In a brightly lit conference room of a Moscow police department, a smiling officer flanked by Russian flags and gilded double-headed eagles handed over small blue booklets to an American family-of-five.

The booklets were asylum certificates granting them the right to live and work in Russia after fleeing Texas because they felt their way of life was under threat.

“I feel like I’ve been put on an ark of safety for my family,” 61-year-old Leo Hare said at the time.

“I want to thank President [Vladimir] Putin for allowing Russia to become a good place for families in this world climate.”

“In a small way it feels like I just got married to Russia,” echoed his wife, Chantelle Hare, 51.

“I look forward to building a future here with my family. I look forward to the opportunities that my sons will have here.”

Footage of the ceremony, shared on the Interior Ministry’s official media channels, was accompanied by a caption declaring that “yet another American family choose our country to live in … understanding that in our country traditional values are protected by the state”.

The Hare family, devout Christians who ran a farm in Texas, describe themselves as a family of “moral migrants” and have emerged as the face of a small but growing trend of Westerners relocating to Russia in search of the traditional, conservative values they feel are eroding in the liberal West.

Their journey reflects the ideological narrative Putin has spent years crafting: Russia as the guardian of family centred traditions amid a Western world spiralling into moral and social decay.

Stories of foreigners moving to Russia in pursuit of these values get extensive coverage on Russian state media and are woven into the broader narrative Moscow now exports internationally.

Behind the headlines, some newcomers face serious challenges – running into legal and financial issues, grappling with frozen bank accounts, or getting lost in the country and its layers of bureaucracy – though criticism remains muted.

Just a few days after the Hares received their asylum, Putin signed a decree in August 2024 that offers the so-called “shared values” visa – also known informally as the “anti-woke” visa – to people from 47 countries Russia considers unfriendly, including the United States, Britain, and most of the European Union.

Through this decree, “providing humanitarian support to individuals who share traditional Russian spiritual and moral values”, Russia offers a three-year residency permit with minimal requirements that can eventually be converted into citizenship.

Since the beginning of the year, about 700 people have been issued this visa, while hundreds of others have come on work on student visas or as spouses of Russian citizens, according to lawmaker Maria Butina, who has become the champion of the programme.

“LGBT and migrants, these are the two main reasons why people move,” she said. “They feel that are too many migrants in Europe or they do not accept the LGBT values,” she told the Washington Post.

Butina is familiar to Americans as the Russian political activist who was accused of infiltrating conservative political circles to promote Russian interests and convicted in 2018 of acting as an unregistered foreign agent.

She was sentenced to 18 months in a US prison and later released and deported to Russia in October 2019.

In addition to being a member of Russia’s Parliament, Butina also runs an organisation called Welcome to Russia, where a team of about a dozen people helps foreigners obtain the “shared values” visa.

In November 2024, Butina launched a new programme on Russia’s state network RT called “Family – Russia”, focused on people who have chosen to leave the West and settle in Russia.

Around the same time, RT introduced a multilingual website, Gateway to Russia, which provides information on relocation options and Russian-language basics.

Foreigners are expected to have enough funds to support themselves, but the Russian Government has set up initiatives to help with housing and job placement.

Those who obtain a residency permit become eligible for pension and child payments, along with getting access to universal healthcare.

‘Spiritual asylum’

Butina insists that Russia is not actively recruiting disillusioned Westerners.

“The Russian state views it as a humanitarian mission. Our job is not to attract people. Let’s be honest, it is quite difficult,” she said.

“You need to adapt these people, help them with work, find a school for their children. This is a very difficult process.

“It would probably be more correct to call it as a spiritual asylum visa,” she added.

“People are moving because they are looking for Noah’s ark, not that Russia is seeking them.”

The effort to attract disenchanted Westerns is a calculated one.

A recent investigation by the Russian-language outlet Important Stories revealed that the RT network – which is under both US and EU sanctions – funds a network of bloggers who produce videos featuring relocated foreigners lavishing praise on Russia while criticising the West.

With titles like “Russia Has No American Problems” and “The West Is Trying to Demonise Russia”, these videos are part of a larger soft-power effort by Moscow to improve its image and portray the country as orderly, stable and poised to thrive despite international isolation.

The channels add to the existing cohort of conservative Western influencers who have settled in the country and publish Russia-friendly content.

In 2019, an Australian family – coincidentally sharing the surname Hare – relocated to Russia in protest over the legalisation of same-sex marriage in their home country.

