Canadian who moved his family to Russia for ‘traditional values’ says he no longer recommends it: permanent residency would require signing a Defense Ministry contract
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.
https://meduza.io/en/news/2026/10/02/canadian-who-moved-his-family-to-russia-for-traditional-values-says-he-no-longer-recommends-it-permanent-residency-would-require-signing-a-defense-ministry-contractOpen linkView original on infosec.pub
98 replies
As a Canadian, I truly hope that others like him follow his example.
We don't need their kind around here.
The most unbelievable part of this whole story is that someone would admit to their mistake.
Good to know. Because, I was just about to move there. I hear Siberia is lovely in the winter. Also, I was promised a free trip to Ukraine. Two countries for one price, what a deal!
The "traditional values" of heavy drinking and autocracy?
But they have shopping carts that can go up escalators.
And bread!
The only way to guarantee citizenship is to enlist? Sounds familiar..
the idiot also likely doesnt want to learn Russian, which is required if you want to surive in russia.
Oh yeah. Been following this guy for the schadenfreude for awhile. When he first moved there he was surprised that workers at the random Russian bank he went to didn’t speak English. Dude is so fucking stupid
Russia that is known for systematic erasure of culture through resettlement and enforcement of their langauge, has very little people speaking English? You serious?!
I wouldn't trust the Russian government to watch my dog.
If you think the USA, Russia, or UK would keep any agreement, treaty, or deal in the year of Our Lord 2026, I don't know what to tell you. Yeah, no shit.
(not sure about Canada, but I doubt it)
Thinking that Russia, a country with the highest rate of HIV, abortion, CSAM, child prostitution, and drug use has traditional values is proof that online propaganda works.
Traditional conservative values.
Glances at news
My guy I think those ARE the traditional values they want.
https://www.dailykos.com/user/cajsalilliehook/
Yeah but they don't like "the gays" so it evens out I guess.
They sure ain't listening to Russian hardbass, lol
Canadian farmer with the dutchest name there is
Yeah highly likely his Dutch grandpa moved to Canada after WW2 to find a better life. Then he threw everything his grandfather and father build away for Russia. Bet he sold the farm he inherited from his dad and opa
Grandpa like "je deed wat?"
What's more traditional values than dying for your liegelord in an offensive war that doesn't benefit you even if won though?
Beating your wife before you leave.
Thoughts as I was reading this:
This is not someone who should be taken seriously. Not normal.
Haha, loser. Imagine finding out in 2026 that the Russian state is corrupt.
Go get killed for the state, moron. Why do you think they let you in? Because they're nice and friendly? They need cannon fodder, you dolt.
I thought one of the "traditional values" these guys love is men being protectors? So he should be thrilled to serve in the military to "defend" his family and the "traditional values" he loves so much
You'd have to watch Canadian society treat people you hate with respect. The horror.
Nonsense. Just move to Alberta.
All the racists and incel roughnecks and insane police violence and systematic rape of first nations peoples. You just don't have a risk of being pushed into the Ukraine meat grinder.
Plus Alberta is in the middle of an obvious Crimea play, there will be plenty of chances to serve Russia in Canada.
If the US doesn't declare the upcoming Alberta election a fraud and begin handing out US passports to the traitors, I'll be very surprised.
Canada continuing to allow Facebook, X, and OpenAI to operate in the country is baffling.
Please, no. Please? This is how we got into this mess in the first place. We were slightly more conservative than the Canadian average 25 years ago and then all the rest of the country dumped their social rejects on us. Our population doubled in like 10 years and now we have Danielle Smith running the province. Please, I'm begging you, stop sending every failed Ontario washout to Alberta.
Nobody is sending anyone to you. Idiots looked at Alberta and thought to themselves: "You know what? Seems like a great place to be a shit bag.", and then moved there on their own accord.
Maybe y'all should have curbstomped them when they arrived but you didn't because you shared the same values.
Conservatism is a cancer. If you leave it unchecked, it rots you from the inside.
Please, tell me more about what my values are. While you're busy making generalizations about other people, pay more attention to the conservatives undermining your own province, because we aren't the only province getting targeted, we were just the low hanging fruit.
So Alberta is the Texas of Canada…
Isn't Alberta where all the best hiking is? I've often thought about where I would want to live in Canada if they ever accepted me and I would prefer to live where there's mountains and hiking. Did they really turn the prettiest province into a dumping ground for their worst people?
It's pretty close to 50/50 population wise. A little over half are right wing mostly in the sticks. A little under half are left-ish, mostly in the cities. But yes, basically anyone who couldn't hold down a job anywhere else was told to grab a shovel and head to Alberta to dig for oil. And they came, by the millions. They bought up the cheap houses in all the little whistle-stop towns and then headed off to work the rigs. We leaned a bit right before they came, but not this far right. Even most of the farmers find them extreme.
