Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday extending temporary residency to foreigners who share “traditional Russian spiritual and moral values” and would like to take a vacation from “the destructive neoliberal ideological agenda.”
The “neoliberal agenda” described by Putin’s order includes “gender change, LGBT policies, and criticism of traditional religions,” as Turkey’s Anadolu Agency put it on Monday.
Russia passed laws against promoting LGBT values in 2022 and designated the worldwide LGBT movement as “extremist” in 2023.
Putin’s decree instructed the Russian Foreign Ministry to cook up a list within 30 days of all the countries that are “pursuing a destructive neoliberal agenda.” Putin’s government will probably require a lot less than 30 days to comply with that demand.
According to Putin’s order, foreign nationals and stateless individuals who have “spiritual and moral values” compatible with Russia can obtain a three-month residency permit without learning the Russian language or taking exams on Russian history, which are standard requirements for other immigrants.
Putin instructed his government this week to create a program dubbed “Russia In the World” for promoting “traditional Russian spiritual and moral values” overseas.
The order was rather vague about exactly what values the program would advance, but it seems like a safe bet that opposition to the LGBT movement would be on the agenda.
Putin has previously denounced the Western world as “Satanic” for indulging gay and transsexual politics. He has also claimed he is not “homophobic,” but wishes to promote “traditional values” that are “more stable and more important for millions of people” than what he refers to as “neoliberalism.”
The notion for extending special visas to foreigners who share Russian “values” was ostensibly hatched during a conversation between Putin and an Italian exchange student at Moscow State University named Irene Ceccini in February.
Ceccini told Putin at a panel discussion that she was having trouble securing a residence permit, in part because of the notoriously slow pace of Russian bureaucracy. She suggested the authoritarian Russian leader create exactly the sort of program he would announce six months later, granting expedited services and migration assistance to “foreigners who share our values and dream of moving to Russia.”
Putin initially responded with a creepy insistence that a beautiful girl like Cecchini must be eager to move to Russia because she was romantically involved with a Russian man, but when she insisted that was not the case, he said he found her notion of aggressive “inpatriation” interesting. He claimed Russia’s economy would have plenty of room in the future for skilled immigrant labor.
“Your idea is correct, and thank you for pointing this out. We will move in that direction,” Putin said.
However interested Putin might be in greasing the wheels for skilled foreign workers and/or cute Italian girls to move to Russia, the real audience for his geopolitical trolling may lie in Africa, where Russia has been seeking to expand its influence among nations that are deeply suspicious of the Western cultural agenda, especially regarding LGBT issues.
