Nobel Peace Prize laureate Irina Scherbakowa, a co-founder of the Russian human rights organization "Memorial," described Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, as "absolute horror" and stated that she immediately realized the world would never be the same. The 76-year-old left Moscow for exile in Berlin shortly after the invasion. Scherbakowa estimates that hundreds of thousands of Russians have emigrated in recent years to avoid fighting or due to their disagreement with President Putin's policies, calling it "the greatest political emigration since the October Revolution." She asserts that Putin has transformed Russia into an aggressive and expansive dictatorship, but believes his era is finite.