BBC Documentaries

The Russian Dream

Loading player...
It is an unlikely migration trend: Westerners swapping their lives in Texas or London for Moscow or Nizhny Novgorod. In 2024, President Vladimir Putin introduced the Russian Shared Values visa, sometimes called the 'anti-woke' visa, offering up to three years of residency to citizens of 47 so-called ‘unfriendly’ countries who say they align with Russia’s traditional spiritual and moral values. Applicants do not need to speak Russian or pass a history test to qualify. Instead, they must reject the social and cultural direction of their home country. We hear the stories of people making this move. What motivates them, and how do their expectations compare with the reality of life in Russia?

Presenter/producer: Dan Hardoon
Editor: Mike Wendling
Sound engineer: Richard Courtice
A Story² Production for BBC World Service

(Photo: A composite image showing a woman packing a suitcase, alongside Russian passports and a stylised Russian flag, illustrating Westerners preparing to relocate to Russia. Credit: Getty Images)
17 Jun 8PM English United Kingdom Education

Other recent episodes

Was ‘Made in China’ made in America?

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, all this week The Global Story is exploring the surprising and often hidden ways the US has shaped the modern world. For decades in the US, “Made in China” signified a product that was cheap, poorly made, and, in some cases, produced…
7 Jul 8PM 30 min

China’s collapsing population

Worried about a ballooning population, the Chinese government introduced its infamous one-child policy in 1980. At the time it seemed urgent to find ways to reduce the number of babies being born. China today has the opposite problem - too few births. Since the one-child policy was scrapped 10 years…
6 Jul 8PM 30 min

Karin Slaughter: thriller penned in mountain cabin

From her secluded mountain cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia, USA, best-selling author Karin Slaughter crafts stories which keep millions awake at night. She tells Lucy Collingwood how she works best – at her bespoke ‘cockpit’ desk, a couple of intense weeks at a time, where she juggles…
5 Jul 8PM 28 min

A History of the United States in 100 Objects

100 Objects #1: The Century Safe In 1876, Americans filled an iron safe with objects meant to tell their story — to be opened a century later. Roman Mars and historian Jill Lepore trace its long wait, from Reconstruction to Watergate, and the surprising, unsettling contents that emerged in 1976…
5 Jul 1AM 29 min

Balochistan's disappeared

When Dr. Mahrang Baloch was a teenager, she joined hundreds of families across Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan to search for her father, who had disappeared. Activists and rights groups say thousands of ethnic Baloch people have disappeared over the past two decades, alleging many were detained by security forces,…
4 Jul 8AM 29 min
All episodes