28-year-old YouTuber from Chelyabinsk who has made apolitical videos in the past about Russian culture, customs, oddities of the post-Soviet lifestyle and curiosities of history and society. The channel was aimed abroad, was usually completely in English, and the content was dramaturgically oriented to a non-Russian audience.

According to statistics, he had thousands of new followers per month before, after the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine and Roman’s departure from his home country, the number of subscribers rose by more than 70 thousand and today it has over a million followers fans from all over the world. The author continues to vlog about the places he visits, but he often criticizes the Russian government from the position of a Russian migrant.

Vladimir Putin is the only president he remembers, having been in office for the vast majority of Roman’s life. Roman claimed that until 2014 he considered himself to be living in a modern democratic state, which his generation identified with. “When my parents and grandparents told me that in the USSR you could go to jail for a joke about Stalin, I thought: that’s crazy, and it can never happen again… well… it’s happening right now.”

On March 20, 2022, Roman published a video on the YouTube platform where he walks the streets of Tbilisi. “Honestly, I feel that the living space for people like me is getting smaller and smaller in today’s Russia, if you understand me. I feel that the country I loved and grew up in is almost gone. It’s not the same country anymore.” He also cited his channel, which is like a child to him, as one of the reasons for leaving the country. He was not sure if he could continue his work, so he left the country indefinitely.

He stayed in Georgia for some time due to limited entry options for non-EU citizens. At the same time, Georgia was at that time countries with the best conditions for Russian migrants, because a Russian citizen could spend an entire year here without a visa. Roman describes that he applied this variant following the example of a large part of the Russian migrant population. “Approximately 30,000 Russians have arrived in Georgia in the last 3 weeks,” Roman claims in the video. The Russians he knows, in addition to Georgia, also went to Armenia, Serbia, Azerbaijan and other places with visa-free travel for Russian citizens.

Already during this trip, he encountered contradictory reactions from locals on social networks. Some of them expressed their support for Roman on social networks and welcomed him to the country, but some of them used their own words sent back to Russia. In the video, Roman expresses his understanding to them, with the influx of Russians, for example, rent prices have risen in the city. “In Tbilisi, it was possible to get a four-room apartment for $500, today it’s about a thousand.”

At this time, Russians living abroad faced a number of difficulties, such as the impossibility of paying by credit card. Roman therefore paid in cash on the account of his stay in Georgia and used his previously purchased cryptocurrencies for non-cash transactions. His fans also sent him support in this form.

He saw his stay in Georgia as an opportunity to develop his work, as it offers a number of possibilities for content creation. “The main thing I want to say is that while I’m here, I want to respect the citizens of this country and their culture as much as possible, because I’m a foreigner and I feel grateful that I can stay here,” he explains. He claims that despite the past conflicts that Russia has had with Georgia, the local citizens are very hospitable and nice in person.

He dedicated his other content to vlogging about how it is to live as a Russian abroad. The move outside of Russia also gave him space to actively commented on events in Russia and Putin’s government. Due to the varied reactions of his followers, who labeled Roman as complicit in the invasion of Ukraine, they criticized his alleged hypocrisy and the fact that he does not comment more on the “special operation”. Roman was running out of patience reading the comments. “These people have no idea what it’s like to grow up in a country like Russia and what I’m going through.”

Roman also expressed fear for his life. “People are being penalized for using the word war and violent crimes are committed against journalists who write about Ukraine for doing this work – and that’s what you want from me,” Roman explained to his critics. “I’ll be completely honest, the reason i don’t is because i’m scared. I don’t want to be a persecuted person in my home country, I have family and friends there, I want to go back and see my family, understand? You may think you would hate the government, I believe you, but if you were me, you would do the same. (…) I will not sacrifice my own life for your entertainment and for your better feeling.’

In the following videos, despite this, he devotes himself to analyzing Russian propaganda, criticizing other Russian social steps and, of course, exploring the host country. He also expressed his opinion on the support of Putin’s war by other residents of Russia.

According to him, current Russian propaganda is demonstrably dangerous. In one of the videos, he shows how a Russian government application works Gosuslugiwhich could be compared to an extended version of ours “Citizen’s Portal”. It enables communication with the authorities and the state, making an appointment with a doctor or paying taxes. Through this platform now The Kremlin spreads propaganda to citizens and also allows, for example, to send support postcards to soldiers.

Reads other messages that the Russian government sends to citizens through this application. “People are changing the country: write us ideas for the development of Russia,” the YouTuber reads the email header, laughing out loud. “I don’t know if the Russian government would like my ideas for improving Russia because they involve its non-existence,” the text comments, still laughing. In another email, the Russian government calls for piety for the events in Odessa. “The fire in which part of the Russian world died,” Roman translates, grinning. This heightened conflict between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian protesters marks as the result of pro-Russian propaganda. In the report, the government offers a parallel with the Katyn massacre. “And now here we have Gosuslugi comparing the events of Odessa in 2014 to this and thus comparing Ukrainians to real Nazis, this is absolutely disgusting,” the YouTuber adds.

Roman recalls that before he was not pushed to hate by the public media, as is the case with today’s children. “They never told me to hate Ukrainians, Americans, Georgians, but now they tell children to hate, they teach them shit about special surgery in school.” He appeals to the fact that the older generations grew up in this propaganda, therefore they are less immune to it. “Suddenly, I saw my country turning into something I did not expect. Every year I thought it couldn’t get any worse, but then it turned out that it could.”

Due to his Russian passport and the impossibility of obtaining a European visa, he found himself in an unpleasant situation. In February of this year, Roman reported on his channel from Lisbon, Portugal, where he lives on a so-called digital nomad visa, which a person with a job can apply for online in selected countries under certain conditions. Roman can stay in Portugal for up to 5-6 years. Unfortunately, with a Russian passport, he does not have many options where to settle, but thanks to his income, which can currently move around up to around 200 thousand per month, has the opportunity to explore the world and map on his channel all the places that his Russian passport and European visa allow him to visit. Or as Roman says, “turn your immigration into content.”

He is still behind his work admired but no less criticized. Many netizens continue to attack him for not explicitly condemning the war immediately after leaving Russia, for alleged cowardice, or for the fact that many of his followers perceive his vlogs as an attempt to evoke pity for Russian citizens.

The YouTuber still avoids the word “war” in older videos and refers to “special ops” out of caution, however he makes the connection with a good dose of sarcasm. In recent videos, it seems that his initial fear has subsided. Roman cannot return to Russia today because he there is a threat of punishment for criticizing the government and the Russian army.

Even in places where he is potentially allowed to enter, he is threatened with deportation to Russia, which he does not want to risk. As an example, he cites the music group Bi-2, which since 2014 has been touring exclusively outside of Russia and Belarus. Its members were detained by immigration police in Thailand in January of this year and were threatened with deportation to Russia, where they would face severe punishment for their anti-state views. Roman currently uses a European visa to travel around the EU, his next ideal milestone on the way to absolute freedom is obtaining a European passport. “If you have a good passport, revere it, use it and look at it with the thought that millions of people around the world cannot get the same freedom of travel and residence as you.”