Investigate Earth Conspiracy Podcast - TikTok Fugitive Interview From Inside Of Russia | Chad Hower

Episode Date: February 11, 2024

Chad Hower, widely recognized as the TikTok fugitive, has faced myriad challenges since his FBI indictment for allegedly kidnapping his now 27-year-old son. Apart from navigating numerous interactions with Interpol, he has battled a severe medical condition that nearly claimed his life. Struggling to access adequate healthcare in the Caribbean, Chad found refuge in Russia with the assistance of Cuba and Russia, where he has been granted asylum. We believe now would be an opportune moment to not only receive an update on Chad's journey but also to gain insight into his perspective on life in Russia, particularly in light of the recent Tucker Carlson interview with Vladimir Putin.TikTok Fugitive TikTokOur XOur FacebookOur RumbleOur Instagram

I should have known her was too good to be true thinking anything real will come out of someone like you. I'm a fool. I guess the prettiest girls use idiots like me, hinds it all. Hello and welcome to Investigator's podcast. I'm your host, Chad, alongside my beautiful wife, Sherry. On tonight's episode, we have the TikTok fugitive. Chad Howard back on the show. Chad has been on our show a couple of times in the past, I think probably more than six months ago now.

And since then, he has went through hell and back. But, you know, his journey has actually led him somewhere that has drastically helped him. But besides that, besides getting an update on Chad's story, he obviously has been a fugitive of the FBI in the United States for quite some time now, all due to a what he says, a bogus kidnapping charge. for those of you to want to know the entire story about Chad Howard and the TikTok feature perspective, we do have two episodes with Chad where he extensively goes through all of the history of his charges and his dealings with Interpol, FBI, and the United States. But we also wanted to bring him on this time because we have been talking a good bit about Russia lately, right? So you had Tucker Carlson going over to interview Vladimir Putin.

We gave our breakdown on that. We also talked about it in a previous episode to that. there's been a lot of Russia talk, right? And we felt like it was the responsible thing to do at the very least now that Chad is living inside of Russia. We wanted to get his very unbiased perspective. And he does have an unbiased perspective. He is still an American.

He is now living in Russia. And although he does not go very political on either side in both America or Russia side or Ukraine side of things, I did want you guys to just hear what his life is like in Russia, what he feels like Russia is like. and you know because listen if you listen to western media they're going to make you think they're Russia is this shithole place that no one should ever visit and you know they're authoritarian Stalin type dictatorships over there which you know there there could be some truth here and there to all of it but at the very least we just wanted to give you guys his side of story absolutely

because we're always just looking for the truth and that's what we want to know is the truth and what better way to find the truth of how people are living there to talk to someone that's actually living there. Absolutely. So, and guys, before we get into this, I just want to let you guys know. We thank you so much for your support. We have gotten so much support just on a lot of our episodes lately, and we just want to take this time now to thank you guys so very much.

We are thankful for all of your support for six years now, and we have a very dedicated, loyal audience, and we do thank you guys very much. If you do want to connect with us, our Facebook is a great way. If you want to send us a message and get to us fast, That's probably the fastest way you can do it. We oftentimes have people send us videos or things they're seeing on the internet. Or, you know, show ideas as well.

Facebook is probably the best place you can directly message us. Just look up investigators podcast. And if you want to see stories that maybe we won't get to or maybe haven't got to yet, X, we post all the time over there. We're posting the latest stuff, the latest breaking things. And sometimes we're posting stuff two days before we will ever do a podcast or a week, you know and it just depends on what it does um so with that said without further ado let's go ahead and get into the chad hower interview is a good one here you go all right guys we are here

we are here with chad hauer aka ticot fugitive chat how you been pretty good much better now that i've been able to get some medical care yeah for sure so um you were on the islands and you've been on our podcast i think twice maybe even three times i don't even remember but um what islands were you on and tell us a little bit more about your, not more about your story, but refresh your story for our listeners. Well, I was on St. Kitts, which is a very small island of 35,000 people. And I had a serious kidney and neurological problem and still do, but it's being treated. And because the lack of medical care there, you know, an island of 35,000 people, they just don't

have adequate health care. I was basically dying there. And the FBI was refusing to allow me to get treatment anywhere. And it was a big problem. Yeah. Now, why did you have to live on those? islands anyway. How did you become popular or I guess really famous on TikTok? Well, I became famous just because I was getting my story out there. You know, the FBI's tried

