A growing number of Western conservatives, disillusioned with what they see as moral decay, have relocated to Russia in search of a society grounded in traditional values. But for Julian Vane, a British expat and technology ethicist who moved from London to St Petersburg two years ago, the reality is far more complex. The promise of a morally stable haven, he warns, comes with a price: digital surveillance, crony capitalism, and a creeping authoritarianism that mirrors the very control many fled.
Vane, who runs a consultancy on ethical AI, initially saw Russia as an experiment in digital sovereignty. The country’s sovereign internet legislation and data localisation laws appealed to his belief that nations should control their digital borders. But the day-to-day reality is different. “I wanted to escape the woke echo chamber and the algorithmic manipulation of my attention,” he said. “But here, the state itself is the biggest algorithm of all. It profiles citizens, predicts dissent, and silences it before it surfaces. In the West, the manipulation is commercial. Here, it’s political.”
His critique is not of traditional values per se, but of the cost of enforcing them. Russian law prohibits so-called gay propaganda, limits freedom of assembly, and requires internet platforms to hand over user data. For Vane, this is the Black Mirror side of digital sovereignty: a system where machine learning models flag errant social media users, and quantum computing promises to crack any encryption. “The West has its problems,” he shrugs. “But at least we can still protest the algorithm.”
The expat community is divided. Some, like a group of American homesteaders in the Altai region, revel in the offline life: growing organic vegetables, home-schooling their children, and ignoring the digital panopticon. Others, like British journalist Gareth Jones, have faced visa revocation for reporting on the Ukraine war. Vane’s own visa is temporary and tied to his business. “You live here on sufferance,” he notes. “One wrong tweet, and you’re out.”
He points to the ‘user experience’ of Russian society: seamless, but not free. The parking app knows where you are. The tax system auto-calculates your liability. The healthcare app reminds you of appointments. It is, in many ways, a frictionless government. But when Vane criticised a proposed AI law that would grant algorithms decision-making power over social benefits, his bank account was frozen for a week. “It’s not overt oppression. It’s nudge theory on steroids,” he says.
Vane still believes in the ideal of digital sovereignty. He argues that the West’s model of platform capitalism is equally dystopian, creating filter bubbles and addiction loops. But he now sees Russia as a cautionary tale for those romanticising authoritarian efficiency. “The dream of a morally ordered digital society is seductive,” he admits. “But the devil is in the detail. And the detail is that the state owns the algorithm.”
He advises anyone considering a move to first try a temporary stay. “Visit for a month. Turn off your VPN. Use the local services. See how it feels to be a citizen, not a tourist.” His own plan is to stay for another year, then decide. “I still believe there is a middle way, a third path between Silicon Valley’s surveillance capitalism and Moscow’s state control. But I haven’t found it yet.”
In the meantime, he watches the news from home with a detached fascination. “In the West, we worry about AI taking our jobs. Here, they worry about AI taking our souls. Both fears are valid. But I’d rather have the freedom to fear the future than be forced into one.”
