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 cul