The golden domes of a Russian Orthodox church, topped with the traditional three-bar Slavic cross, seem incongruous as they tower over the palm trees, pineapple fields and rubber plantations of a tropical Thai island.
Phuket is better known, after all, for the landmark 148ft Big Buddha overlooking a sweeping southern bay and the ornate architecture of the revered Wat Chalong temple – along with all the beaches and bars that lure tourists to this holiday idyll.
Yet the Holy Trinity Church symbolises how this city has been invaded by Russians.
The white-walled edifice is just one sign of their influence. There are traditional saunas and caviar in the shops, advertisements for nail salons and legal firms in Cyrillic, borscht served in restaurants, dozens of direct flights a month to Russian cities, several Russian schools, a consulate and even a Russian-language newspaper.
It is estimated at least 60,000 Russians have moved to this island that is home to 432,000 registered citizens. And almost twice as many visitors arrive from Russia as from any other nation, with over 619,000 arrivals in the first seven months of this year.
Many of the emigres are fleeing war, conscription or stifling repression. Some are evading Western sanctions. Others are buying up property in Phuket as a safer home for their cash than investing in their conflict-torn economy.
Now there is a new wave of arrivals amid concerns that Vladimir Putin, after the conclusion of the three-day parliamentary elections a week ago, will order a major new mobilisation for his bloodstained frontline, as losses mount and Ukrainian drones damage confidence in his regime.
Visiting the church, I met a young man from St Petersburg, who told me he was praying for a better life. He arrived in Phuket a week ago to avoid being sent to fight in a war that has already reportedly seen a staggering 300,000 Russians killed or wounded this year alone.
It is estimated at least 60,000 Russians have moved to this island that is home to 432,000 registered citizens. And almost twice as many visitors arrive from Russia as from any other nation
‘I don’t understand the point of this Ukrainian war. Not a single one of my friends supports it or wants to fight,’ he said. ‘I will stay here until the end of the war.’
This new exile went on to explain how his work-from-home job in Russia became much harder due to the Kremlin’s recent internet clampdown, adding that he worked alongside many Ukrainians at his company ‘and everyone gets along with each other’.
How strange that here on a holiday island in South-East Asia you can gain insights into the mood in Russia – and evidence again of the stupidity of Putin’s war.
I met another man fleeing military service outside the office of a luxury property firm in Bang Tao, a Russian-dominated beach resort on the island with many construction projects, gated villa compounds and smart blocks of flats built around landscaped lakes.
I agreed not to mention his name, job or hometown since he is planning to bring out his children, wife and parents. But he was in his 30s, from a wealthy family, arrived in Phuket last month and has already bought three properties in the town.
‘We all worry about the war,’ he said. ‘Every day there is the “boom, boom, boom” as drones or missiles are destroyed. I want it finished soon. I am a Russian citizen and I love Russia – but no, I don’t love my leader.’
He continued: ‘Now I have no business, no job. But like many people in Russia, I fear there will be a new mobilisation. Across Russia, people are very scared of it. The army is not for me. I cannot shoot and kill people.’
Like other Russian migrants with whom I spoke, he had visited Thailand frequently since first coming as a child on holiday.
‘I like the food, the people, the weather,’ he said – although he added that he liked living among friends in a Russian community. The expat build-up on the island began after the collapse of the Soviet Union, followed by the start of direct charter flights. By 2009, a US diplomatic cable was warning Washington about the presence of Russian organised crime networks in Thailand.
But the big surges came with conflict: first after initial attacks on Ukraine in 2014 and the subsequent collapse of the rouble amid sanctions; then after the full-scale invasion in 2022 and – most notably – Russia’s ‘partial mobilisation’ that September.
There are traditional saunas and caviar in the shops, advertisements for nail salons and legal firms in cyrillic, as well as borscht served in Russian restaurants
This showed Russians that Putin’s supposedly short-term ‘special military operation’ to grab Ukraine was descending into a long, brutal and damaging war with serious consequences for their country.
Thailand adopts a position of ‘neutrality’ over the war and imposes no sanctions – and it is cheaper for exiles here than alternative escape destinations such as Dubai.
Now, in places such as Bang Tao – where blocks of flats are shooting up on beachside plots that lay empty five years ago – and Chalong, which is popular with less prosperous exiles, local people joke that their towns are turning into ‘Little Russia’.
Russvet – a private ‘school under the sun’ offering Moscow’s curriculum and exams in both Bang Tao and Chalong – has taught more than 1,800 children since opening in 2013. ‘Life is not good now in Russia,’ said a staff member. Many businesses rely on Russian customers. Typical was a cigar shop in Bang Tao, which opened last year in response to the influx. It sells Cohiba cigars that cost up to £132 each on an island where the minimum wage is less than £9 a day.
Gem, 33, said eight out of ten of her customers were Russian, admitting she was shocked when she first saw one buy a Cohiba. ‘I would have to work many days to pay this price,’ she said. ‘Now when I see them smoking, I am happy. I think people with money are polite.’
In a nearby women’s clothing shop, staff said free-spending Russians were their key customers. In a billiards hall, borscht and dumplings were on the menu while four men played the game’s Russian variant, with 15 large white balls and smaller pockets. One claimed to be a professional player.
In a Chalong nail bar, the owner said half her clients were Russian. ‘I don’t know if it is good or bad there are so many Russians in Phuket, now but it is good for my salon,’ she added.
Not all these arrivals are welcomed, however.
