"The 'days' of the war ended and the 'years' began: The first, now the second," wrote Arseny Vesnin on Twitter. "Wherever we find ourselves, it's impossible to escape reality and the catastrophe in which we are all involved."
Vesnin, a journalist from St. Petersburg, and his girlfriend, Ksenia (who did not want her full name to be published), have been living on their small yacht called Oikumena, an ancient Greek word meaning where human civilization exists, for more than a year.
Vesnin bought the vessel before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The avid historian had planned to trace the Mediterranean coast along the route of the mythical Greek hero Odysseus, from Troy to Ithaca, and make a film about it.
"Then the war started, and all plans changed. The film about Odysseus became irrelevant," the journalist says, "and it became clear that for normal, honest journalistic work, you could be imprisoned. So we decided to leave."
Before the invasion, Vesnin worked for the Ekho Moskvy and Ekho Peterburga radio stations. In March 2022, those outlets were shut down, and most independent media began to leave Russia, in part due to new laws against calling Russia's war in Ukraine a "war."
Days after the invasion was launched and Vesnin's radio stations shut down, the pair flew to Athens, where their boat was waiting for them. When trying to register and insure the boat, they faced bureaucratic difficulties at every step with their Russian passports.
"In the end, we registered our boat under the flag of Malaysia," recalls Vesnin.
With Ksenia's Schengen visa running out, the pair set sail for Turkey. The passage turned into an epic adventure for the inexperienced seafarers.
"We got caught in a storm and tore the sail," Vesnin remembers. "I tied myself to the bow of the yacht, trying to somehow mend the sail. Ksenia kept an eye on my hood when waves washed over the boat. Then it turned out that we had very little diesel."
Now, he says, "we try to avoid storms. As they say, 'In a good storm, a good captain goes to the bar.'"
Russians in Turkey don't face any hostility, Vesnin says, with locals in southern Turkey more interested in what's happening in their own country.
Vesnin recounts a typical interaction with a local:
"You get in a taxi, and the driver asks you, 'Is Putin good?'
"'No, Putin means war. Bad.'
"'Wow! And we thought Putin was good.'"
The Russian says, "It's an agricultural region. People grow oranges, pomegranates, lemons, and generally don't show any interest in political life."
While in the Mediterranean, Vesnin has been able to continue with his journalism, including broadcasts for the popular YouTube channel Looking For A Way Out.
"I go on air right from the yacht. Many people have commented, 'There you are, sitting on a yacht,'" Vesnin says. "But my conscience is clear.
"Yes, I'm on a yacht. So what? Firstly, our Oikumena is not [Russian oligarch Roman] Abramovich's yacht in any way. In terms of cost, it can be compared with a cheap apartment in Moscow or St. Petersburg.… So who cares where I am?"
The couple's residency permits will expire this summer, and it's unclear whether it will be possible to extend. The process was once straightforward, Vesnin says, but now many applications are rejected.
"People say Putin got [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan to kick out Russians. But I don't think so. I think it's about the fact that there is an invasion of migrants," Vesnin says. "And Russians are far from the only ones. There are people from Iran and Iraq who have much more serious problems."
"Because of the recent influx of migrants, housing prices have risen sharply," Vesnin says, "sometimes even quadrupling. Turks don't like it. Erdogan seems to be sending the signal that Turkey is for Turks, first of all, and only then for visitors and migrants."
If the pair are unable to extend their residence permit, options for Russians are limited. Vesnin says they are looking at Montenegro, Tunisia, or Northern Cyprus. The couple may even cross the Atlantic.
"There is a rule that if you arrive by sea you can stay in almost any of the Caribbean islands," Vesnin says.
The journalist believes returning to Russia now would be a mistake.
"Getting locked up doesn't help anyone," he says. "It's better to donate to Ukrainian causes. I believe that it will be possible to return to Russia, but I don't know how or when that will happen.
"What's most frustrating is that it's entirely out of my control. But someday the darkness will pass. Russia will lose this war. Opportunities will appear so that something can be done to turn our country in a different direction.
"Now it's important for Russians who emigrated to save themselves, save their minds, their instincts, in order to understand when that moment has come."
