Russia seeks to attract conservative westerners, who are tired of the “70 genres” and who seek to live in a more traditional way. Immigration lawyer Timur Beslangurov, who works at the VISTA Foreign Business Support company, recently told the state news agency RIA Novosti that there are about 200 American and Canadian families who want to move to Russia for “ideological reasons”, and a urbanization to the outskirts of Moscow where they would stay. The lawyer attributes the interest in coming to Russia to the “propaganda of radical values”. “Today they have 70 genres, and who knows what will come next,” he reiterated. Without providing any specific data, he also pointed out that tens of thousands of people without Russian roots they would want to move to Russia for ideological reasons. The Eurasian country is today one of the benchmarks among the most traditionalists and conservatives in the West.
In his speeches over the past year, President Vladimir Putin has placed special emphasis on the traditional values and in the rejection of “Western liberalism”, in addition to approving more restrictive laws such as the so-called law against homosexual propaganda, something he has insisted is not what the Russians want on their soil. It has been one more element of differentiation with the West that “wants to destroy Russia,” according to the Kremlin. For this reason, Putin’s government has forged relations with the most conservative sectors of European countries and the United States to try to forge alliances. This has been evidenced in the recent past with the connection between Russian power and different far-right parties, such as the French National Rally, of Marine LePenthe Italian Northern League, of Matteo Salvini or the Vox of Santiago Abascal.
“Many normal people emigrate and are considering Russia (as a destination), but they face enormous bureaucratic problems with immigration law of the country”, added Beslangurov. The Eurasian country is one of the states that offers the least facilities to foreigners from the West, especially now that it officially considers them practically all “unfriendly countries“. The development project would have the approval of the administration of the Moscow region, and would be financed by the very families that came to live in it.
It is not the only siren song for all those who believe that “the West has lost its mind.” In 2022, an advertisement from the Russian Embassy in Spain emphasized these traditional values in a video in English, accompanied by the message: “It’s time to move to Russia.” In said video, different elements of the country are appealed to, such as cuisine or history, in addition to highlighting two elements that appeal especially to conservative men, such as “traditional values”, “pretty women” or the absence of “lto cancel culture”.
Time to move to Russia 🤍💙❤️ pic.twitter.com/4CZL1Nt4Gi
— Russia in Spain (@EmbajadaRusaES) July 29, 2022
small community
The American is a relatively small community in Russia, especially compared to that of countries of the extinct USSR such as the Uzbek, the Ukrainian or the Armenian, all of them with more than a million people. According to Russian state data, in the 2021 census there were only 1,275 registered Americans, even a smaller community than the Spanish one, of 1,500.
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Before the offensive, there was already a certain profile of an American who, although was not majority, were known among the ‘expats’ community. It is exemplified by people like grayg rossell, who runs a barbershop in Moscow. This Californian not only sports the Z in support of the Russian troops tattooed on his face, he also regularly carries all kinds of symbols pro-Putin –like patches with the president’s face– and confederate and confederate flags Novorossiyto – a political project in the occupied parts of Donbas. His support is such that he even claimed to have fought at the front, proudly wearing different Russian symbols, and assured on social media that he would be glad to question to “western scum“. In interviews with Russian bloggers, he has stated that one of the things he likes most about Russia is going down the street and not seeing homosexuals, transsexuals and feminists, and he shamelessly uses the word “black” to talk about people of African descent.
Another well-known case is that of neo-Nazi Rinaldeither nazzareither, who lived in St. Petersburg for years. Also known as the ‘Norman Spear’ or the ‘Roman Wolf’, from there he was directing La Base, an extremist paramilitary group that seeks to unleash a racial war in the United States and that would have trained different radicals in the use of firearms. In some forums he was looking for experts in guerrilla warfare and survival for his organization.