The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!

or… (apologies to the Beverly Hillbillies) “Californie is the place they wanna be… so they loaded up a Merc, to outrun the CPB”…

While US media continues to report on various Central and South American would be migrants coming through Mexico, not much has been said about the (admittedly not that many) Russians suddely showing up at the Tecate/San Ysidrio crossing.

This previous week alone, seven Russians … who apparently were undocumented migrants in Mexico… attempted to run the border, four on Sunday, and another three on Monday. Both times led to nothing more than a short closure of the check-point while the Russians were being hustled off. However, the previous Sunday (12 December) 20 Russians, in a Mercedes and a pickup truck, attempted to run the border, leading to a short car chase, with shots fired at the Mercedes, but hitting the truck… all while a third vehicle… taking advantage of the chaos… also ran the border, but like the other two vehicles was stopped, carrying five more Russian wouldbe migrants.

No word on if they applied for asylum, either in Mexico or the United States… or, for that matter, how they got to Mexico (and why) in the first place. My own sense, having lived in Santa Maria de la Ribera, the adhoc Russian emigre neighborhood, that if Russians are immigrating to Mexico for a better life, the US obsession over possible economic and political rivalry from Russia is just stupid.

Source: “Rusos intentan cruzar a EU desde Baja California“, Proceso, 20 Dec 2021