In Russia, speaking out against the war Moscow has been waging in Ukraine since February 2022, can get you targeted by the authorities quickly. Tens of thousands of war-critical Russians have fled their home country to escape repression and criminal prosecution, and found a new home in Germany. Some of them now want to make a difference in German politics.
From local Moscow politics to Germany’s parliamentary elections
Ilya Makarov, 21, became politically active in his hometown Izhevsk in the Ural region shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. First, he tried to participate in local elections, but was denied registration as a candidate.
He didn’t give up and ran for municipal council in Moscow with an antiwar campaign. The response from the authorities came swiftly. A week after the elections in September 2022, Makarov faced administrative charges and was detained for 15 days.
After a second arrest in January 2023, Makarov’s lawyer warned him that he could face potential criminal prosecution, so he decided to leave Russia and ended up in Worms, a town in the southwestern German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Makarov said he wasn’t sure at first whether he wanted to stay in Germany. But “the urge to take an active stance” in the country he lived in took over eventually, he added.
Inspired by the European Parliament elections in July 2024, Makarov joined Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD). The center-left party’s program aligned the most with his own views, Makarov told DW.
Makarov was assigned to work on the party’s information stands while campaigning in Russian and Ukrainian, which he said he had learnt while talking to local Ukrainians, ahead of the German parliamentary elections in February 2025. His info booths were mostly set up in districts with large populations of Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking voters. Makarov said the work reminded him of street politics in Russia, with voters sharing their problems that he helped collect and solve.
Going forward, he wants to create a working group of Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking SPD party members on the local level, which would involve translating campaign materials from German and hosting discussion clubs for Russian-speaking activists and party members.
Makarov said he would like to develop his career within the SPD after obtaining German citizenship, which he intends to apply for in the future.
Moscow artist supports German liberals
Anastasiya Lukomskaya, a 35-year-old artist and activist from Moscow, had left Russia for the United Arab Emirates before the war in Ukraine began. After Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, she realized that coming back home, where she had been detained a few times for attending opposition rallies, could be dangerous.
In summer 2023, she went to Georgia and joined the youth political movement “Vesna,” or “Spring,” now labelled an “extremist organization” by the Russian authorities. Later Lukomskaya relocated to Germany.
After getting to know Germany’s political landscape at her government-mandated integration courses, Lukomskaya decided to join the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP).
“Even in Russia there was no political force that matched my views so closely,” she explained her choice to DW. She could relate, for example, to the party’s economic views and its support for Ukraine and Israel.
During the parliamentary election campaign in February, Lukomskaya, too, was engaged in street-level campaigning, putting to use the experience she had gained as a volunteer for the 2018 presidential campaign of late Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny.
Even though Anastasiya Lukomskaya is uncertain about her political future, she would like to produce creative content. She hopes to create art that will convince Germans to vote for the FDP, which did not make it into Germany’s parliament in the 2025 elections.
Threatened by police in Russia, then joined the Greens in Germany
Ilya Zernov, 21, was born in Tolyatti, an industrial town in the southwest of Russia. He went to college in Kazan, the capital of Russia’s Tatarstan republic, where he participated in anti-war activities. As a result, his home was searched by the police. He said officers threatened him and brought him to the police station. After his release, Zernov spoke to his lawyer and family, and fled to Serbia. In March 2023, he moved to Leipzig and has been living there ever since.
In early 2025, Zernov joined the environmentalist Green Party, which he says addresses the issues that are important to him.
“I am a vegetarian, and I care about the environment, human rights, and international thinking,” Zernov told DW. “I don’t consider myself completely left-wing, our values just match.”
Zernov acknowledged that it is still difficult for him to fully participate in German politics because of the language barrier. But he attends events organised by the party’s youth organization, the Green Youth. Recently he was offered to join its working group on migrant affairs, but has not yet decided whether to agree or not.
“I have experience as a migrant, but I lack a structural understanding of local problems,” Zernov explained, adding that he didn’t know yet what new insights he had to offer to the party.
That doesn’t mean he’s sitting idly by. Zernov wants to organize letter-writing evenings to support imprisoned left-wing activists in Russia. Long-term, once his German improves sufficiently, he would like to pursue a career within the Green Party.
But most importantly, he wants “to remain free and find some minimal satisfaction in life.”
Edited by: Carla Bleiker
