Russian Parliament Consults Americans Moving to Russia, Receives Media Attention
Tim Kirby, Fr. Joseph Gleason, and IT specialists from America spoke with Russian lawmakers about streamlining immigration from America, Canada, Australia, England, and Western Europe
On Tuesday, February 14, 2023, Russian federal lawmakers held a conference in Moscow, with the participation of expats from the US and western Europe. Immigrants from English speaking countries are seeking to settle in Russia, and Russian legislators are looking for ways to make the process easier.
Comparable to the House of Representatives in America, or the House of Commons in English Parliament, the Russian State Duma is the lower house of the legislative branch in the Russian Federal Assembly, responsible for passing laws which govern the Russian nation. Members of the Duma are called Deputies.
Deputy Dmitry Kuznetsov is the Duma official who organized this conference at the Duma’s federal headquarters in downtown Moscow.
Tim Kirby, Fr. Joseph Gleason, and Timur Beslangurov were among those attending the conference, presenting various proposals for streamlining the immigration process. Also among the speakers, via teleconference, were information technology professionals from America who are hoping to bring their families permanently to Russia.
At the conference, Fr. Joseph Gleason identified two changes which most urgently need to be made in Russian immigration law:
Simplify the immigration quota process. Allow American and western families to apply for quota remotely, via an electronic application. If quota is denied, the family will not have to risk spending tens of thousands of dollars relocating to Russia for no reason. If the quota request is granted, the family can feel safe and secure, knowing that after they fly to Russia and purchase a home, they will be allowed to apply for residency.
With the current widespread anti-Russian sentiment, many immigrants find it difficult or even impossible to acquire apostilled background checks in time. America can take 2 months or more to apostille a criminal background check, and Canada takes even longer, making it nearly impossible to meet Russia's 90 day deadline. We need to make it impossible for unfriendly countries to interfere in the Russian immigration process, by lengthening the time window for accepting applications. We should allow immigrants to submit residency applications with background checks that are up to 180 days old.
The morning after the conference, the national Russian Gazette (Rossiyskaya Gazeta) ran an article, reporting on how The State Duma Proposed Measures to Simplify Emigration From the U.S. and Europe to Russia. The Russian Gazette (RG) has a special status in Russian media because it is the official publication of the Russian Government, i.e. the President and his administration, the equivalent of the cabinet in the US. It is what Pravda was during the USSR. Technically, you could say that Putin is the publisher. It's one of Russia's biggest newspapers, but it carries a special authority as the official mouthpiece of the government. For this reason, it is carefully read by government officials, including very senior people in Putin's administration.
Translated into English, here is an extended excerpt from this column run by the Russian Gazette:
State Duma deputies and members of the public proposed measures to help American and European refugees affected by discrimination against traditional values in the West. The State Duma held a conference on ideological migration to Russia from Western countries.
In particular, a coordination center for assistance to migrants from NATO countries is being created, said Dmitry Kuznetsov, a member of the State Duma and initiator of the conference. It will deal with issues of interaction with the state and employers.
As explained to "RG" by the parliamentarian, the staff will include American journalist and radio host Tim Kirby, blogger Stanislav Filin, Orthodox priest Joseph Gleason, linguist and psychotherapist Svetlana Anokhina, public counselor Anatoly Semenov, head of the Russian Center in New York Elena Branson, and businessman Joseph Rose.
One of the stated aims is to create opportunities for American and European IT and creative industry specialists who are migrating to Russia...
The participants of the Duma conference agreed upon a list of proposals to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to facilitate the resettlement of Western migrants to Russia.
In particular, they propose to allow American and Western families to apply for quotas remotely, through a paper (or electronic) application. If the quota is denied, the family would not have to risk wasting tens of thousands of dollars in travel and immigration costs, the authors of the proposals explained. And if the quota request is granted, the family can feel safe in the knowledge that once they arrive in Russia and acquire a house or apartment, they will be allowed to apply for a residence permit immediately.
Participants at the conference said that countries unfriendly to Russia are abusing Russian immigration laws, apparently intending to make it difficult for anyone to leave their country of origin and move to Russia. "We need to change immigration laws so that unfriendly countries do not have such power over the Russian immigration process," the final document says. [This goal is to be accomplished by extending the deadline for submitting background checks.]
Towards the close of the this article, State Duma deputy Dmitry Kuznetsov shares the following words of wisdom:
Everything should be for love. We must not persuade a political refugee to return if he does not love Russia and does not want to have anything in common with it. We would rather help migrants from the West who are eager to come to us.
In the interest of a just and sustainable world, we must reach out to all those who share common traditional ideas with us. We reach out directly to Westerners whose spiritual values are being oppressed by transnational elite groups. We have a responsibility to welcome those relocating from European countries, and together create the conditions for world peace based on the Christian faith.
The West has fallen into the evil tentacles of Satan. There are many people and families who hold onto their faith and family but the decay and perversion is all around. My Grandfather was born in Russia and escaped just prior to the Bolshevik revolution. I have always treasured my Russian roots and carry on my Russian Orthodox faith and traditions. I am happy to see people wanting to go to Russia. It will be the last place on Earth to worship Our Lord freely. Russia was started by saints and protected by God. It has gone through dark times but now it’s full of light and hope.
Wow, this is great! I have spent thousands on Apostille Stamps and now getting translated. It's still very complicated and very slow, but the whole background check timeline seems daunting, but this is encouraging news!