to extradite me three times from multiple countries. They tried an abduction and that failed. And they've been chasing me now for 18 years. And it's, you know, over a case that's basically fake. They can't even keep their own claim straight. And, you know, we talked about us. But recently, there's somebody on YouTube that I worked with and I trusted. And instead of telling the story, he took my story and completely twisted it beyond belief and completely, not only did he audio, he manipulated audio and video to make me look like I was saying things that I never said. And then he associated me with random internet users who are not me based on the fact that they had a Phoenix username. So he says things like I put locust recipes

in the internet need locust. Then he lied about the legal case and he basically made me out to be a Russian asset. Oh my God. So now I have 2.2 million people seen his video in two weeks and they're out there attacking me for being a Russian asset lying, but all he did is manipulate the audio and video things I said. Now, is this someone that you worked with as in you went on his show to tell your story? And then that's how that all happened? No, he was the former producer for Johnny Harris. And when I first started working with him, he had one of Johnny Harris's producers with him who'd won an Emmy and he came forward. He's like, hey, I used to be Johnny Harris's main guy and he was. And I have a producer who's an Emmy who's won an Emmy and he did. And then

that producer left. I worked at this guy for a year, gave him all pretty much everything and then worked with them for a year and then he released his video and the sad thing is had he done the real story be even more popular but he decided they just flat out lie about things. Oh my gosh. He's come out and said things like, you know, he says I worked at a store up to 2016 but how could I work at a store up to 2016 if it closed in 2014? And then he would throw dates around and not help people like he wasn't sick because here's a forum thread where he talked about having a sailboat but he didn't tell anybody that the forum thread us in 2010 and he did all these things. he accused me of faking my sickness

because even on my TikTok, I posted, you know, I would have a few good days a month sometimes and I would go to the beach. And he found some other videos and he's like, look, the guy's not sick because he's outside because I said things like, I couldn't lift my arms up except, and then if he played the whole video,

it would say except a few months I could go out, but he only cut out and put three or four words in, like, I can't do this since 2015. And then he showed videos of me being outside. Yeah. And then just, you know, he's associated me with users on the internet who are not even me.

And it's just, it's ridiculous what he did. The first six minutes are basically true, and their last 36 are just basically fabrications of his. Now, do you think he was audio, he took audio of me from one video and overlaided on different videos to make it look like I did something. I never did even. Wow. And do you think he was doing this for popularity gain for himself or to discredit you or what? Well, half the video is just character assassination. Half the video is stuff that has nothing to do with my case whatsoever.

In fact, he only talks with the legal case for like three minutes and he completely gets it wrong. It's just for popularity. trying to, you know, become popular. We need to get it out there because he's not a... I mean, this is the hub of stuff that if he did any one of these things that would have been fired and his whole video is basically constructed in such a way to be false. Only the first six minutes is accurate.

And even the first six minutes, he makes a couple sloppy stupid mistakes, but at least they're not, you know, flat out lies. That is so ridiculous because you think about if he was a producer with this famous guy, he could have really took your story and made it into like a really good documentary on Netflix or anything. Yeah. he could have and I have to wonder maybe that's why he's not working for Johnny Harris anymore. Yeah.

Well, I'm sorry that happened to you because I know personally how sick you were because we have worked with you pretty closely. And the times that we had to work with you, we had to take like regular breaks for you because you were so sick and we had to do it at certain times where you weren't able to function. Yeah, I think people probably remember that actually in my podcast. Yeah, people are like, well, I got to go to the bathroom too. Yeah. Yeah. And actually, and Chad actually since then, we've had some guests on. that remember your episode and they're like, look, if he can do it, then I'm going to bathroom also.

So that was pretty funny. So tell us about since you left the island and how all that worked going to Russia. Well, and actually, before that, can we remind people like, what was your case about, Chad, before we talk about Russia? Well, let's see. It depends on how you talk about what my case was about. There's what they claim in the indictment. There's what they claim on the website. There's what it's really about.

So there's three different things. And the thing that turns a lot of people off is when they look at it like, oh, it's just a custody case. But the first thing I want to get out is if this was a custody case, go ahead and try and find me any custody case in the history of the United States where they've tried to extradite somebody three times. They put him in Bulgaria in prison. My son's now 27, said it never happened. I mean, of all the custody cases, even if this was a valid case, it's so weak. The amount of response in the millions, if not tens of millions of dollars they spent on me, nobody who actually looks at this case believes us about custody. It makes no sense to go this far.

