Absolutely and ya it is weird to me too. “Wherever you go, there you are” comes to mind. I’m happy Magoo linked their video in the first place, because I followed up with several expats and found out the following:
- Hoffman’s: the family in the video above with father in the Russian military. He can’t read Russian, signed a contract for military, was told he would be a “news reporter” or put in a repair battalion. Took less money than promised under the guise of “he will be able to choose where he goes”. They indeed spent all their money on their house in the American Village. Their builder was short 20% because of currency exchange issues and while that wasn’t technically their problem, they didn’t fight contract apparently. They were left with an unfinished yard and other work undone. Wife spent $900 USD in the last month on taxis, they have no money for a car, father’s military pay is at least 2 months delayed, they are accepting food donations. I would not be surprised if they are deported or something because you have to show proof of funds to migration office periodically. They actually don’t even have temporary residency yet, so they’re still on visa. The overall consensus is that Istra is an upscale dacha community with no close-by amenities or jobs, and an unsuitable destination for new expats. They’re on telegram under HuffmanTime
- Russian Ark Family: a couple days ago, he posted an update saying that basically he is disappointed by lack of help from government and the discrimination he faces from employers (probably because he doesn’t speak fluent Russian, also because he doesn’t have a RU passport) despite having residency permit. “I even submitted a petition detailing the discrimination we’ve faced. Nothing came of it. If we cannot secure employment or meet the income threshold for a family of our size [7 people], we may lose our right to remain… Is Russia truly an ark, or has it become a cruise liner only for the rich and influential immigrants?” They purchased a small, old 2 bedroom home in the Yaroslavl countryside in a small village, bought an economical van, seem to live pretty frugally. If they can’t make it, it just shows the entire premise of moving to such a location is unfeasible. They have a Youtube and Telegram channel under this name.
- Russia: The American Dream: older, single IT guy moved to Russia. Found a Russian wife around his age. Had a bunch of visa issues from a name typo. Lost remote IT job, tried English teaching, didn’t seem to work out, works odd jobs or night sales online. Barely getting by. Has permanent residency, but without speaking fluent Russian, this doesn’t help. Doesn’t have experience with Linux, and this is majority of IT jobs in his speciality. He is also older, and feels he faces age discrimination. He has a YouTube channel under this name.
- Original Danish Family: they don’t have an online presence as far as I know. They were one of the original families that moved out to Rostov Veliky (Yaroslavl) region from Denmark. They moved to Russia because the wife was placed in a CPS group for drug addicts while pregnant because they had icons in their home. I heard from another expat that is moving back to America that they also moved back to Denmark.
- Unnamed Family: they don’t have an online presence, they were just a family who was part of expat group. I spoke with wife and they are moving or moved back by now to the US. They had 4-5 kids, older teenagers, no fluency in Russian, bought or built an expensive home for the region (again, countryside dacha village in Yaroslavl region), had difficulty selling it, used their life savings. She felt deceived by the entire experience, the prominent advocators of moving to rural Russia, etc.
There are probably more like this in the Gen 1 expat wave, I don’t have time to search them out. Seems like people go radio silent and you don’t really hear a follow up with what happened.
Here is one, maybe success story:
- Home in Russia: Schutzman family, Catholic family of 7 from Kansas. They have been in Russia for about a year. They seem to be spokespeople for the Nizhy Novgorod region in some capacity (there is a push to make this an immigrant friendly city, and finds favor from those who know St Seraphim of Sarov’s prophecy). I think they must have a lot of background support or seriously large savings $$$. They travel and take vacations around the country a lot, very put together presentation and videos. The father apparently just got hired by a Russian IT company and marks the first time I’ve ever heard of a recent expat get a real job. He says there’s many former IBM and Microsoft people there and they’re working on new projects. So perhaps he is good at adapting and is more skilled at networking and presentation than others. I don’t think they are affiliated with the whole American Village thing, and note they moved to an actual city not the countryside.
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Whoever leads these people to financial ruin and destitution should be ashamed. People have emigrated there since the 1990s and managed, there’s a lot of great things Russia has to offer, but the ones shilling stuff now made it without all the “help” they’re claiming is needed.
Here is an example of the fear-mongering that leads people to make rash decisions (besides political reasons). I’m not sure it’s satire, but this kind of stuff is mentioned as actual reasons for leaving the West all the time:
LINK
I don’t know, it just seems really nuts to me, and on some level regarding longterm trends I agree with them…
