“Charging money for helping people relocate is a crime”

A lengthy interview by Alexey Stefanov with Anatoly Bublik, head of the “Path Home” movement.

Estonia’s Internal Security Service (KaPo) named the “Path Home” movement among the people and organizations that pose a threat to the state. The Estonian authorities ought to be bowing at the movement’s feet: thanks to the organization’s volunteers, more and more Estonian citizens are moving to Russia with their entire families. This is exactly what they had dreamed of for years, but the happy stories of people relocating are not what Estonian state propaganda needs.

“Any Russian entity, whether governmental or non-governmental, can easily be declared unfriendly or hostile in the Baltics simply because we belong to Russia. It doesn’t matter whether we are officials or not, whether we represent a government body or, as in our case, a nonprofit, volunteer organization. We are simply doing something that causes moral, ethical, perhaps some kind of ideological harm to this state, in this case Estonia, and that’s it—we are declared unfriendly,” Anatoly Bublik, head of the “Path Home” movement, told journalist Alexey Stefanov in an interview.

What we discussed:

✔️What do potential relocators face in their home countries when they are just starting to consider moving to Russia?
✔️How does Russia welcome them, and what problems still need to be resolved so that as many people as possible can return home or move to Russia, whose values are close to their own?
✔️Which regions have quickly grasped the trend and are welcoming toward people relocating, and which have yet to understand what they are losing?
✔️How have changes to the laws affected the trend of relocation to Russia?
✔️How will the “Rodina” digital portal and map make life easier for people relocating?
✔️Why does the “Path Home” movement help people relocate to Russia completely free of charge?

Anatoly Bublik dwelt separately on the last, painful question: the “Path Home” movement is constantly being slandered, with stories made up about paid services. Bublik insists that they do absolutely everything for free and believes that one must not make money from people relocating.