So on the website, it says that I retained him illegally, which is not true because the Tennessee order was where he was born, where he grew up. And they held until he was 18. And the Pennsylvania order they're basing on was dismissed anyways. So they're basing the kidnapping order on a temporary order that got dismissed anyways, and they never resolved the jurisdiction between them when they did it. So this is the case that will never bring the trial because they know they can never win. We've offered to go to trial and they refuse. Now, the indictment says something different. The indictment actually says that I physically removed him November 6th.

And as YouTube was like, oh, it's just a word, it's just mistaken, the word and or versus or. But that's not true because they told all the newspapers that I physically kidnapped him. All the newspaper reports said I physically took him. And the FBI would not let that go. They would correct that. But they didn't do it. And so I wasn't even in the United States, November 6, 2006. And neither was my son, because in August, he was there for summer visitation.

And she didn't want to return him, his mother. And so the judge used police to take him away from her and put him on a plane and send him back to Europe, where he already lived. So if anybody kidnapped him to have to be the judge, not me, I wasn't in the country. That's the basis of it. Now there's some much more complicated things beyond that. Those are the things that are all legal. But then there's a couple of theories as to why would they put so many resources into this? And the funny thing about this YouTuber is he spends like 10 minutes accusing me of being a Russian spy, right?

But then when I propose the three theories to him, one of which is a bunch of mistakes, which we know it's not. Anybody who goes to the court documents can see that it's not mistakes. Because if these were mistakes, these guys should not be allowed to carry scissors and let him to work for the FBI. So that theory is not plausible. Second theory is that this FBI agent got demoted and he was trying to trump up a case so he could, you know, look successful. And that is a possible theory. But there have been so many people involved in this case that it just seems like there's too many people involved for that to be the case. But the second problem is that I, you know, we talked before, but when I lived in Russia, I have family and I lived in the same house,

is people who had Russian military technology secrets. And the U.S., you know, there were several times that they basically, through proxy, tried to recruit me. And it's been put to me several times that that's more likely the reason. Can I prove it? No, but it's more likely that they tried to recruit me and then tried to make an offer. I couldn't refuse just like Snowden talked about was a Swiss banker. And that's the type of things they did.

So Snowden talked about the first, when he first started to turn on the U.S. He saw the CIA frame a Swiss banker, and then they got him out of jail so that they could get him to give up Swiss bankers. banking secrets on America. So they do this stuff all the time. It's not unprecedented. I can't prove it. It could be that just FBI is just trying to trump stuff up. But if you look at the again, three extraditions and stuff, it's hard to say which one it is, but it's more probable it's that. And for this YouTuber to come along and accuse me being a Russian spy, but then say the opposite is impossible, is completely illogical. And you used to work, but everybody calling

me a Russian spy, but how is that believable that I could be a Russian spy, but not that I turn down the Americans. That's why they're after me. I don't get that how one is likely, but not the other. And we have to bring up to what your career was previous that you were working with Microsoft, I believe, and you traveled all over around the world and you were a speaker for Microsoft. And weren't you, didn't somebody come up to you and ask you to do things or something at one time? Three times. Yeah, there were three times they tried to recruit me and they were all U.S. allies. And I can't prove they were doing it on behalf of the U.S. But see, when the U.S., see, there's, there are intelligence officers. They don't really call them agents. There's officers and there's assets.

So an officer is somebody that works full-time, and they recruit them typically when they're very young. When they want somebody to work undercover, it's easier to get somebody who has a cover and bring them as an asset that it is bring an officer and develop a cover. And they've been doing this since World War II. So what they typically do is they recruit people who can already travel like I could. But when you recruit an American, you need special oversight. So what they do is usually recruit you through their proxy or through a friendly intelligence agency of another country. And those are the three of the countries that approached me were all very friendly to the United States. And they were clear.

One of them, it may or may not, but it was pretty clear what it was. The other two were absolutely intelligence agencies. I mean, there was no doubt. They were intelligent agencies. People are like, do you have proof? I'm like, you know, they don't leave a calling card. It's not like they give you a business card of, you know, so-and-so-intel intelligency service. You know, they retreat you and you're like, you know, well, think about it.

You know how to contact this type thing. Yeah, and remind us. They don't need calling cards around. What did you do with Microsoft, Chen? I did a variety of things. I did software development. I did architecture. I did public speaking.

And I worked for Microsoft Middle East and Africa. So I spent most of my time. I'm in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, but I also traveled to a place like Sri Lanka and Malaysia and Thailand. And I did a lot of work in Europe and Eastern Europe as well. And of course, I spent a lot of time in Russia, even for Microsoft. I did some things in Russia. Wow.