The American oil barons promoted American style culture and a disdain for Albertan history and cultures. Most of the rig pigs and truckers didn't know any better, they weren't from around here. Now 25-30% of the province doesn't even identify as Canadian.
Don't misread me, it was never a haven for critical thinkers, but we had one of the finest public education systems in North America for nearly 30 years once. You wouldn't know it now. Our public health system was a miracle for how low our population density was. It's still not as bad as some of the truly dystopian parts of the US, but it's certainly a struggle compared to some provinces. The racism and xenophobia always existed, but it was never this widespread, and it certainly wasn't this open. All our independent news orgs are now wholly owned by American hedge funds.
There's some bright spots though. The arts are still widely celebrated here. Calgary and Edmonton have more stage theatres than you'd find in many cities twice their size, and music festivals are everywhere. Arguably we have more diverse food culture here than most places in North America too. The urban centres are actually pretty cosmopolitan and friendly. If you stick to the urban metro-areas and the national and provincial parks, it's still beautiful.
And the political situation isn't as hopeless as some people make it out to be. We're outnumbered, but just barely.
I call them IRS fugitives who also import their own scum culture and pollute.
I appreciate your thorough response! I'm so used to our red states in the US being absolutely awful and backwards as hell that I think I was projecting that onto Alberta. It can't possibly be as bad as fuckin Idaho, lol.
BC is fine for hiking and skiing and not being insane.
Well, I mean if you stick to the coast it's fine. You get into the interior it may as well be Alberta.
They're not being sent, they're being called to Alberta. Did you know Alberta has been heavily advertising in other provinces to get people to move there? They've been doing this for over ten years now. They have huge multimillion ad campaigns to lure people over.
Read it again. Your recency bias is showing. They flooded out west long before there were any ad campaigns.
Read what again? Where you said it happened over the past 10 years? I also said it happened over the past ten years.
I said 25 years ago it doubled in 10 years. We're not talking about the same time period.
If these are Ontario's deplorables I'm not sure who's left in Ontario of any quality given who they keep electing with abysmal voter turnout.
Rape and murder*
This guy hates gay people so much he moved his family to Russia. But he doesn't hate them enough to die in Ukraine.
It's ironic that a Christian got in trouble because they couldn't hate enough.
he probably never thought he would need to learn russian to.
TIL the leopards in Russia are critically endangered. Hopefully eating faces can help their numbers rebound.
It’s so funny that some people think Russia has traditional values. It was an atheist country up until 30 years ago, and today when people say they’re religious, what they mean is they go to church a couple of times a year at most. Not to mention, today they have a very high divorce rate/many single mother households. How are these traditional values?
When people say they want traditional values, they mean racism, gay-bashing and misogyny. Russia has those. This loser is mostly upset because they want him to fight in ukraine in exchange for permanent residency.
Yeah "traditional values" = "I get to hit the people who are forced into dependency on me"
My father is a traditional values type and I remember him complaining to me when I was like ten that "spousal rape" was a thing.
He also hit us.
I’d argue that Russia has less misogyny. Women for example have always been in the workforce, and having a woman run a large department or be in charge of men is considered normal. It always has been.
In terms of gay bashing, Russians are private people and they don’t care what you do in private. But this is true for all matters, not just being gay.
I do agree about racism.
I think maybe you are confusing an idealized version of the USSR with modern day Putin's Russia.
Even assuming that's an accurate picture, "I don't care what you do as long as I don't have to acknowledge you exist" is still homophobia.
It’s in regards to all matters, not just being gay.
That sounds pretty specifically about criminalizing homosexuality.
America and Europe don't seem to mind so much, as long as you give them all your natural resources you can persecute whomever you want.
You're just pinkwashing imperialism.
That’s an interesting point about the misogyny. The Soviet Union was relatively egalitarian between men and women, i suppose. i think the first female astronaut was soviet.
Russian media is whatgave me the impression that russia was misogynistic, but i have no firsthand experience.
Dont come back, fucker.
I've said this before about this guy and his wife, bring the kids home. But the parents? Fuck those traitors. They shat their bed. Let them lie in it.
How can someone move his family with 8 children to a war zone? "Traditional values" what the fuck?
when they are so brain damaged that war is an adventure like in the TV but knowing that some person in Canada is cay and exists, that's the real danger!!!
Tbf, he was probably very far away from the war (Russia is massive). And for all that he paid attention to Canada's flaws, he didn't pay attention to Russia's trafficking in people from all over the world to act as cannon fodder. Unfortunately for his family, he didn't realize his privileges until they got revoked.
