Reportage : This is how Putin blackmails the EU Erbil, Iraq - 2022

Escape route Russia: many people are still on the run, from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan or other crisis countries. The Russian government is taking advantage of this, it seems. The assumption is that it is luring refugees via Moscow to Kaliningrad and then on to the EU's external border. Similar to the Belarus route in 2021, the goal here could also be to divide Europe, create chaos, and exert pressure in the Ukraine war. The people on the run are the ones who suffer. They are misused as weapons in a hybrid war, forced to make the arduous journey through icy, snowy Eastern Europe. They are ripped off, desperate and often stranded somewhere along the route. Some die on the run. Journalist Christoph Kürbel traces this new escape route. In northern Iraq, where the risky journey begins for many. And in Poland, where the EU's external border is secured by meter-high fences.