Brits are clamouring to sign up for an offer from Vladimir Putin leave “woke West” and move to Russia to embrace its “traditional values,” the Kremlin has claimed.
According to reports from Moscow, 17 people from Scotland have been in touch with the Russian Embassy to enquire about Putin’s “fast-track residence permits.”
It was after the Russian dictator amended immigration laws to tempt more Westerners to come to his country.
Putin has effectively said westerners would be seeking asylum from wokeism in Russia as he said he was offering “humanitarian aid” to people “who share traditional Russian spiritual and moral values”.
It comes after Russia claimed that people from north America have already taken up the offer and moved there.
The Kremlin-run Mash media outlet claims that all 17 people had taken up the scheme from Scotland within the ten days of the offer through the Russian consulate-general in Edinburgh.
No figures have been provided for any potential leavers via the Russian embassy in London.
Pr-Kremlin Tsargrad TV reported: “In the West, it seemed like they were just waiting for [Putin’s] document to appear – in the first 10 days alone, 17 citizens of Foggy Albion [Britain] wanted to move to us.”
It is unclear what the true motivation for the call is and there are fears among some quarters western men accepted by Russia may later end up being pressured or even conscripted to fight in Putin’s war in Ukraine after his own forces were depleted.
Major-General Irina Volk of the Russian Interior Ministry said: “The desire to move to Russia for permanent residence arose against the background of the abolition of traditional moral and family values in American society, as well as the low level of education.”
Russia has already allowed entry to Americans Leo Lionel and Chantel Felice Haer with their children, aged 16, 14, and 11.
Mr Lionel said: “‘Personally I want to thank your President Putin for allowing Russia to become a good place for families in this world climate,’ he said.
“We intend to use this opportunity to benefit our family.
“I feel like I’ve been put in an arch of safety. And it’s very important. Thank you so much.”
Canadian Arend Feinstra has also left the Canadian province of Ontario and moved to Russia with his wife and their eight children to start farming there.
He said: “We didn’t feel safe with our children there and for the future.
“There’s a lot of left-wing ideology, LGBTQ, trans, just a lot of things that we don’t agree with they teach there now.
“We wanted to get away from that for our children.
“But also, for economic reasons, the farming has better opportunities. We felt that Russia was best.”
Russian pro-Putin MP Maria Butina said there was a “liberal dictatorship”‘ in the West.
She said: “It is important to emphasise that the peoples of these countries are not our enemies, but their governments, who have gone mad, are insane, and are imposing such policies.”
She said many Westerners wanted to come to Russia for “freedom and a traditional way of life.”