GENEVA, August 4. /TASS/. The number of Western citizens who seek to move to Russia driven by shared spiritual and moral values is quite high, the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reports.
On August 19, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on humanitarian assistance to those who share Russia’s traditional values. Citizens of 47 unfriendly countries, including almost all EU member states (with the exception of Hungary and Slovakia), the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan, who disagree with the ideas promoted in their home countries, were granted an opportunity to apply for residence permits in Russia via a simplified procedure. According to Valentina Kazakova, head of the Interior Ministry’s Department for Migration, about 1,500 people applied for such residence permits as of June.
"It’s not that many people for a country with a population of 146 million," Tages-Anzeiger writes. "However, it’s an impressive number given that Russia is under sanctions, there are no direct flights from Western countries and people have to use workarounds to transfer assets to the country," the paper adds.