Russia, soon to be a land of asylum for Western citizens disaffected by their country? This is in any case the meaning of a decree signed by Vladimir Putin this August, which promises that Moscow is now ready to provide “assistance to all foreigners who wish to escape the destructive neoliberal ideals put forward in their country and settle in Russia, where traditional values reign supreme”, according to the state news agency Tass.
Concretely, Moscow plans to ease the criteria for these residence applications, in particular by allowing them not to have to “provide documents confirming their knowledge of the Russian language, Russian history and fundamental laws”. But also by ensuring that such “asylum seekers” are not affected by the quotas set by the government.
The list of countries concerned is to be defined by the Russian Foreign Ministry from September, although there is little doubt about the target of such an operation: Western countries.
The “decadence” of Western societies
Contrasting the so-called “decadence” of Western societies with traditional Russian greatness has become over time one of Vladimir Putin’s main ideological axes. And this, as much to try to stir up the fractures of public opinion in the West as to allow him to accentuate the repression against any divergent thought in his country. As early as 2013 in a speech, the Russian president stated: “Many Euro-Atlantic countries are rejecting their roots, including the Christian values that constitute the basis of Western civilization. They are denying moral principles and their national, traditional, cultural, religious and even sexual identity.”
“Do we want our Russia to no longer be our homeland? For our children to be perverted, for them to be told that there are other genders than men and women? For them to be offered sex change operations?” he protested again in a speech in September 2022, going so far as to denounce a form of “open Satanism”.
Last December, the “international LGBT civil movement” – a term that does not correspond to any legal entity in the country – was also classified as an “extremist organization” in Russia, along with groups such as Al Qaeda or Islamic Jihad. As a result, homosexual or transgender people are now liable to ten years in prison.
The news of this facilitation of expatriation in Russia was in any case celebrated by the usual pro-Putin relays on social networks. Like Alex Jones, the American host of conspiracy and far-right radio, who celebrated “a decree having the effect of a bomb inviting people from all over the world who can no longer stand the neoliberal globalist nightmare to find refuge in traditional Russia”. Or Simon Boikov, pro-Russian propagandist taking refuge in the Russian embassy in Australia, who praised a decree allowing the “provision of humanitarian support to people sharing the traditional spiritual and moral values of Russia”. If Russia is the welcoming and attractive country that they describe, nothing will soon stop them from going to live there.