Good on them. They made the smart move.
Cool. But I can’t help the fact that it feels like a potential security risk to me. It is not unknown just how low they can stoop to get their way so I would expect that to be no different there.
The implications are great through. The Russian soldiers who would defect or abondon the army get to see that other soldiers who do that have paths to residency. Even if someone tries to play this system, and they will, it helps encourage Russian deserters which is smart when intel says their confidence and morale isn’t high.
I think there may also be a fear that Russian spies try to sneak in via this route as well, ‘false defectors’.
In particular it sticks out that Vadim Krasikov got into Germany via a French visa as per https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/vadim-krasikov-russian-hitman-sprung-german-jail-prisoner-swap-2024-08-01/
I agree that the rewards outweight the risks here - if enough folks can make their way to France I can see the Russian army in Ukraine taking a serious hit due to a lack of manpower - but ideally France and allies would be able to vet well enough to catch all the spies, and only block the spies.