Okay. And so you were on, so you were in the St. Kitts, right? That was the island you were at. You were experiencing all these medical issues. Tell us what happened from the last time we talked to you and how did you end up in Russia? because I think at one point in time you were even in Cuba, right? Yeah, yeah, I was in Cuba. So, excuse me a second.

So basically, yes, I've been trying to get off the island of St. Kitts because the medical care there was not adequate. And the problem was that I couldn't even get to Antigua because the Interpol red notice still existed and already been arrested on that. We kept verifying that it existed. They expire after five years, but the U.S. kept renewing it. And sometimes the U.S. will even revoke your red notice, and then they try and trick you in travel.

And then they will put your red notice somewhere on where on the plate. Now that I'm in Russia, I'm in touch with about 15 other fugitives wanted by the FBI. Some of them actually did stuff. Some of them didn't. And they all have the same type of experiences. The FBI would often trick them to fly somewhere. They'd put them on the Interpol while they're in the plane and get them arrested and they landed. And then when their extradition failed, they would bribe the local police officers in those countries that try and do things to them.

It's the same experience I had in Bulgaria. So back to St. Kitts. So I had been trying to get out. But the problem was if I hadn't been sick, I would have gotten on a sailboat. There were plenty of ways that could have got out. but most days I could barely walk. You know, sometimes there was one or two days a month I could get out. That's when you saw me on the beach.

Although in the later years, it wasn't even that often. It was like much less than even one or two days a month. So we tried everything. The doctor's there. It couldn't operate. I mean, it was too risky. They don't really do that kind of stuff. I did fly a surgeon in 2015, but I got much worse after that and they couldn't do the surgeries for me.

And so we just, I mean, it was, it got so bad. It was literally like we got to do something. So we started. we open uh because i don't want to overplay this but i don't want to underplay this and the people that helped me at certain levels have asked not to be identified yeah but we um we contacted the Cuban government okay and we explained my situation and they said well if you can get to Cuba we can help you and i kept selling well the problem is i can't afford an air ambulance because

the area i had air into its coverage but they don't fly to Cuba and no private plane would fly me because I was too sick. They didn't want to touch me. Plus, they didn't want to fly a fugitive. And a lot of them didn't want to fly to Cuba no matter what. And Havana is like 1,400 miles from saying kids. And I was way too sick to get on a boat. So we were trying all kinds of options. We were talking and we were looking at charter and planes. We had an air medic, somebody who normally flies an air ambulance trying to get his company to donate to come down and do it. Or if he couldn't, we were trying to get a plane and he would come down and they would drug me up, we tried everything. And finally Cuba said, well, why don't we send some doctors to you?

to see what they can do. So they sent some doctors to the house. They brought some doctors straight to the house. And they started looking through my medical files. And they started making some recommendations for some minor procedures and diagnostics and some diet changes and some more tests and things like that. And after about six months, I started to get a little bit better, but I'm still in serious shape. And then we finally decided, okay, well, I'm getting, and I'm still in such bad shape, but we're going to take a risk. So we worked with. with the Cuban doctors and the local doctors. And the local doctor prescribed me. I don't know what platform is going to go on. So I don't know if I can name the drug because I know like TikTok is really, really strict. But it's a very strong pain killer. And they put me on the maximum dose of it.

Okay. And they gave me some extra tablets. And they said, here, take this, see if these work for you. You cannot take these long term, but you're able to take these for a few weeks if you need. So I tested them. They did help. I was still in serious problems. So we booked flights to Cuba.

The problem is there's no direct flights. If there were direct flights, would have been better. But there weren't. It had a stop off in another Caribbean country, which is a real problem. But we took the risk. We called the lawyer. We had lawyers ready in Cuba just in case. We had lawyers ready in the stop over a country.

And they drugged me up, put it short. I was flying high before the airplane took off the ground. Okay. And I was wearing a diaper, you know, depends. And I was in a wheelchair. Wow. And so we flew out and we got to this other country and we landed. And we had a problem.

