About 100,000 Russians have crossed into neighboring Kazakhstan in the last week, according to a senior government official in the country.

Out of the 100,000 Russians who have entered Kazakhstan, more than 64,000 have already left the country, Marat Kozheyev, Kazakh deputy minister of internal affairs, said on Wednesday.

He did not say where they were journeying to.

“No crime or criminal offence involving Russian citizens has been registered within this week,” he added, according to Kazinform, a state-owned news agency.

“They are mostly law-abiding citizens and they have enough money to live here. In case (if) they violate migration legislation, they will be deported. If they commit a criminal offence, they will be brought to justice,” he said.

The Kremlin has faced an exodus of citizens fleeing Russia in recent days, amid domestic backlash against President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of military escalation last week.

Moscow’s strategy to draft 300,000 reservists in the war in Ukraine has prompted anti-mobilization protests and growing resistance against the invasion -- with military-age men leaving the country rather than risk being conscripted.

Russian citizens do not need a visa to enter Kazakhstan -- with which Russia shares a 7,000-kilometer (4,350-mile) border in its south -- and can stay visa-free for up to 30 days.

Four of the five EU countries bordering Russia have banned entry for Russians on tourist visas, while queues to cross land borders out of Russia to the former Soviet countries Kazakhstan, Georgia and Armenia were reportedly taking more than 24 hours.

CNN’s Josh Pennington, Jessie Yeung, Katharina Krebs, Radina Gigova, Simone McCarthy and Sana Noor Haq contributed reporting.