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VLAD'S REFUGE
How Putin is ‘weaponising Westerners’ by offering safe haven to Russia-obsessed crackpots including Brits
Watch our interview above with Russia expert Keir Giles
PUTIN is offering a "safe haven" to "losers and misfits" in a bid to weaponise them against the West, a Russia expert has warned.
Russia-loving Westerners are increasingly turning up to Putin's land - with the despot turning them into an enemy of the West as part of his propaganda warfare.
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Most of them often find it difficult to remain in their own countries - either due to criminal charges they are facing or because of opposing ideologies frowned upon in Western societies.
And often Russia projects itself as a nation with traditional values that often go against the liberal societies of the West.
In the past, Westerners - especially those facing criminal charges - have been given political asylum as well as protection - and the lack of extradition laws and diplomatic relations between Russia and the West makes it a sweet spot for them.
Conservatives from the US and Europe with staunch orthodox beliefs have either sought asylum in Russia or expressed their willingness to move to Putin's land.
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Keir Giles, a Russia expert and senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, said Russia has been attracting many such foreign nations to come and live under Putin's rule.
He told The Sun: "Russia has been very successful in selling itself as a particular idea of a society and it tends to attract people from other countries, particularly Western countries.
"These people like the idea of societal attitudes in their own country as they were 50 to 70 years ago, rapidly going in reverse.
"They come to Russia because they see it as a palace completely opposite of the West."
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Keir said that many pro-Putin people living in Russia are increasingly being used as part of the tyrant's propaganda warfare against the West.
He said: "It is not just enlisting in the Russian armed forces, people are working for Putin's media in Russia and the occupied territories in exactly the same way Nazi broadcasters attacked their own countries because they were made to feel more valuable by their country's enemy.
"The way these people are used to wage a propaganda war against the West is just hardwired into how Russia does things.
"It is not a new phenomenon, it goes back to the Soviet times and is absolutely a core part of Russia to exploit these damaged people.
"The KGB manual for recruiting such agents and propagandists says to look for people who have miserably failed in life and think it is somebody else's fault.
"It is just a way of weaponising losers and misfits and that has always been the way, it is standard Russian practice."
Keir said many Westerners, including Brits, want to end up in Russia because of their "destructive mindsets and the failure to adjust to a normal society".
It is a way of weaponising losers and misfits and that has always been the way - it is standard Russian practice
Keir Giles
This includes the British fighters who have joined the Russian army since Putin invaded Ukraine.
Keir said: "Failures, criminals, and sex offenders largely turn up to Russia because they feel they have been victimised in the West.
"They blame their own country where they were born and brought up - and they embrace their cause elsewhere and Russia offers that cause and will accept that embrace.
"There are lots of reasons why people end up in Russia, but the major one is that people find Russia a convenient place to avoid prosecution.
"Russia is increasingly offering them a safe place to stay and act up all their wild fantasies."
Wilmer Puello-Mota, A US Air Force veteran facing charges of possession of child pornography, fled America only to join the Russian army - and take part in the Ukraine war.
He now serves as a reconnaissance drone operator fighting against Kyiv's troops in Donetsk, reports.
In a propaganda video for Putin, the former American soldier - dressed in Russian combat great - said: "I don't consider myself a traitor."
However, he did not mention the criminal charges he faced in the US.
The media outlet said that Puello-Mota was expected to plead guilty to all his charges in a US court in January 2024, before he fled to Russia via Turkey within days.
Meanwhile, Ben Stimson, 48, from Oldham, who the UK has previously convicted of terror offences, also joined Putin's army to fight in Ukraine.
The Brit shared videos from the grim frontline where Ukrainian soldiers are giving up their lives to rid their country of Russian invaders.
Failures, criminals, and sex offenders largely turn up to Russia because they feel they have been victimised in the West
Keir Giles
Brazenly flaunting his Russian military gear in one clip, Stimson waves around the Kremlin's flag and gloats: "Yes, yes, I'm back in Russia. I'm back in uniform."
He even produces an unexploded grenade, taken from a captured Ukrainian stockpile, taunting that he's holding "British taxpayer returns".
His "best British friend in the Russian army" is convicted felon Aiden Minnis from Chippenham.
A former National Front member who was jailed for a racist attack, he told the he is also now a “sapper in the Russian army”.
Both the Brits were branded "absolute disgrace" for fighting in Putin's army.
PUTIN'S ENCOURAGEMENT
Tyrant Putin has changed Russian immigration laws to tempt people to ditch the West and seek asylum in his country with "traditional values".
He signed a decree to streamline the Russian immigration process - waiving off immigration quotas and the need for Russian language exams - for foreigners opposed to the Western idea of democracy.
The dictator recently passed a law allowing foreign nationals who fight in his meatgrinder war in Ukraine to seek fast-track citizenship in Russia - along with their entire family.
