This conservative family moved to Russia to escape ‘wokeness’ and got kicked out

Every election cycle, you hear of people claiming that if this candidate or that party wins, they will definitely move out of the country. Well, one Canadian couple did exactly that, and they got far more than they expected it.

Arend and Anneessa Feenstra are a right-wing Christian couple of Dutch origin from Saskatchewan, Canada, who decided to move to Russia, along with eight out of their nine children, in order to escape ‘wokeness’ and the ‘LGBT agenda’.

Image: Countryside Acres / YouTube

“We didn’t feel safe for our children there in the future anymore,” stated Arend Feenstra on Russian state TV, as quoted by Pink News.

“There’s a lot of left-wing ideology, LGBTQ+, trans, just a lot of things that we don’t agree with that they teach there now, and we wanted to get away from that for our children”, declared Feenstra.

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Vladimir Putin, despite his faults like arresting political prisoners and starting a few wars, has quite a few admirers who see him as a protector of patriotism, conservatism, and traditional values in the face of globalized Western liberal democracy.

It was in this spirit, that the Feenstras of Saskatchewan went from the Great White North to, well, the Greater, Whiter North known as Russia!

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The Finstra couple, who run a YouTube channel talking about countryside life, stated that their goal was to eventually buy a farm, live off the land, expand, and ensure their children could eventually have their own farm as well.

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According to The Daily Kos, the Russian government officials were more than glad to receive the Feenstra family and even locate them to a farm so they could live the Russian Dream.

During the first week, they were treated like something of a novelty by the Russian populace. It's like there are not many Canadians moving to Nizhny Novgorod these days or something.

Image: Countryside Acres / YouTube

They even made it into a few pro-Russian news outlets, including Russia Today, extolling their desire to live under Christian Orthodox values and free from the LGBT agenda and suffocating Canadian taxes.

Image: Eureka News / X

The first problem these modern-day pioneers met was that they didn’t bring clothes that were resistant enough to the cold. Luckily, the family got some donated clothes.

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Another thing that was a bit of a culture shock to the Feenstra family was that in Russia, nobody cleans the streets after it snows. Other than that, the family claimed on a YouTube video at the time that it was “just like Canada”.

Image: Countryside Acres / YouTube

Wonkette writes that another barrier the Feenstra clan met was language. As in, they didn’t bother to learn any word of Russian before moving to the country. Surely, they can find friendly people who speak in English!

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Language turned out to be quite a problem for the Feenstra family, since their Russian bank froze their assets after receiving the money from selling their property and belongings in Canada.

Russia, like many countries around the world, apparently has pesky little laws about getting large sums of money in your bank account and not declaring where you got it. Not having an available translator made the matter more complicated, go figure!

Life in Russia is apparently very hard if you don’t have that sweet, maple-scented Canadian money, and Mrs. Feenstra made a video talking about their grievances.

Living accommodations have not been easy, either. At one point, the family was living ten in a single-bedroom apartment, with two of the children sick.

“I’m very disappointed in this country at this point,” Anneessa Feenstra declared in the now-deleted YouTube video. “I’m ready to jump on a plane and get out of here”.

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According to Pink News, the video of the Feenstra clan complaining about how life in Putin’s Russia isn’t all sunshine and rainbows (shocking!) didn’t sit well with local authorities, and the family released an apology.

Arend Feenstra released a new video, titled ‘WE’RE SORRY AND WE’LL DO BETTER’, in all caps. He argued that they were frustrated “in” Russia, not frustrated “by” Russia. It’s a completely different preposition! That makes a whole world of difference.

“We are just people coming here to live. I want a farm here, I want to live here and so does my family”, Feenstra commented on YouTube. “This is our home, we want this to be our home, we’re not planning on leaving”.

Image: Countryside Acres / YouTube

Ultimately, TYT reports that the Feenstra marriage didn't know that they were required to pass a Russian language and culture test in order to remain, meaning that they have to leave once their tourist visas expire.

Image: Countryside Acres / YouTube

In theory, the family could leave Russia and return and apply again to the test. However, as Papa Feenstra explains on his YouTube channel, each pain ticket is around 1,000 US dollars, and that's not easy for a family of ten.

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