‘Russian girl shows me her ass’ How foreigner vloggers who moved to Russia support Putin, promote ‘family values,’ and sexualize women
Over the past two years, stories of foreigners moving to Russia for ideological reasons have become a recurring theme in the country’s media. In October 2024, Russia’s Interior Ministry reported a surge in applications for temporary residence permits from citizens of “unfriendly nations.” Many of these expats, dissatisfied with so-called “LGBT propaganda” and feminism in their home countries, have turned to YouTube to share their experiences of life in Russia and promote “traditional values” — often relying on sexualized portrayals of Russian women to draw in viewers. Since 2023, the Russian government has poured millions of rubles into promoting the country’s image as a haven for disillusioned Westerners. The reporting project Glasnaya investigated how successful these YouTube trends have been and what narratives pro-Russian foreign vloggers are spreading. Meduza shares an abridged English-language version of their reporting.
Samuel Hyland, a 46-year-old from Nottingham in the U.K., moved to Russia in the early 2000s, settled in Vladimir, and eventually gained citizenship. Hyland speaks decent Russian, having developed an interest in the language as a teenager after a Russian family moved into his neighborhood.
In 2017, he launched a YouTube channel, Sam’s Russian Adventures, where he documents life in provincial Russia in English. His channel only really took off in 2022, though, when he began posting videos about exploring abandoned places and life in Russia under Western sanctions.
A woman named Milena frequently appears in Hyland’s videos. In one clip, she strolls with him through a village wearing tight, neon workout gear and holding a cardboard sign that reads, “Looking for a husband.” In another, she rocks back and forth on a piece of children’s play equipment in a white corset and a long silky black skirt, as she gazes up at Hyland. “Would you fly in my plane?” she asks. “Of course! You’re such a smart and beautiful girl,” he replies.
Hyland has found a simple formula to attract viewers: clickbait titles. Choice examples include “Russian Girl Shows Me Her Ass,” “Englishman Invited to GIRLS ONLY Party in RUSSIA,” and “She told me THIS was forbidden in RUSSIA.” The actual content is mundane — looking at art at a market in Vladimir, attending a yoga festival, or getting yelled at by a local woman for filming.
He pairs the provocative titles with voyeuristic thumbnails catering to the male gaze. In one, a young woman in a tight black dress that exposes her cleavage licks a popsicle while locking eyes with the camera. The video, titled “I got SCAMMED in Russia,” is about Hyland getting swindled while buying a car during his early years in the country.
Hyland, whose videos attract anywhere from a few thousand to half a million views, says this is what his audience wants. He’s complained that YouTube deprioritized his content after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine since he shows the “real Russia” without “Western propaganda.” In his videos, Hyland emphasizes that Russia is a country of “traditional values,” where women view men as providers and continue to care for their appearance after having children — unlike, he claims, women in the West.
When Hyland learns that a woman he’s speaking to has kids, he showers her with compliments and praises Russian women for their ability to maintain their looks. In one video, a woman remarks, “When you watch TV, [Western women] are all plus-size. Here, everyone takes care of their body, diet, [and goes to] the gym, even after having two kids.” Hyland enthusiastically agrees.
The British YouTuber has tried his hand at various ventures while living in Russia. In 2012, he opened an English language school in Vladimir, but the business failed. Now, Hyland focuses on his two YouTube channels and offers consultations for foreigners interested in moving to Russia. His website also features a section called “Russian Dating.” Hyland claims foreign men and Russian women often ask him to set them up. So far, though, there’s just one sample profile on his site.
‘Traditional values’
English-language YouTube channels about life in Russia occupy a small niche, but topics about relationships with women and discussions of feminism are quite popular. Videos on who should pay the bill on a date, the differences between American and Russian women, and how to win over a Russian woman often attract hundreds of thousands of views.
Many of these channels are run by foreigners who moved to Russia after marrying Russian women, says Natasha, the creator of the English-language YouTube channel Natasha’s Adventures, where she documented life in her hometown of Spassk-Dalny in Russia’s Far East before emigrating. “These are people who adhere to so-called traditional family values and have become disillusioned with the West,” she said. “According to them, rainbow flags are everywhere in the West, but in Russia, the traditional family is still preserved. They’re often well-off individuals with Western salaries, savings, and property.”