They established a farm in Altai, a scenic region in southern Siberia, and run a popular video blog about their life that was prominently featured in RT and other state media coverage.

The messaging in these videos often dovetails with an established Maga worldview. Trans and LGBTQ+ rights are cast as signs of moral decline and opposed under the guise of protecting the interests of children. Feminism is rejected as a leftist project to erode masculinity and dismantle family institutions.

Coronavirus vaccine mandates – cited by Butina as another common reason Westerners have chosen to relocate to Russia – are viewed not as public health measures but as instruments of authoritarian control, wrapped in conspiracy-laden scepticism.

Russia is portrayed as a haven for traditional values: single men are shown idealised visions of submissive family oriented Russian women aligned with the “tradwife” aesthetic gaining traction in some American circles.

The absence of gay pride events in Russia – thanks largely to severe anti-LGBTQ+ laws labelling the movement as extremist – is highlighted as a feature.

One relocation service openly lists these laws as a key benefit, proudly advertising the country as “family focused”.

For Stephen Webster, a pastor in Murmansk and a comic book artist, it was a move for religious and economic reasons.

He first relocated to Russia from Oklahoma with his father, also a pastor, in the early 1990s and then returned in 2023, after about six years in the US.

“The first and foremost reason was kind of family and church-related reasons, but there are other things like education,” he said. “I have four kids, and education for the kids is far, far, cheaper here than it is in the US.”

Webster pointed to Russia’s material support for families, such as extended parental leave and the “maternal capital” programme, which provides first-time mothers with about US$8500 and bonuses for subsequent children.

The Russian Government has made improving the demographic situation a core effort against the backdrop of declining birth rates and wartime losses and is increasingly looking to incentivise young women to marry and have many children, forgoing education and career.

Respect for Putin

Before relocating, Chantelle Hare said she spent a lot of time watching YouTube channels run by foreigners who had already made the move to Russia, including Dan Castle’s Wild Siberia and Tim Kirby’s Travel.

While these channels weren’t named in the Important Stories investigation, they belong to a broader ecosystem of expat influencers promoting Russia in a favourable light.

Documents obtained by a European intelligence service and reviewed by the Washington Post show Kirby is part of a group of Western expat bloggers, including Kremlin propagandist John Mark Dougan, who receive instructions and financial support from the state-backed Centre for Geopolitical Expertise to publish disinformation. Kirby declined to comment when contacted by the Washington Post.

Leo Hare said he became disillusioned with the US after what he saw as US President Donald Trump’s failure to hold “traitors” accountable following the 2020 election, which he believes was stolen.

“A country that does not punish its traitors is no longer really a country,” he said, painting a picture of a nation overtaken by intelligence agencies and plagued by corrupt elites.

The Hares said they felt unsafe in Texas because of unregulated migration.

Chantelle said she was worried her sons wouldn’t be able to “marry a real girl” and not a transgender person and deplored laws such those establishing buffer zones around abortion clinics.

But the tipping point, and what finally drew them to Russia, Leo said, was Putin’s persona.

“I … liked his policies, how he was trying to restore pride in Russia, restore patriotism,” Leo said.

So far, Trump’s re-election does not appear to have dissuaded Americans who have already set their sights on moving to Russia from still coming, according to Philip Hutchinson, a former British Conservative Party candidate who moved to Russia four months ago because his Russian wife could not obtain a UK visa.

Hutchinson now runs Moscow Connect, which offers relocation packages, and has partnered with Butina’s initiative. He said that even Trump’s policies are not enough to persuade some American conservatives to stay in their home country.

“What happens when another administration comes in and tries to change that?” he said. “In Russia, at least, you know you’re going to get consistency.”

Some families run into significant challenges during their move. The Hares have said that they were defrauded out of US$50,000 of their savings and that law enforcement has not been responsive.

Arend and Anneesa Feenstra, a Canadian farming couple with nine children, relocated to Russia in 2023 for reasons similar to those of the Hares and to set up a cattle ranch.

Soon after they arrived, their bank accounts – filled with funds from selling their farm in Canada – were frozen because of “suspicious” activity, leaving the family stranded and frustrated.

In a since-deleted YouTube video, Anneesa, visibly upset, confessed that she was “ready to jump on a plane and get out of here”.

They later made a new video titled, “We are sorry and we will do better”, in which Arend retracted their earlier criticism, saying they had spoken in a moment of frustration brought on by language barriers.

“This was not a reflection of our views on Russia, its people, its government, its banks or its laws.”