Ofc, there's nothing preventing him (trying to) move his family back to Canada, but I wouldn't be surprised if any assets he has in Russia are confiscated (the farm, any money he might have, etc). They'll probably let the wife return, and hopefully any younger kids, but the dad's fate and that of any older boys (who I feel very sorry for) may be very different.
The worst is that he’ll never acknowledge that it was his mistake alone
War zone? It's like 300 miles east of Moscow. More like a don't walk near the refinery zone.
They have traditional values in Russia. It's just that they are Stalin's traditional values.
If you don't get sent to the front lines or the gulag, you get to drink yourself to death. As is tradition.
... and then things got worse
Did he think Russia was taking them in out of the goodness of their heart? They need meat for the meat grinder.
1 of 2 things, meat grinder against ukraine, and as a propaganda mouthpiece, usually only works if you are rich to begin.
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.
Wow look at that picture, a "Heil Hitler" sign in Ukraine. I guess that means all Ukrainians are Nazis.
By the same logic, Karl Marx must be a Nazi, because he came from a country which used to have lots of "Heil Hitler" signs.
It also says Slava Ukraine, a Holocaust slogan. The Nazis and OUN coined the term. Read a book.
The fact that a small hateful minority has a stranglehold on the government is sorta my problem.
Yes, that famous Holocaust slogan: "Glory to Ukraine"
And that famous Nazi running Ukraine, the Jewish man Volodymyr Zelenskyy
You seem to think it's funny, but it is true. You also seem to have zero context for something you feel so strongly about. The OUN were so eager to exterminate minorities that even the Nazis had to reign them in for going "too far".
Now the Banderite controlled government erects statues to Stepan Bandera, names streets after him, makes school children sing songs about him.
Zelensky campaigned and won on the promise of peace through the Minsk Agreement, and watched helplessly as the Azov Brigade refused his orders to stop shelling civilians in the Donetsk city center.
Zelensky is now just a kapo stooge who will never outlive his usefulness to these fascists.
🚨🚨TANKIE ALERT🚨🚨
Let people vote. Is that a tankie position?
Tankie
"Let Ukrainians vote." -tankies, I guess
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.
What international observers would not have a conflict of interest? Which countries have affirmed that these regions have the right to a secession vote in the first place?
They were not allowed an official secession vote for the same reason that the parties those regions supported were outlawed.
Kind of like Euromaidan.
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.
See you on a drone cam recording!
It's a fascist trait to get boners at watching people die.
An entire generation is being raised by this bloodthirsty cult.
Wat. The guy's platform was literally closer economic ties with the EU, which like 70% of the population supported. In what world does that imply a desire to secede?
It was his campaign promise because Europe offered the better trade deal, until it didn't. Russia didn't want to lose influence because they feared exactly what's happening, so Russia simply offered an objectively better trade deal. That's all. Yanukovych would have been corrupt not to take the better deal. And even if you refuse to believe it was a better deal, which it was, a broken campaign promise hardly necessitates a coup. We'd have a lot of coups in America if so. The 2014 coup was enacted by Svoboda, a Banderite party that only has support in Lvov Oblast, who was the only Oblast to vote for Petroshenko over Zelensky in 2019.
Zelensky promised peace through the Minsk Agreement, yet was powerless to stop the Azov Brigade from shelling civilians in Donetsk. Now Zelensky is a kapo stooge who will never outlast his usefulness to Banderites.
Let people vote and they'll tell you if they're "Ukrainian" or not. Yet, that's not what American and Europe are interested in.
THIS👇 is all you need to know about the West's adversarial nature toward Russia.
Classic FAFO. After the dumbass signs, hopefully some Canadian made munitions will find his worthless ass.
As a petty individual I'm just happy he FAFO but then I remember the kids and hope the idiot turns back to Canada so they are spared their dad supidity…
Unfortunately they’re raised believing in hate no matter what
Man you'd be suprised the directions kids veer off, especially when raised in a monotone culture that provides no room for wonder and curiosity. It's almost like parents can't actually control what their adult children believe.
Vivian Wilson. Exhibit A.
yeap, that is likely the case… but if we don't even give kids the benefit of doubt, we will never break the cycle
But they’ll be far away
I'm guessing they will eventually return after the idiot Dad runs from the Russian draft or gets killed in the Ukraine front
Fucked around enough. Time to find out now.
How long until we hear that the guy decided to sign the contract anyway and has been shipped off to fight in Ukraine? Of course, he'll be fighting one handed for a while because several of the fingers of his other hand we're mysteriously broken and/or had the fingernails torn off shortly before he signed.