One of the vloggers Natasha is talking about is former U.S. Marine Daniel Castellon. He came to Siberia in April 2022 to explore the region and “test himself,” but when he landed in Irkutsk, he struggled to find anyone who spoke English — except for one woman. Two years later, they got married, and Castellon shared the wedding on his YouTube channel, Wild Siberia.
A former Californian, Castellon calls Siberia the “new frontier for freedom.” He purchased land in the town of Slyudyanka on Lake Baikal, where he grows radishes and goes fishing with his father-in-law. Castellon says he appreciates that Russia, unlike the U.S., respects “traditional values,” and he says he admires Russian women for being “wise” and desiring men who will “protect and love them.” In his view, such women are becoming harder to find in the U.S. and Europe due to “LGBT propaganda.”
He also believes masculinity is rooted in military service, lamenting that the U.S. military now recruits LGBTQ+ people. In one of his videos, Castellon says the U.S. is currently being run by “weak men,” which is dragging the country downhill, while Russians are constantly dealing with harsh weather, sanctions, and global pressure, “so they’re always creating strong men.”
Castellon views Russia’s war in Ukraine as an opportunity for young men from small towns like Slyudyanka. He admits that there have been casualties but says “not all will die, obviously,” adding that the money from Russian soldiers’ “exploits” will benefit the economy in their hometowns.
A ‘moral refuge’
According to Natasha, videos about Russia on YouTube can be fairly lucrative. “There isn’t much content about Russia in the West, especially in English. The country has always been interesting to foreigners, even before the war — some studied Russian, others had roots here. After the war started, many also became curious about Russian politics,” she explained.
The Russian government has been working to capitalize on this interest, positioning the country as a “moral refuge” for Westerners who share “traditional family values.” In 2023 and 2024, the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives allocated about six million rubles ($60,000) to a competition called From Russia with Love, which aims to fill the gap in content presenting Russia as “an attractive country to live in.”
English-speaking foreign vloggers are encouraged to select video ideas from “patriotic” Russian YouTubers and collaborate with them. “There are long-standing ideological trends justifying leaving Russia for the ‘West’ as practically the only positive path for progressive youth,” reads the project description. “At the same time, many educated, well-earning residents of Europe and America, for political or ideological reasons, no longer wish to live in these countries and are either considering Russia as a destination for relocation or have already moved here.”
Since September 1, 2024, foreigners who share “traditional Russian spiritual and moral values” can apply for temporary residence in Russia through a simplified process. Applicants are not required to know Russian, or the country’s laws or history. Pro-Kremlin foreign vloggers have actively been making videos about the new decree, often using the opportunity to promote their own products, such as consultation services for those considering moving to Russia.
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Some of the most notorious foreign vloggers sit on From Russia with Love’s panel of experts. Among them is Tim Kirby, who immigrated to Russia from the U.S. in 2006. Kirby says he made the move after his daughter’s school principal in the U.S. threatened to involve child protective services if she continued to miss classes.
In Russia, Kirby worked as a host on various propaganda outlets such as Russia Today and the Christian Orthodox news network Tsargrad TV. He speaks fluent Russian and got Russian citizenship a few years ago. Kirby runs a YouTube channel where he documents his travels across Russia. Unlike many other English-speaking vloggers, he rarely features Russian women in his videos. “It’s much better for society when men are valued,” he claimed. “When a woman admires a man, she bonds with him — and a family and a marriage begin. But when a woman is put on a pedestal, she ends up alone, buying cats and boxed wine at 40.”
The project’s creators envision these “experts” providing “guidance” to Russian YouTubers, helping them see their hometowns “through the eyes of foreigners.” They also hope to leverage the “wow factor” of titles like “Expat Vloggers Shocked by the Real Russia” to create viral content and attract large audiences.
In 2023, the videos produced for the competition exceeded expectations, garnering more than a million combined views (compared to the anticipated 100,000), according to the competition’s website. One winning video, about how “Crimea has transformed over 10 years as part of the Russian Federation,” garnered more than 1.4 million views. However, the results were mixed. Of the 10 videos featured on the project’s site, four received only a few hundred views, while another four ranged from 2,200 to 11,000 views. As of this writing the least-viewed video, Union of Fathers, hasn’t even broken 300.
