Russia ‘safest country in Europe’ – senator
Russia is one of the safest countries in the world to live in, particularly among other European nations, claimed Russian Senator Sergey Tsekov in an interview with the URA news agency published on Wednesday.
According to Tsekov, Russian nationals who left their home country in the past few years will all eventually choose to return after realizing that other European states are more dangerous than Russia.
“They themselves must compare their lives outside the country and in Russia. A normal person should understand that Russia is now the safest country in the world to live. At least among European countries. We need to explain that everything is fine with us. I think they will return, and many are returning,” he said.
However, the senator noted that some of those who choose to come back to Russia could face criminal charges for the things they’ve done and said while they were abroad.
“There are also those who have talked themselves into decent court sentences. They will need to be detained and tried. Those who helped the armed forces of Ukraine. They need to be punished. They should receive a significant punishment for this,” the politician insisted.
Previously, the speaker of Russia’s State Duma, or lower chamber of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, also suggested that those who had left the country and rejoiced at Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory and supported the “bloody Kiev regime” should understand that they are not welcome back in Russia and could face trial for high treason.
“These people were born in our country, they financed the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which strike our peaceful villages and cities. Then they flee to Europe. Then they are expelled from Europe, they go to Israel; the situation there is tense, they also abandon this country, which accepted them. Now they are running back to Russia,” Volodin argued, noting that not a single Russian region is willing to accept these “base and vile” people.
The Kremlin has also backed Volodin’s condemnation of Russian nationals who have taken an explicit anti-Russian position and sided with Kiev. “We are not on the same path with these people,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
At the same time, he noted that people who “freely choose where to live” will always have their homeland, Russia, which is “always waiting for them.”
