Dan Hardoon

The government has responded with tax rises, including an increase in VAT, something Leo says is making life harder for small businesses, before he moves on to more political concerns.

We're obviously having this conversation while you're in Russia and you are freely telling me your opinions.

I mean, do you feel able to...

freely express what you think there?

Or is part of you worried about repercussions, especially because you were originally held up as this model family?

Leo's directness about the pros and cons of life in Russia is highly unusual coming from a self-described moral migrant.

Many of the people promoting Russia Online as a destination for disgruntled Westerners give an entirely rosy picture.

But someone else trying to present a more balanced perspective is Ben from Derby in the United Kingdom.

He relocated to Kursk in Western Russia, close to the Ukraine border, in 2023.

Welcome to Russia, specifically the city of Kursk, my home city.

He made a YouTube video with what he admits is the slightly click-baity title The Truth About Living in Russia.

Ben isn't on the shared values visa.

His reason for moving was more personal.

So I met my now wife on a language exchange website and fell in love with her, ended up marrying her and moved to Russia.

How did your friends and family react when you said you were going to Russia?

At first they thought I was mad.

It happened around the time that things started with Ukraine and so they thought I was a bit insane for going there and that it was dangerous.

Did that bother you, going to a country that was now at war with its neighbour?

When I first went, there was some fighting in the curse region, and so you did get quite regular strikes on the city.

You get the sirens going off occasionally and rocket alerts.