Russia is wooing South Africa’s white farmers
Leon du Toit slowly inhales the late summer breeze off fields belonging to a dairy farm not far from Moscow. ‘‘Smells just like home,’’ the
72-year-old South African said.
That’s just what one Russian political figure hopes to hear.
He is leading something of a charm offensive in South Africa with a very particular goal: hoping to lure white South Africans to move
13,000km away to rural Russia.
The selling points are abundant farmland, relative safety and a country that holds tight to traditional Christian values.
What is not said – but clearly understood – is how this fits neatly into the identity politics of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The West may view Putin largely as a strategic and military adversary. Yet inside Russia, much of his support grows from the idea of Russia as the caretaker for a white, Christian and oldstyle order – rejecting ‘‘socalled tolerance, genderless and infertile,’’ in Putin’s own words in 2013.
Such comments have helped elevate Putin’s stature among populists and nativist-driven political movements in the West. And, within Russia, they have boosted the efforts of political insiders such as Vladimir Poluboyarenko, a government liaison from the Stavropol region in southern Russia.
Poluboyarenko has taken the lead in organising trips to Russia for white South Africans considering making a move.
The effort intersects with many issues. There is Russia’s declining population and worries about the influence of Islam on Russia’s borders. Add to that the unease among some white South African farmers as the country debates possible land redistribution to redress racial imbalances during apartheid.
Poluboyarenko claims he funds the trips for the South Africans with his own savings, but such activity would almost certainly need the Kremlin’s blessing.
According to a Pew Research Center report last year, fewer than 10,000 South Africans live in Russia. Last April, Russia scrapped tourist visa requirements for South Africans, meaning all planned visits by South African are reviewed in advance.
‘‘I want them to know that Russia can be their mother country, too,’’ said Poluboyarenko, who assists the human rights ombudsman in the agricultural heartland of Stavropol.
Du Toit, a missionary preacher, is weighing the offer. He and his 39-year-old son, Johannes du Toit, a former minister, came on a scouting mission.