Canadian farmer Arend Feenstra, who moved to Russia through a streamlined immigration program for citizens of “unfriendly” countries who share “traditional values,” has complained that he cannot get a permanent residence permit. The news outlet Nizhny Novgorod Onlain drew attention to his YouTube video.
Feenstra received a three-year temporary residence permit in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region in early 2025. He then brought his wife and eight children to Russia and began farming.
But Feenstra has now learned that to replace his temporary residence permit with a permanent one, he must sign a contract with Russia’s Defense Ministry.
Did he think Russia was taking them in out of the goodness of their heart? They need meat for the meat grinder.
He thought he could be a social media influencer for the Russian conservative pundit class.
Guess not.
Ukrainian men can’t even leave.
Right, because Russia invaded Ukraine.
The Oblasts that Russia is currently occupying had already democratically seceded after the 2014 coup.
Azov Brigade ran over civilian barricades in Mariupol with their tanks. That was the invasion.
You are seeing this through the eyes of the occupier.
Were those “democratic secessions” internationally observed?
No, they were done at gunpoint.
You’re repeating Putin’s propaganda.
The occupier is Russia, and it sounds like you’ve been brainwashed by their “west bad” propaganda your whole life.
The DPR and LPR invited anyone who wanted to come.
All elections are guarded by guns, especially after a coup and entering a civil war. If you disrupt a polling station in America you’ll see guys with guns pretty fast.
The idea that a region who overwhelmingly voted for Yanukovych wouldn’t want to secede is denying the realities. You sound like a MAGA election denier.
I’m GenX in America. I’ve listened to your tired Boomer McCarthyist propaganda my entire life.
It was Nazi propaganda before that, and nothing has really changed.