Two years ago, Derek and DeAnna Huffman were desperate to leave Humble, a suburb of Houston. Their three daughters, they believed, were being brainwashed by public school and mainstream media to support LGBTQ rights. American culture in general no longer offered white people the same opportunities as other races, they said.
The couple yearned to live in a place that shared their “Christian values” and where they “weren’t going to be discriminated against” as white, politically-conservative Christians.
So in March, the Huffmans became the first family to move to a community planned for fellow English-speakers some 30 miles west of Moscow, a project they had been following online run by long-term American expat and former Kremlin-sponsored RT host Tim Kirby. The family is among a small but growing number of Americans who have moved to Russia because the United States, in their opinion, has become too “woke.”
The Russian government has welcomed these culture war refugees. In 2024, President Vladimir Putin issued an executive order offering temporary residence to people wanting to move to the country because they rejected “destructive neoliberal ideological attitudes” of their home countries.
Around 1,500 of these “ideological immigrants,” as they’ve been dubbed by the Russian media, including 127 Americans, have applied for temporary residence in Russia, according to the Main Directorate for Migration Affairs.
“President Putin is an amazing leader and he’s done great things for Russia,” Derek Huffman, 45, said in a video on his family’s YouTube channel on March 9. “It’s nothing like you see on the news.” The social media platform X “is the only place where you get real information” about America’s own problems, Derek says.
The family initially found a community of Russians and westerners on social media who encouraged their move, with donations from some of their 15,000 YouTube subscribers providing financial support after their arrival in Russia. But when Derek Huffman voluntarily joined the Russian army in May, the family became a lightning rod for broader online scrutiny.
Derek Huffman said he joined the Russian army to expedite the family’s applications for Russian citizenship, as well as to show support for their new homeland.
“Above and beyond the citizenship, the money, a big part of it for me is about the respect and earning our place here in Russia,” he said on the Huffmans’ YouTube channel on May 26.
But in a follow-up video posted in June, which was subsequently deleted, DeAnna Huffman, 42, told viewers that her husband had been “thrown to the wolves.” NBC News viewed a re-upload of the video.
The couple had hoped Derek Huffman would put previous welding experience to use in the repair battalion and “actually be utilized for his skills,” she said in the video. Instead, she said, he was sent to the front line and struggled to understand his training, which was in Russian.
Pro-Ukrainian commentators, keen to publicize hardship for pro-Russian figures, said on social media that Derek Huffman had been killed. A post on X claiming to have access to drone footage of his death has more than 2 million views. NBC News did not find video to substantiate the claim, and DeAnna Huffman denied the reports.
Derek reappeared in several videos on the family’s YouTube channel uploaded on October 25, celebrating his daughter’s birthday and signing forms to receive his Russian passport.
In one filmed in the family’s neighborhood, he said he was back “on vacation” after being deployed for six months, and praised his wife for keeping the family going while he was gone.
“I’m happy that I’m still alive and doing what I can to survive, and be of service to Russia. I’m so thankful to all the Russian people who have reached out and helped my family while I’ve been gone,” he said.
Another family, the Hares, also moved from Abilene, Texas, to Russia to shield their three sons from what they say are harmful elements of American culture.
“It was the promise of a country that would not promote the LGBT agenda. We liked the fact that LGBT is basically outlawed here in official ways,” Leo Hare, 62, told NBC News via a video call from the family’s new home in Ivanovo, Russia.
Russia has strict laws against the “promotion of nontraditional sexual relationships,” which have in practice banned public displays of LGBTQ identity, including wearing or posting the rainbow flag on social media.
His wife Chantelle Hare, 53, says in a video on the family’s own YouTube channel that when they lived the U.S., she and her husband preferred to get their news from Alex Jones and Mike Adams, who are far-right commentators and conspiracy theorists. They felt particularly disillusioned with American politics after the 2020 election, and don’t believe Donald Trump’s return to power will change the country enough to convince them to return.
“When we left, it was final. We don’t plan to come back. There will not be anything to come back to,” Chantelle Hare said.
The Hares have endured their share of hardship trying to build a new life in Russia.
They say their initial plan to rent an apartment in Moscow fell through just as they boarded the plane from Texas, and the family spent a bitterly cold winter caring for chickens, horses and rabbits on a farm 70 miles south of Moscow in exchange for free board. At one point, they even had to bring the goats and their newborns inside their cabin to keep the animals from dying.
Leo Hare thought their troubles were over when their landlord’s son offered a generous interest rate for investing their $50,000 nest egg in what he described as a car import business. But they only saw one payment before he stopped sending them money and refused to return their money, Leo Hare said.
The couple went to the police and the local court to file complaints about their lost money and with their concerns that they had been swindled, but say they have received no help from law enforcement officials. NBC News contacted Domodedovo police for comment but did not receive a reply.
The Hares’ sons, 17, 15, and 12, have had difficulty adapting to life in Russia, and the two older boys want to return to America, according to their father. They feel isolated and are disappointed that school is not an option since Russia requires students to pass a language test to study in public schools.
Leo and Chantelle, who ran a carpet cleaning business and a mobile snack business back in the U.S., are now working as English tutors. They have found an apartment in Ivanovo, northeast of Moscow, and “are living really comfortably now.” They are currently homeschooling their children. Leo Hare said it probably “would have been a dealbreaker” if they knew about the school restrictions.
The Hares have not met the Huffmans.
Leo Hare says he never considered joining the army because of his age and safety concerns, and says that Derek Huffman “assumed a little too much” about life in the Russian military.
“We assumed a lot, too,” he admitted. “But we do have a faith in Christ and He is leading us, even though we’ve made mistakes.”