Dmitriy Balkovskiy: Greetings, ladies and gentlemen, this is Dmitriy Balkovskiy of the Reactionary vlog. And we are in Moscow studio, look around it is very pretty. I have today here with me a very interesting gentleman, his name is Andre Rossouw and he is from South Africa. As our subscribers may recall I made a video inviting foreign settlers to rural Russia and it is still there in the video list and here is the link to it https://youtu.be/8ptEnbXJjxw. And I was contacted by a South African lady inquiring about the possibilities of settling in the rural Russian environment.
It turned out that there is a whole group of South Africans who wish to come and get a taste of Mother Russia, so today we have a representative of this group and his name is Andre Roussow. And he is a native of South Africa, a boer. So Andre, please tell our viewers why you are here.
Andre Rossouw: As you mentioned Lindi has already made a contact with you concerning the possibility of settling in rural areas. We have read for quite a few years of the tragedy of Russian villages becoming depopulated and it is really really sad. At the same time the situations in South Africa is becoming quite untenable for white South Africans, the boer community. Boers as a culture are farmers and we are not allowed to farm. In fact, it has gotten to the point now when it is becoming illegal for a white person to own a farm. It is illegal under BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) laws and regulations for us to perform most jobs.
It is a South African legal system designed to redress apparent injustices of the past, but the end result of its introduction is that it is illegal to employ white people. There is no future for white people in South Africa any more. And we have new parliamentary rules being passed at the moment about land seizure without compensation. As it is we have less than 10% percent of the farmers we had in 1996. We have less than 10% of these farmers now and we are losing more and more of them as we go.
These are people who are massively skilled in farming. But it is not just that. It is a lifestyle choice as well. My family and I have always wanted to live a rural life and to the point when we wanted to build a tiny house and try sustainable living. But when we saw what is happening in Russia we thought – there is a chance, we can help Russian communities by increasing and improving their population, bringing new ideas, new population … Christian minded people to live in these communities. And there is an advantage when a community has infrastructure and housing. It is certainly a big step towards full sustainability.
Before we did this though we moved to Europe, my family and I. We decided to do that about 7 years ago. And we spent a considerable amount of time in places like Ireland, Spain and it just does not fit. And my kids got really interested in studying Russian for some reason. And they got really good at it, in fact they are perfectly fluent in Russian now, watching Masha and Medved and such. So we started looking at Russia and the opportunities available there.
The opportunity to stay in Russia visa free for 90 days was very attractive, so we were invited to visit some people in Stavropol and came to Russia. And the similarity between Russia and South Africa of my youth that I remember – the peace and vitality was absolutely incredible. It was an incredible experience to stand on this ground and feel a real sense of home. We spoke to some friends and said it was amazing – we really need consider coming. And progressively we gathered a highly specialist group of people, people who know a lot about farming, engineering and manufacturing in agriculture, specifically about farm to farm, to shop, to table processes.
We have a whole bunch of people who are super eager to move to Russia, move into a village and help upgrade the local economy. And become a part of the local economy and integrate with the society that we consider morally better than anything we have seen in the world so far.
Dmitriy Balkovskiy: Andre, it is quite amazing to hear you say that you and your family desire so much to come here, because a lot of people in Russia think that Russia is just not worth considering, that Russia is not a place to live a happy life. So what would you say to that?