there because they didn't want to let us transit to the other plane. Now all the other planes were going up, they were just going straight in the transit area, but our plane, they're like, nope, you guys have to go through immigration. We're like, why? And they're like, just because. And it made no sense at all because all the other planes were going straight to the transit area, but they would not let us let us make us make us. Can I prove it was because I'm on the plane? Not necessarily, but let me tell you what else happened. So everybody else went through immigration and we went to the immigration counter. We're like, we're not going through immigration. It's not happening. And they're like, no, everybody coming from St. Kitt's, you know, you don't

need a visa to come into this country. You can go through and then you can go back into the transit lounge or like, why would we do that? And they're like, what passports do you have? And so we showed them our passports. And they're like, no, you don't need a visa. You're welcome to come in the country. Like, no, we are not coming in the country. And so the guy, he's like, well, give us your passports, which we were not happy about. So he took us, he took our passports. And then he sat us down right in front of the Interpol office. I mean, there's a freak, I have a picture of it. It says Interpol. I'm like, oh, God. So he'd run our passport. So I think it's, again, can't prove this, but I think it's pretty clear that they looked at the passenger manifest and they were pretty much like,

okay, the guys in the plane let's make everybody run through the transit zone. They were through, you know, so we can catch them. And we just told them. We said, we're not going. I said, put me back on the plane to St.Kitt's because I am not going into going through passport control. And they were like, well, the plane, the next, the plane that goes back to St. Kids isn't for another week.

And I'm like, well, you got to feed us because we're not leaving the trip. We are not leaving this, we're not leaving this transit area. You have to let us in the transit zone or we're not leaving this transit area. And they're like, well, whatever. And they could tell that we're, we're not leaving this transit area. were not going to leave. And they could tell. And I was in a wheelchair.

I was sky high. I mean, they could tell I was really sick. And what I came down to is, um, my wife was a very small, short petite woman. Um,

and there was this huge guy, huge Caribbean black dude. I mean, just really tall. I mean, it doesn't matter what color. But, you know, okay,

his huge muscular, strong guys got our passports. And she went up to him and the dude was cowering by the time and she was done. I mean, she opened a can't a wop ass on the dude. And she's literally like, my husband is sick.

He's going to Cuba for medical treatment. And if you leave him here, he's very likely to die in here. And I mean, she just, he was when it took us, they held us for like an hour or so. And finally, from what we can tell, what happened was they, they saw how sick I was. And they were literally like, well, this guy's sick. And if we, if we do somehow for it, because they can force you to the transit zone, but it's a big deal and it's a big hassle. The courts get involved.

And if they would have forced me in the transit zone, they'd have to be straight to the hospital. I don't think they wanted me being their problem. And I think they were literally like, well, if the U.S. wants them. We're not willing to go through this much hassle. So let's just send him on to Cuba and let him be Cuba's problem. So finally, they sent a dude out. And they're like, okay, here's a pass. And this dude took us up through a special elevator and put us into the transit zone, went out, got us our transit passes and everything. And, you know, it took about our 45 minutes to an hour or so. And again, can't prove this, but he sat me running from the Interpol office. We're the only plane they made do this to. It seemed to know they were coming. But after my wife opened up because I was so sick, they put us on the plane to Cuba.

And then, oh, yes, we got on the plane to Cuba and everybody's on board. The door is almost closed. And somebody from that stopover country and one of the immigration officials comes on to the plane before the plane's taking off. And they said, is so and so on board. I'm like, oh, God, that's me. And so they walked down the aisle and they said, we need to check your passport again. And they checked my passport, got off the plane left that we flew to Cuba. Wow.

So, yeah. That gives me goosebumps. That's stressful. Yeah. So then I get to Cuba, right? I'm like, okay, I'm in Cuba. Thank God, thank God, thank God. And Cuba couldn't guarantee us anything.

They're like, because the department we were dealing with was a different department. It was somebody in the federal government, but they're like, Cuba's most likely not going to stop it. They said they don't stop people from the U.S., but we can't really guarantee it. So I still, I'm stopping in Cuba, and I'm like, okay. So I'm one of, St. Ketz is one of the few passports that does not need a visa to Cuba. okay it's one of the very few passports so first of all we get there and you know we're already kind of a surprise to the guy because almost everybody needs a passport visa sorry doesn't need a visa and we didn't need a visa and so just to be safe my wife and we had one of our one of our kids with us

we went to separate immigration lines so my wife and one of the my kid went to the immigration desk to the right and I went to one of the left and I gave him my bag and gave him everything and you know I said here just in case. And so they scanned my passport. And I couldn't read the screen plus it was in Spanish, but it's like at a 45-degree angle so I could see the immigration screen. And it lit up like a Christmas tree the minute they scanned my passport. I mean, it was just, it was blinking.

There was red. They're all over the screen. I'm like, oh, here we go, man. Here we go. And he's like, there's a problem with your passport, sir. And I'm like, oh, gosh, oh, gosh. And he's like, just hold on, sir. We're going to, we're going to sort this out.

