Dan Hardoon

It's not this scary place that, you know, how much was portrayed in a lot of sort of Western media outlets, you know, life does go on.

Yes, it's, you know, apparent that there are wars and special military operations going on, but it's not such a bad place to live, you know, the

Streets are clean, everything works, amazing cuisine and such a vast and diverse country to explore.

Philip's wife is Russian and he took advantage of the shared values visa to be with her when she was refused permission by the UK's Home Office to settle there.

So how much of a factor is being anti-woke for him?

The whole kind of like woke thing, it wasn't a core decision with me personally, but ultimately the UK is going completely mad with all of this kind of wokeness.

You know, we're about to have a child, you know, we're thinking, you know, do we want our child brought up in a world where they're going to school, being taught there's 200 different genders to choose from?

Philip is referring to debates in the UK over gender identity, a person's sense of their own gender and how these topics are discussed in schools.

He also argues that freedom of speech in the UK is under threat, pointing to controversial cases in which people have been arrested over social media posts.

It's part of an ongoing discussion over where the line should be drawn between free expression and threatening speech online.

People are being locked up for the wrong crimes in the UK.

Well, you've got violent criminals on the streets that aren't getting any jail time.

Terrorists, grooming gangs, all of this stuff that we need to take care of, yet they're worried about what people are writing on Facebook.

And, you know, I don't think that sort of thing is right.

Today, Philip runs a business helping other Westerners relocate to Russia.

But before moving to Moscow, he stood as a candidate to be a member of parliament for the British Conservative Party, which strongly supported Ukraine after Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.

I ask if this gave him pause for thought when deciding whether to move.

I was coming here since 2019.

I think I was actually on Russian soil when it all kicked off and when the Russian troops went onto the Ukrainian side.

What are my thoughts on it?