Lucas: Russians will soon discover Biden’s open borders

“The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming.”

That was the title of a 1960s Cold War smash-hit comedy film.

It is about the fictional grounding of a Russian (Soviet) submarine off Gloucester Island, population 200, along the New England coast.

Chaos breaks out when the captain sends an armed nine-man crew ashore to seek help in freeing his vessel. The people think it’s an invasion.

After much comedy and confusion, peace and harmony break out and the islanders and the Russians become friends.

And when the U.S. sends two F-101 Voodoo jets to bomb the departing Russians, the townsfolk take to the water and surround the sub with their small boats. The jets, not wanting to harm fellow Americans, break off the attack to the cheers of the islanders and everybody is happy.

It was only a movie about a mock “invasion,” but it got rave reviews and was even shown in Moscow.

Now the Russians are coming again, and this time it is not so funny. This time it is for real.

And they will not be seeking sanctuary or asylum on Martha’s Vineyard, or any another imaginary island off the coast of Massachusetts — the film was shot in California. They’ll be coming across the open Mexican border like everybody else in the world is doing.

These are the untold number of Russians who are fleeing their country because of Vladimir Putin’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine.

It is a costly war, and he is losing it, which accounts for his recent bluster about unleashing tactical nuclear weapons, as well as calling up 300,000 or more young men to fight in the war.

Ukraine to him is what Vietnam was to the United States, only compressed in time to months rather than years.

And like some young Americans—rightly or wrongly—who fled to Canada to avoid being drafted to fight in an unpopular war, so too are young Russians abandoning Russia as to avoid being sent to fight in Ukraine.

Also, like the thousands of anti-Vietnam War demonstrators who risked arrest protesting the Vietnam War, so too are Russian anti-war protestors being arrested and jailed in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

While thousands of Russians have fled or are fleeing, it is not an easy thing to accomplish.

Russians seeking to avoid being drafted to fight are flying to only four countries that still have direct plane connections—Serbia, Turkey, Georgia and Armenia. The price of one way has soared. Still, 50,000 Russians have fled to Serbia since the war began.

Another 40,000 fled to neighboring Georgia, where no visa is required. The day after Putin made his war announcement, there was a six-mile back up of cars on the Georgia border made up of Russians seeking to get out.

Meanwhile, to the north, the three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – closed their borders, as did Finland, saying they will not grant asylum to Russians fleeing mobilization.

And to the southeast more Russians are crossing into Mongolia.

If Joe Biden was as concerned with border security as the three tiny Baltic states and Finland are, the U.S. would have closed its southern border long ago.

Instead, the country is dealing with the economic, social and political fallout from the influx of 2 million immigrants who have crossed the southern border illegally, let alone the thousands of getaway criminals and terrorists who are now roaming the country.

But he is not. Nor are the Democrats. To them illegal immigrants are a political windfall who deserve free stuff, as well as driver’s licenses and the right to vote.

So, who wouldn’t want to break into America, especially when there are no enforceable laws preventing it. I’d come, too, if I were not already here.

Not that the Russians have not already been coming across the border along with immigrants from around the world. They have, but it has only been a trickle.

Now it will be a flood. The Russians Are Coming. This time to stay. And it sure beats Mongolia.

Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.