Like, okay. And, you know, I'm just, I'm looking over my wife. and they're going through and I'm trying. So they held me for about, I don't know, maybe 10 minutes, maybe 15 minutes or so. And my wife and them stepped back and they waited. And finally, so somebody else came over, I later found out it was a senior officer, what it was what it was. So basically, my Interpol flag showed up in Cuba.

But once I saw us in the U.S., they're like, well, we don't care. It's the U.S. But because it was Interpol flag, I had to be cleared through by a senior officer. So he had to call somebody over until she could. come clear me in. So she came in, sat down on his computer, did whatever she needed to do and cleared me through. And they're like, welcome to Cuba.

It's like, cool. Oh, my gosh. And then so I went behind so I could see the screen bedder and I walked behind the desk and I waited for my wife and daughter to come through. And when they scanned their passports, nothing, nothing came up. So, you know, it was clearly, it wasn't the same kid's passport. It wasn't like, does it need a visa? It was my passport was flag in a serious way.

And this is all fake is like this guy was saying. Yeah. And the thing is, and it's like, this is over a custody. I mean, that's the point is, you know, they don't do this. It's like Julian Assange. And again, I don't have any secrets. But the point is they blame, they said Julian Assange was wanted for this, like, crime that's not even a crime in any of their country, right?

And everybody's like, yeah, no, the U.S. doesn't want him. But then why did the British spend tens of millions of dollars trying to get Julian Assange? And then years later, it turns out the U.S. does want him for something else anyways. So I've always said this is not over custody. There's something else sealed about my case that I don't even know about. Right. And, you know, this is the kind of stuff. It's the same thing they did to Assange.

But the difference is, you're right. I don't have any secrets, okay? I'm not Snowden. I'm not Assange. I don't have secrets. But they're treating me like this. And then so basically in Cuba, I was in the hospital for several weeks in Cuba. And unfortunately, because between COVID and a couple hurricanes they had in late 2010s, Cuba's, they were doing pretty good, they're in bad shape.

And so their medical equipment's broken. And the piece I needed was broken. And so they couldn't. They could, they helped treat me in Cuba. scanned me. They improved my condition. Basically, they stabilized me enough to fly onto Russia. And the flights to Russia had just restarted that week. In fact, we flew to Cuba with some Russian friends who were going back to Russia via Cuba and we had them on standby as well, just in case. So you knew, by the way, when you went to Cuba that you were going to Russia,

pretty much, that was hell's plan, right? No, sorry, we did not. No, the thing is, we didn't know how I was getting home either. We were planning going to go back to St. Kitts. We didn't really think about the Russia thing. It was like plan B. Yeah. But we got there and I spent several weeks to the hospital and realized I had no way to get back to St. Kitt safely. And I couldn't go back because of medical. Cuba did improve me. They helped. I spent several weeks in the hospital.

And I told them, I said, well, you can't treat me here. So I'm going on the Russia. So I still had the medication. It was left over from St. Kitt, which is not legal in Cuba, but I told the doctors about it. Like, we won't tell anybody. And they gave me some more medication. And I basically was flying. I was using that medication in Cuba to get it once I left the hospital because I did get a

around Cuba for a few days. I did get to see a few things in Havana. Plus, we had a flight of a different airport and it's three hours by car. So I just, I drugged myself up with this medication again. We'd already made phone calls to Russia. I'd already been invited by somebody in Russia to apply for asylum. And we already had contacts in Russia on call for like over a couple years. And I basically called my contacts in Russia. And I said, I'm in Cuba. Actually, I told them, I said, I'm in bad shape. I need to get to Russia. And they're like, get to Cuba. And I'm like, I'm already in Cuba. They're like, okay, then, get on this flight.

And because of the sanctions of things, Aeroflot is flying, but you can't buy tickets in Cuba. And you can't buy them online because they don't take any U.S. credit cards. So we called our contacts back in Russia and they purchased the tickets for us. And they're like, just go to the Airflot office and your tickets are there. Wow. And they said, when you come to Moscow, you've already been pre-cleared through. You'll have no problems in immigration. There'd be a car waiting for you with the airport.

When you get through immigration in Moscow, call us. And we'll have the car ready for you right there. It will be the plate number you go out and get the car. And they said, if you need an ambulance, let us know we'll have an ambulance. We'll have surgeons and everybody waiting for you right there. So I made the flight, was completely drugged up. I had to flush the drugs down the toilet on the plane when we landed because they're highly illegal in Russia. Yeah, they're highly illegal in Russia.