Moscow has said that many families in the West, including Brits, are answering Vladimir Putin's call to move to Russia.
Reports by the Russian embassy in London claim at least at least 34 people have requested to move to Russia from the UK after Putin signed the decree on August 19.
Those who applied have not had to prove they can speak Russian or have any knowledge of the “history and fundamentals of Russian legislation", reports.
Putin's new tactic has already paved the way for American citizen Leo Lionel, his wife Chantel Felice Haer and their three children, aged 16, 14, and 11.
Russia has been very successful in selling itself as a particular idea of a society and it tends to attract people from other countries, particularly Western countries
Keir Giles
Lionel said: "Personally I want to thank your President Putin for allowing Russia to become a good place for families in this world climate.
"We intend to use this opportunity to benefit our family. I feel like I've been put in an arch of safety. And it's very important."
Canadian passport holder Arend Feinstra with his wife also left their country and moved to Russia with their eight children.
He said of his move: "We didn't feel safe with our children there and for the future."
The grandson of the French war hero Charles de Gaulle last year said he wanted Russian citizenship because the country offered "great possibilities".
Pierre de Gaulle made headlines in the Russian media for his pro-Kremlin statements.
While attending a cultural forum event in St Petersburg, he said: "It would be an honour for me to acquire Russian citizenship."
Since the start of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, de Gaulle has been starkly supportive of Putin - saying Russia was "fighting for traditional values".
Appearing to welcome supporters with open arms, Putin and his pals are building a village outside Moscow for conservative Westerners, according to Russian state media.
Russian immigration lawyer Timur Beslangurov claimed that some 200 Western families wish to move to Russia for "ideological reasons", the reported.
The lawyer further claimed, without offering evidence, that "tens of thousands" of foreigners would like to move to Russia for similar reasons.
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'FUGITIVES' HIDING IN RUSSIA
Meanwhile, Moscow's cooperation on extraditions with Western countries has practically ended since the Ukraine war began as wanted fugitives seek to hide out in wartime Russia.
Chad Hower, a former high-profile Microsoft employee, claims to have been wanted by the FBI and Interpol for more than a decade for alleged parental kidnapping.
The American citizen was eventually arrested in Bulgaria by federal agents and jailed.
The US tried to extradite him but failed as Bulgaria doesn’t recognise parental kidnapping as a crime.
Hower was eventually released - and that's when he turned to Russia to seek asylum.
He told The Sun: "They saved my life."
Hower worked in a senior position with Microsoft, allegedly working with high-level government officials from Pakistan as well as the Saudi Royal family.
After separating from his first wife, Hower married a Russian woman whose family had a high-security clearance with Russian military secrets, he claims.
"We are talking about senior people working with Russian military secrets," he said.
"And we lived in the same house for several years so they’re very close to me."
He speculates that the US government is trying to turn him into an intelligence asset using his contacts in Russia.
The Sun was unable to verify the claims independently.
American national Edward Snowden, who was behind the biggest intelligence leak in the history of the National Security Agency, was also given asylum in Russia.
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He was found guilty of two counts: violating the US Espionage Act and stealing government property.
The former computer contractor, who is currently under indictment, was granted permanent residency in Russia before receiving Russian citizenship by Putin.
Traitors of the Cold War
DURING the height of Cold War, many westeners secretly doubled up as agents for Soviet Russia.
Here we take a look at some of the worst traitors during the Cold War who betrayed their country.
Ray Mawby - Ray was a Tory MP who served in the British parliament from between 1955 and 1983.
In 2012, the BBC revealed how he secretly worked in cahoots with the communists of the world and handed over sensitive intelligence information to Czechoslovakia - which was then part of the Soviet Union.
He allegedly provided the floor plans of the British parliament - and even details about the prime minister's security team.
The Cambridge Five - Known as one of the most notorious spy syndicates, the Cambridge Five was accused of passing secret information to the Soviet Union during the Second World War and the Cold War.
The members of the group were highly influenced by Marxism-Leninism ideology in Soviet communism - and were almost convinced it was the best political system in the world.
None of the members of the group was ever prosecuted for their alleged espionage.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg - Julius and Ethel were an American married couple who were convicted of espionage in 1951. Both were staunch communists who allegedly formed and ran a spy ring.
On behalf of the Soviet Union, the couple leaked classified documents including top-secret information about American nuclear weapons as well as radar, and sonar technology.
Decrypted KGB messages released by post-Soviet Russia proved their espionage activities.
Klaus Fuchs - Klaus was a German theoretical physicist who was part of America's Manhattan Project.
He spied and passed secret atomic information to the Soviet Union during the nuclear arms race - and was finally convicted of espionage in 1950, following which he served nine years in prison in the UK.
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