Editor
Munich’s Oktoberfest was in full swing when we met Vasiliy, which is not his real name, in a calm park on the outskirts of the Bavarian city in southern Germany. He had been in Germany barely a month, one of the few Russian deserters to be able to enter the country legally.
He said that he felt safe in Germany, but he was worried about his family at home, which is why he did not give DW his name.
The young man, who trained as a gunner at the military academy and had signed up for several…
