A newly signed decree will give any foreigners who wish to trade Western liberal ideals for Russian moral values an easy path to residency. It enables them to apply for temporary residence "outside the quota approved by the Russian government and without providing documents confirming their knowledge of the Russian language, Russian history, and basic laws" that aspiring residents are normally subjected to.
By appealing to those who share “traditional Russian spiritual and moral values,” Putin is making a play for the growing number of people in countless democracies who are fed up with liberal leadership and lamenting where it has brought their country. It’s particularly well-timed considering the possibility that Kamala Harris could win the election in November, undoubtedly sending America even further down the leftist spiral that has damaged our economy, national security and morale and seeks to divide and censor Americans.
Three-month visas using the new, expedited process are expected to be issued as soon as next month.
Russia has been trying to attract disillusioned Westerners for a long time
Russian authorities have been on a push to draw conservative Westerners in recent months and years, trying to position the country as a place where traditional values are still respected.
As part of this push, they announced they were creating a “migrant village” outside of Moscow last year where conservative American and Canadian expats can live. One migration lawyer claimed to already have roughly 200 families who wanted to move there for “ideological reasons” at the time. He added that there were “tens of thousands” of foreign people without any Russian roots who were interested in moving to Russia due to their ideology.
The lawyer, Timur Beslangurov, stated: “The reason is propaganda of radical values: Today they have 70 genders, and who knows what will come next.”
He added that the Russian migration law made this complicated for those wishing to make the move; the new decree seems to be a response to that.
Earlier this year, Tucker Carlson visited Russia to interview Vladimir Putin. While there, he praised several aspects of Russian society, saying that he found it “disturbing” how much nicer Moscow was than American cities.
Putin has been highlighting the West’s moral decay
References to the moral decay of the West have made their way to several of Putin’s speeches in recent years. During his Victory Day speech last year, he called out “Western global elites” for destroying the “family and traditional values that make a person human.” He called the West “satanic” in 2022, claiming they are rejecting “moral norms” and “traditional” values.
He may also be appealing to Western countries that are concerned about the influx of immigrants and associated rises in crime they are seeing. In 2019, he told the Financial Times that he felt it was a “cardinal mistake” for Germany to take a liberal view of immigration from the Middle East.
He stated: “The liberal idea presupposes that nothing needs to be done. The migrants can kill, plunder and rape with impunity because their rights as migrants must be protected. What rights are these? Every crime must have its punishment.”
The decree also instructs the Russian Foreign Ministry to compose a list of the countries Moscow believes are “pursuing a destructive neoliberal agenda” within 30 days. It will be interesting to see who is on the list, although we already have some guesses.
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