President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on August 19 providing foreigners who share Russia's spiritual and moral values, and who seek to escape the West's destructive neoliberal ideals, with a temporary residence permit in Russia.
"The law provides Westerners something that they've sought for a long time - the opportunity to move to Russia," Timothy Kirby, an American-born journalist and radio host, told Sputnik. Earlier, Western foreigners couldn’t immigrate to Russia without a legal basis, but now "the door has finally started to open," he added.
Under the new law, the temporary residence permit would be granted outside the quota approved by the Russian government, and without the need for confirmation of the applicants' knowledge of the Russian language, Russian history, and basic laws. However, they would have to submit a written statement, stating reasons for moving, to their local Russian diplomatic mission or consular office.
In addition, Putin has instructed the Russian Foreign Ministry to draw up a list of states imposing destructive neoliberal values.
"In a lot of ways, Russia is the country that is leading the fight against some of the absolute madness that comes from the West," Kirby added, referring in particular, to the absurd idea that "gender" is some sort of social construct that has nothing to do with one's sex assigned at birth.
Another Western theory says that patriarchy is designed to "repress women for some reason, even though women aren't particularly repressed," he continued.
Kirby emigrated from the US to Russia in 2006 and calls himself "an advocate for life in Russia" for those who oppose a "satanic new wave" of ideas which are "very popular among the Western elite, but absolutely disgusting to the rest of humanity."
"Russia and the Russian people are facing the challenges of the 21st century; a lot of intellectuals would basically call it the era of postmodernism," Kirby said. "The average person in Russia, whether they understand it or not, rejects this. Russians have chosen to remain human, to keep going with society, to reject globalism, to reject some sort of post-human and post-modern bizarre future. And that's a good thing… And God bless Russia for it."
Conservative Westerners have been relocating to Russia for quite a while. Speaking to Sputnik last year, Father Joseph Gleason, an American-born Orthodox priest, had expressed hopes that moving to Russia could be simplified for family-oriented, hard-working Christian immigrants. Gleason moved to Russia with his wife and eight children in 2017 to escape the Western aggressive neoliberal agenda. Since then, he has been assisting other conservatives to settle in the country.
"Now, in America, there are cases of people losing their jobs, not being able to find a new job, being denied an education, and not being able to get into a university - simply because they're opposed to homosexual behavior, and because they're opposed to this lie of homosexual marriage, or because they're opposed to transgenderism," Gleason told Sputnik in August 2023.
Earlier this month, Irina Volk, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, announced that another American Christian family is seeking shelter in Russia. Leo and Chantelle Hare and their three children decided to move to Russia as traditional, moral and family values are increasingly under attack in the US.
In the future, the Hares plan to obtain Russian citizenship. The couple understands that the level of education and security is higher in Russia, and that the state protects traditional values and provides support to large families, stated Volk while speaking to the press.