Russia does not use the types of things other countries do. Yeah. And I was walking, but barely. I was still having used wheelchair and so forth. And I said, no, I don't need the ambulance. and they said, okay, we'll go out to this, this gate, this part of the airport, and look for the license plate here. There's a car waiting for you. They said, we have a hotel ready for you right near the Kremlin.

I was about a block, a couple blocks, like two or three blocks from the Kremlin. And we met with a surgeon right away, and then we started a treatment plan right away. And I've had a bunch of procedures since then. So you basically had to leave all your stuff at St. Kitts, right? I mean, is that? Yeah. Wow. Because we didn't even plan to come to Russia.

I arrived in Russia. I'm not true. I arrived in Russia. And we arrived in summer, but it was actually a little bit cold today. we arrived for summer. And I didn't have any socks. I had sandals and shorts. I had to go by. We had to send my wife.

I'd buy shoes and socks. And so no, we came with the backpack. We had carry-ons. That's it. Now, fortunately, because we used to live in Russia,

and I have family in Russia. There's a family house here. So I don't have to pay rent or anything, and I'm just living with family again. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, that is an insane journey.

It really is. So when you got to Russia and they started this treatment plan, what did that entail? well they thought I had cancer when I got here they were convinced I had some kind of cancer so they were scanning and proking and prodding every part of my body so I've had MRIs cat scans contrasts osiontography I don't know how pronounce it right this where they inject you with a radioactive element and then they scan you and they couldn't find a cancer so they've been they're still trying to determine what the cause is but I've had a series of injections a series of procedures and I'm walking four or five miles a day where before you know it's lucky to get out of the house one day a month and then I I was here originally on a 90-day stay, and I have the right to stay longer because I'm married to a Russian national for over 20 years now. But instead, they said no, apply for asylum, because the asylum will give you protection because Russia is still part of Interpol.

And I have a friend here who is also a fugitive, and he didn't have asylum initially. And when he got stopped by the police here, he would show up in Interpol and they'd take him to the police station, and then he would have to get a lawyer to get him to a police station. and to like get asylum because then if you could stop you'll be protected in Russia too and very few Americans get not again this video on YouTube since everybody gets um asylum yeah it's not sure yeah sorry sorry okay so it's not true um if you look at statistics first all they're wrong because it says 100% there's no way 100% of get asylum otherwise everybody wanted by the FBI would be here yeah so I can't prove I'm the second american man since

Snowden, but I don't know of any other man, because I know of several their FBI fugitives here, and I've talked to them. And all the American ones, they said, no, we don't have asylum, we have residency. Yeah. So as far as I know, I'm the second American man, now, there's a woman who did get asylum, but her case is a little bit different. So as far as I know the second American man to get asylum after Snowden, maybe there's somebody in the middle, but I haven't found him. And I've already met most of the fugitives, because we have kind of like a club here, if you call it that. Fugitive club. Yeah, there's a, there's a bar that, I'm not going to name the bar. The bar owner doesn't want to name the bar, but there's a bar.

a lot of them hang out at and they've kind of have a network now and we kind of have like telegram groups and stuff. That's crazy. You know, even when I got the asylum, my lawyer was completely surprised. He's like, he says, I've never seen anybody get asylum the way you got it. Now, do you think that has anything to do? He says, yeah, for people from Syria and or in Ukraine and those areas, yeah, they do get asylum. But for an American to get asylum and especially the way that I got it and the people who signed off on my asylum, he says, I've never seen those people sign off on. He says, I've never seen them sign off on Americans before. So I had help. I cannot identify who it is because I don't even fully know myself.

I have suspicions who it was. But I can tell you somebody hired in the federal government signed off on my asylum application to push it through. Yeah. And do you think that may have anything to do with like your wife's connections or just any like familial connections there? I don't think it has to do with familial connections, but I think what it may have to do with. And again, I'm speculating here is that the Russians know more about my case than I do myself. No, I got you. Because remember, you know, I was on the security.

watch list here because of, you know, and I've talked about us too. I had a friend in the U.S. was married to a Russian national and he had clearance in the United States and his wife got put on the FBI watch list and that happened. So I was on a watch list here and they, they told me, they said, if you're not doing anything, we don't have a problem with you. So I knew about it. But they obviously, they did reference my history in my file and I suspect they know far more about my case than I do. And that's how my asylum got approved. I can't prove it, but it just, you know, everything kind of points towards that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy.

