Meet the Western conservatives moving to Russia – The Spectator

A furious Maximus Crane was sitting in a barber’s chair in Moscow when he received the greatest news of his life. It was August 19, the day Vladimir Putin signed a decree allowing foreigners to immigrate to Russia. Now the 46-year-old resident of Virginia Beach, Va., can finally fulfill his lifelong dream of staying in Russia forever. “For me, the decree is the best thing that’s ever happened in my life, other than family and kids,” says Crane, a charismatic bear of an American who sports a long Old Testament beard and perfectly coiffed hipster hair. “I received notice of the decree, I jumped out of my chair and cried. I was very excited.

Thanks to Putin’s decree, citizens from a list of “hostile” Western countries are officially welcome to immigrate to Russia as long as they share Russia’s “spiritual and moral values.” For Joseph Schutzman, 39, a native of Dallas, Texas, Russia is a place where he and his growing family have found religious freedom and an escape from the “liberal ideologies that have permeated America … The US has become untenable for me.”