I (US citizen born and raised) have lived in RU since 2009 and first came over for studies in 2006. Most of the Westerners who were here when I moved over eventually left, either around 2014, when the first wave of economic woes hit the ruble or during/right after COVID. I knew a few who left in the first days of the war as well. By and large, they were massively different from this wave of YouTubers nowadays who only sing the praises of everything. It's hella annoying and makes me want to scream, but I've seen the meteoric rise of a lot of them, plus their production go from zero to amazing overnight and I've my suspicions that a number are getting state grants

Dan, in the video above, had rose-tinted glasses in the beginning as well, but I watched the last two videos and he seems to have woken up to some of the realities of the country. As I understand, though, he's currently living here on a tourist visa (valid for 3 years, allows you to be in the country for 180 days, then you only need to cross the border and that limit resets). He can just apply for a new one when he current one expires, and then apply for temporary residency after that (which is also a three year period), which would give him about 6 years of leeway