Videos of Germans who have moved to Russia seeking "traditional values" garner hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok and YouTube. These new residents are regularly invited to appear on state television, while the Kremlin speaks of mass immigration from the West.
In August 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree "for the humanitarian support of persons who share traditional Russian spiritual and moral values."
Since then, such foreigners — regardless of quotas and knwoledge of Russia's language or history — have been eligible for expedited residency permits. Putin signed a further decree in December to actively recruit foreigners who have achieved success in professions from culture to sports.
Germans showcased in Kremlin propaganda
State media devote significant coverage to immigrants who do not have Russian roots. That is why Remo and Birgit Kirsch from Potsdam, Germany, who resettled in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region, are the focus of so many media reports these days.
Speaking with DW about their motivation for moving, Remo Kirsch laments what he calls the loss of values in the West and voices his opposition to "gender and LGBT policy," albeit without explaining how it affects him personally.
"We don't want to be part of that system. We want to live in peace and quiet on the countryside," he said.
Kirsch sees no contradiction between peace and life in a nation that has been fighting a war of aggression against its neighbor for four years now.
Putin personally fast-tracking citizenship
In 2021, Remo Kirsch sold his farm in Germany and bought several hectares of land in Nizhny Novgorod in order to farm and build an eco-village consisting of eight houses for like-minded immigrants.
His close ties to Russian administrators are impossible to overlook. Recently, he was named advisor to the regional governor and was granted fast-track citizenship on orders from Vladimir Putin himself.
German media report that Kirsch and his wife are part of a propaganda network aimed at boosting Russia's image. Kirsch himself says he is simply presenting an unbiased reality and does not receive any compensation. Though when it comes to his citizenship he admits that it might have been a "reward" of sorts.
German chef Maksim Zitnikov was fast-tracked for citizenship, too. He had personally requested it from President Putin during an April 2025 video conference. Just one month later, he was a Russian citizen. Normally, the process takes years.
Zitnikov says he left Germany in 2023 to protect his children from "non-traditional values." As it turns out, he also had serious financial troubles in Germany. Zitnikov was co-owner of a catering company that German authorities closed down over debt in 2015 and eventually declared bankrupt in 2021.
The narrative of Germany's ruthless child protection services
According to a study by the "Civic Assistance Committee," a Moscow-based organization that helps migrants and refugees, most Germans moving to Russia today were relocated to Germany from Soviet-controlled areas of eastern Europe when they were children at the end of the Second World War.
One such person is Katharina Minich, a mother from the western German city of Minden. A nurse, Minich moved to Russia in 2016, because, as she explains it, child protection services in Germany had taken her two daughters from her. One of them, Alina, stayed in Germany, she says. But she was able to "save" Melissa, taking her along to her new home.
The family's story was widely covered by Russian media outlets. It was later learned that Melissa had returned to Germany as soon as she became a legal adult. The Russian media portal Fontanka reports that at one point journalists called Melissa during a live talk show featuring her mother Katharina as a guest. Melissa proceeded to accuse both her mother and father of having beaten her and her siblings. Saying she would "never live with my father or my mother," she added, "I don't want to see them."
Konstantin Troizky of the Civic Assistance Committee says the image of ruthless German authorities tearing children away from their well-to-do parents is pervasive in Russia. But statistics show that Russian parents run a greater risk of losing their rights per every thousand children than parents in Germany.
Are bloggers and NGOs getting cash from RT news?
Many immigrants like to speak about their new lives on social media. Some do so in German, like blogger Liza Graf, whose videos are seen by hundreds of thousands of viewers. Journalists from the Latvia-based, independent Russian-language media portal Vazhnyye Istorii (IStories) have reported that Graf and other foreign bloggers don't end up in Russia on their own. Rather, they are invited on press junkets organized by Duma Representative Maria Butina.
Butina is the founder and face of "Welcome to Russia," a foundation partnering with other non-profit charitable organizations; some of which, like Austrian-born Martin Held's "Moya Rossiya" (My Russia), deal specifically with Germany.
Welcome to Russia and its affiliates offer relocation and immigration advice, and organize language courses and travel to Russia. The My Russia website claims the organization has received more than 170,000 requests for help with moving to Russia.
According to journalists at IStories and the Austrian daily The Standard, Held and his NGO are financed by Russia Today, better known as RT, a Kremlin news broadcaster. The same goes for various other bloggers and projects dealing with people moving to Russia from the West. Journalists say Held could have received as much as half a million euros from RT.
In a written response to a DW query, Held said: "Neither I myself, nor any of my businesses or projects have ever received money, advantage or any other benefit from the Russian Federation, in particular RT. My Russia is not a political endeavor."
What attracts Westerners to Russia?
Other organizations partnering with Butina are Anatoly Bublik's "Put Domoj" (Way Home), and Jakob Pinneker's OKA, a Nizhny Novgorod recruitment agency specializing in attracting foreign workers to Russia.
Way Home's website features advice on moving and wire transfers but also articles like, "Will Europe build concentration camps for Russians?"
The organization bills itself as a patriotic volunteer project, but it appears to work in concert with the Kremlin. In numerous interviews, Bublik has repeatedly spoken of his work with Rossotrudnichestvo, Russia's government agency for questions pertaining to foreigners living abroad, as well as cooperation with international humanitarian outfits. Bublik declined to speak with DW.
OKA works closely with regional authorities as well. The agency's website answers the question "Why should I move to Russia?" with career opportunity, endless farmland, even surfing. There is no mention of the war in Ukraine or the repression of dissent at home.
Jakob Pinneker told DW that despite cases of foreigners being detained and jailed for supposed anti-war activities, people are not afraid to travel to Russia. He also emphasizes that OKA's partners are "not pursuing political aims."
"People come here to make a life for themselves, to enjoy careers, buy houses, raise children," he said.
Pinneker says the prospect of being drafted into the army and sent to the front in Ukraine doesn't worry him.
"Those kinds of questions exist, but they mainly impact Russian citizens," he said. "I got citizenship last year. So it affects me. Most people are pretty relaxed about it. They know that Russian citizenship comes with obligations."
What do the numbers really say about German migration to Russia?
According to Pinneker, his agency was able to relocate 91 people to Russia in its first year of operation. Statistics from the Russian Interior Ministry put the total number of German citizens relocating to the country in the year following implementation of Putin's "Shared Values Decree" at 369.
Experts from the Civic Assistance Committee reviewed the Interior Ministry's numbers, too. Konstantin Troizky says that despite Russian media actively pushing the narrative of German citizens fleeing to Russia in droves, the actual number is far, far lower.
