Dropping out of Putinism: Russian Relocants, Music Communities and Vernacular Cosmopolitanism in Georgia

This article examines Russian music practitioners who relocated to Tbilisi, Georgia, following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Drawing parallels with late Soviet-era resistance, the study focuses on the participants' efforts to navigate personal, professional and cultural dislocation, highlighting the condition of in-betweenness of Russian music relocants in relation to their experiences of migration, perceived colonial legacies of Russian culture, politicization, host reception and integration. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, the article argues that this diasporic music community, particularly through encounters with the local do-it-yourself scene, became a site for decolonial reflection, transcultural solidarity and vernacular cosmopolitanism away from the authoritarian homeland.