One ex-member of Russia’s security service was arrested last year in a joint FBI and Thai police sting at a Phuket hotel on charges of involvement in cyber-attacks on Europe and the United States.
Denis Obrezko was extradited to the US, where he pleaded not guilty to cyber-crime charges in a Boston federal court two months ago. He is accused of being a member of Kremlin-tied hacking groups attacking critical infrastructure, defence bodies and government agencies, including in the United Kingdom.
Another Russian visitor was deported after filming himself having sex with a Thai woman for pornographic films while driving around the island in a pickup truck.
A third was arrested after pasting stickers with QR codes on street furniture. They linked to Thai Hub, a Telegram site selling drugs such as cocaine and crystal meth that was adorned by an image of a naked woman and a big pile of white powder.
Dozens more were arrested in crackdowns on property law breaches after prices surged amid a tide of Russian money.
One agent selling luxury homes – with a £12.6million villa on her books – told me prices have risen by half since start of the war in Ukraine. Another said they’ve doubled for the most desirable homes.
Russian expats in Phuket are catered for via drug websites such as Thai Hub, a Telegram site which sold cocaine and crystal meth online
A third property insider explained how clients skirted bank sanctions by moving money using Bitcoin or through currency exchanges (confirmed to me later by a Russian woman working at a nearby exchange).
‘Russian people do not trust their government while their currency is very weak and unpredictable,’ said this Russian-speaking employee of an agency selling almost all its homes to Russians. ‘They come here to buy property as a safe place for their money.
‘My guess is half the people are buying for investment, to save their money, while the other half are coming to live here because they’re afraid of mobilisation –they don’t want to risk their lives.’
This Thai property agent returned home recently after living in Russia. ‘There are drone attacks everywhere. I did not see them flying but I saw their impact. The last time, when there was an attack on Moscow, I thought I must leave since it is not safe.’
Anton Makhrov, editor of the Russian edition of The Phuket News, said many arrivals had been shaken by Russia’s worsening situation. ‘The Ukrainian drone strikes were a big shock. A bully never expects to be hit back,’ he said.
Makhrov, 43, a former state media journalist, underlined the significance of the Phuket property boom by pointing out that many prosperous Russians made their money from the state.
‘We have people moving their capital from Russia, people still deeply involved in state agencies and corporations.
‘Those people know that the Kremlin system is doomed, despite being part of it. Nobody can be sure their tomorrow is safe – and I am not just talking about the people escaping the draft but even the people conducting the draft.
‘If you can afford to buy a villa in Phuket, it makes far more sense to buy your freedom in Russia. But if you still have money in Russia now, you understand what it means when the government has to offer 18 per cent yield on bonds to persuade businesses to give it money. That is why there are all the property acquisitions and investment here.’
He estimated half the Russian expats supported Putin while half loathed him, but said his paper was politically neutral and the community sought to avoid division. ‘For Thais, we are all Russian – whether Russian, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Kazakh.’
Some Russians I met were clearly in the anti-Putin camp. ‘He is a very bad person,’ said Karina, 21, a digital nomad who said she had seen many more Russians move to Phuket over the past month due to the mobilisation threat. ‘I hate him.’ She has family still in Belgorod, a city 30 miles from the Ukraine border that has seen thousands of drone, missile and artillery attacks. ‘I saw the war coming closer, it was scary. The city is dying because of war – and a lot of people are dying there.’ Yet the reluctance to import conflict into their community was confirmed, intriguingly, by several Ukrainians I met, who included two pro-Russians who moved from the Donbas and even a tourist from Dnipro, one of the cities under most intense attack.
The expat build-up on the island began after the collapse of the Soviet Union, followed by the start of direct charter flights
Although the Thai government halved its tourist-visa exemption period earlier this year, Russians in Phuket told me it was easy to obtain long-stay visas, even if they had to fake claims of having sufficient bank savings or to be studying Thai.
Chalermpong Saengdee, one of the island’s three MPs, said they welcomed all Russians entering the country legally, with many buying luxury properties unaffordable to most Thais.
‘The high property prices means these buyers are high-income people with very high spending power, and they spend a lot in Phuket,’ he said. ‘They group together since they feel safer living among fellow Russians.’
Some of his voters were less happy, however.
One tour operator said she was losing business because Russian firms were skirting ownership laws intended to protect Thai jobs and taking away business from local firms such as her own.
‘They rent the boats, they rent the minibuses, they do all the things we do. They have their own websites, their own agencies. They are from Russia and can make the contacts. So I have less money.’
Another woman in a motorbike rental shop complained about their attitude. ‘Many are quite rude,’ she said. ‘They do not respect Thai customs. Sometimes I am quite uncomfortable. They do not listen; they shout, they tell you to shut up. Some are nice but many look down on us, treating us like we are not human.’
Later that day, I met another pair of Russians as I bought a cold drink. Both were from St Petersburg, Putin’s prosperous home city, whose citizens the Russian dictator has largely sought to protect from his foolish war.
One lived in Phuket – selling property, of course: ‘Now it is not a good idea to stay in Russia, so every year more and more people are coming.’
And the wave of new arrivals could grow larger still following the recent election in Russia, as the Kremlin seeks fresh supplies of men for its Ukraine meat-grinder.
It would be no surprise, in the months to come, if many more silent prayers are made in the pews of that onion-domed Russian church set amid the palms and pineapples of Phuket.
Additional reporting by Pratch Rujivanarom.
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