Dan Hardoon

So what's motivating people to move?

Ilya Belobragin is the managing partner of Move to Russia, which helps people relocate under the Shared Values visa.

So the visa is based on Russian traditional values.

How would you define them?

Of course, many people in Western countries still live in the way Ilya describes.

But a small minority feels so disillusioned with life at home, they're willing to gamble everything on a move to Russia.

The Shared Values Visa has made it easier to do that.

Previously, migrants from the West faced strict quotas and had to qualify through work, family or investment.

But how does an applicant prove they're aligned with traditional Russian values?

Well, there's no official interview, but applicants need to sign a document saying that they share these values and fulfil other medical and criminal record checks.

Jacob Pinnaker is a businessman who moved from Germany to Russia almost a decade ago and now runs an agency helping foreigners relocate to the city of Nizhny Novgorod in western Russia.

Online influences are playing an important part in promoting the shared values visa.

On social media, you can find dozens of accounts of Westerners who've moved there talking about how brilliant their lives are.

Russia is the bomb.

Like, when I say the bomb, I mean it's like, pow, wow.

But when I contact more than 50 Westerners who'd moved to Russia, asking if they want to talk about their experiences, the vast majority refuse to engage with me, saying they don't trust the BBC to represent their views fairly.

Someone else who does agree to speak is Philip Hutchinson.

Philip is in his mid-30s and originally from Essex in the UK.

He arrived in Moscow a year ago on the shared values visa.

When I speak to him over a video call, his virtual background is a giant image of Moscow's Red Square, the towers of the Kremlin rising over his left shoulder.