Russians Find Refuge From Putin in Europe's New 'Casablanca'
(Bloomberg) -- Sitting behind an outsized black wooden desk next to stacks of papers, Belgrade lawyer Tijana Vujovic says she already has another five meetings with potential new clients in her diary for the next day. Four of them are Russian.
The 36-year-old specializes in immigration, getting people the right paperwork and hooking them up with real estate agents in a city that’s quietly turned into a welcoming haven for thousands of Russians since President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine eight months ago. The new arrivals have flocked to communal work spaces, registered more than 2,000 businesses and even given a boost to the property market. More are now looking to settle for the longer term in the wake of Putin’s military mobilization of citizens in September.
“At the beginning of the war, all clients requested to rent a place,” Vujovic, who reckons she’s dealt with at least 500 Russians this year, said at her office in an apartment building in central Belgrade. “In the last months, I’ve had a lot of requests from them to purchase, and not just to gain residency, but to live.”
The moves, coupled with Putin’s escalating attacks in Ukraine, have made Serbia’s relationship with Russia an increasingly uncomfortable one. Leaders in the European Union, which Serbia ultimately wants to join, have warned President Aleksandar Vucic his country needs to make up its mind which side it’s on as he resists joining sanctions against Moscow. But the vein of pro-Russian — if not pro-Putin — sentiment runs deep in Belgrade.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russians-find-refuge-from-putin-in-europe-s-new-casablanca/ar-AA13E2sV
