“We were next on the list,” the couple told AFP in their rented apartment in Rehovot, a quiet Israeli town south of Tel Aviv. Once on the list of alleged “foreign agents”, you face a life of “self-censorship or, sooner or later, prison”, said Bogolyubov, who directed the German-funded 2019 “Town of Glory” documentary. The film depicts the use of reports by Russian President Vladimir Putin related to the struggle against Nazi Germany to consolidate its power in Russian villages. As their international isolation deepens, Moscow is suspicious of all foreign-funded films, including documentaries, and the couple has said theirs is no exception. Get the Times of Israel Daily E-mail and never miss our top stories By registering, you agree to the terms “In recent years we have felt threatened. “Especially in recent months, people have been spying on us and taking pictures in our cinematic scenes,” said Shishova-Bogolyubova. Russian police hold a man during a protest rally against the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Manezhnaya Square in central Moscow on March 13, 2022. (AFP) The couple decided to continue working in Russia, but, taking advantage of their Jewish origin, they acquired Israeli citizenship just in case. Israel’s return law gives citizenship to anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent, a criterion met by tens of thousands in both Russia and Ukraine. Since Russian troops invaded on February 24, nearly 24,000 Ukrainians have taken refuge in Israel, some but not all of them taking advantage of the law, according to the Immigration Ministry. About 10,000 Russians have been added to them, an Israeli immigration official told AFP. “Most of them are young graduates from the bourgeois middle class,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Like the Bogolyubov, Moscow-born linguist Olga Romanova had prepared for the day when she no longer felt safe in Russia. He applied for an Israeli passport after Putin annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014. “I always thought that one day I would go to Israel with my children, but that was when I realized that things were going wrong in Russia,” she said. she told AFP at her son’s house outside Jerusalem surrounded by photos of her grandchildren. Protesters protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Tel Aviv, on March 12, 2022. (Tomer Neuberg / Flash90) When the invasion began on the morning of February 24, “it was proof that I had to leave as soon as possible,” Romanova said. “The war in Ukraine is incompatible with my way of thinking and my moral values. “It makes me sick,” he said, resisting tears. The wave of immigration from Ukraine and Russia in the last seven weeks is the largest Israel has seen since the early 1990s, when the collapse of the Soviet Union pushed hundreds of thousands to seek new life on the shores of the Mediterranean. “Here, we feel safe and can sleep peacefully once again,” Shishova-Bogolyubova said. “My four-year-old daughter, who is diabetic, has been fully taken care of… But we do not know if we will stay – it depends on our job. Right now, we just want to live in the moment and recover from our emotions. “Then we’ll see.” Sergei, a violinist who asked to be nicknamed for fear of retaliation, left Moscow for Israel with his pianist wife and three young children, but expects to move on. “I do not know if we will stay here. “We will probably go somewhere else,” he said. Immigrants leaving Ukraine arrive at the Migration and Absorption Office at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on March 15, 2022. (Tomer Neuberg / Flash90) Even for those who qualify for citizenship, Israel can be a terra incognita for new arrivals and nostalgia for Russia is never far below the surface. Romanova, the linguist, found space in her 20-pound baggage for just two books, one an academic work, the other a novel by the famous Russian novelist Mikhail Bulgakov, who always accompanies her on her travels. “I lost my country. They stole it from me. “Putin and those KGB thugs took it,” he said sadly. We tell a critical story Israel is now a much more important player on the world stage than its size suggests. As a Diplomatic Correspondent for the Times of Israel, I am well aware that Israel’s security, strategy and national interests are always under scrutiny and have serious implications. It takes balance, determination and knowledge to accurately convey the history of Israel, and I come to work every day with the goal of doing it to the fullest. 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