They wanted to kind of thank me, I guess. Yeah. I mean, that's pretty crazy. I mean, you know, from that perspective, I guess they'd rather have you there than the United States trying to get you back to the U.S. to potentially be a spy for them. You know, who knows? I mean, there's no real telling there. But now, obviously, there's been tons of talk about Russia and the United States, potential for World War III. Recently, Tucker Carlson, went on to interview Vladimir Putin, which we did have a full breakdown on, if anybody wants to check that out.

I thought the interview is pretty good but obviously in the West in the United States you know the U.S. government wants you to believe that Russia and the Kremlin and Putin and all of this stuff is like one of the most horrific countries you could possibly live in. They are the most heinous government. They're this and this and this,

which is one of the reasons why most of the mainstream media in the West, when Tucker Carlson went over to interview, they were freaking out because they didn't want anyone to hear Putin's side of anything. thing. Tell us a little bit about the life. Now, obviously, you have lived in Russia prior, but, you know, how was your experience when you used to live there versus now? And did you watch the Tucker Putin interview? Well, I haven't seen the whole thing. I've seen bits and pieces of it. It was a big deal here. Yeah, I did live in Russia before. I mean, it was first year in 2000,

then I moved to 2001 until 2004. I lived here most of the time. And then 2004, 2008, off and on, I was here. And, you know, the 90s, the country was falling apart. And even the early 2000s, the country was, I mean, it was public transport didn't work. The roads were a mess. I mean, it was the infrastructure, the building's falling down. So I was last year in January 2008. And we landed after 15 years. It was like landing in a different country. It really was. I did not recognize it. I mean, it is so, the public transport works. The infrastructure has been rebuilt. There's bullet trains. The banking system is efficient. It is so, convenient to live here. I mean, it's just, it's like living in a different country and people wonder why

Putin is popular domestically. It's because, and again, I'm not going to talk about the conflict whatsoever. People can have their own opinions on that. I'm explaining to people why Putin is popular domestically. Okay. Now and again, you can, people can have their own opinion about the elections, whatever, but he is popular despite all that because he rebuilt this country and they're, they give him credit for that. I mean, the country has been rebuilt. And if you were in a country that was like destroyed, I mean, imagine being in Germany, like after, I mean, wasn't quite as bad as that. But imagine being in Germany like in the 19, after the war. And again, not as bad as that. But, you know, and the country got rebuilt in 15 years.

And you could identify one particular, the, the, not Germany doesn't have a prime minister, but whatever the head of the German chancellor is. And, you know, they might be given credit for it. And Putin's been giving credit for it. So for whatever people can say about him, he's a good technocrat. And he knows how to rebuild the country and keep the economy going. And there's a lot of propaganda going on in the West, which is quite amazing to me because there's many things I can say about the conflict. But the problem is they go beyond that. And they're trying to make it look like daily life in Russia is just falling apart. And it's not.

And my TikTok and Instagram and taking off because I just show, I walked in the grocery store the other day and showed grocery prices. People are losing their minds and it's got a million views in like a week. Yeah. And I've seen some of those platforms. I just show public transport and people lose their mind. Like, do you have a toilet? I'm like, are you serious?

I live in a city of over 5 million people. You don't think I have a toilet? And then they can throw up these statistics like the like Newsweek ran an article. 25% of Russian cities are without heat. But when you read the details, it wasn't 25% of the cities. It was 25% of cities had some sort of heating failure at some time this winter. So if like one building lost heat for like one day, they would say that city was out of heat. And that's how they came up with a 25% figure.

And then they had this other figure that 20% of Russian houses don't have a toilet. That's not even accurate either. Because if you read the details, it's actually 10%. But you have to remember, Russia has a serious number of villages. and I'm talking like Alaska type villages. So if you had, if America had as much far-flung villages as Russia does, you would have that type of statistic as well. And people just don't see these types of things because when you have a village here,

it's not like even a village in West Virginia or Louisiana. And I looked at even in the U.S. There's 2.2 million people in the U.S. without toilets or running water. That sounds crazy. And how many people do you have living in the streets? People are like, I've seen Russian apartments and some of these people are in apartments with a shared bathroom. I'm like, oh, what is that in Los Angeles?

those tent cities. They don't have a bathroom. Exactly. I would assume the villages would be kind of like an Alaska type thing. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of them are. And of course, when, and some people here are even nomadic, there are still people here who live in tents and pick up and chase around reindeer. And that's how they choose to live. And some of them, they could move to the cities, but a lot of them, either that's the only thing they know or they choose to do it because it's a family lifestyle. And of course, if you pick up your yurt and move it every three months, there's no toilet. Yeah, for sure. Now, why do you think, I mean, do people feel, do you feel like people are happy there?

I mean, what is the lifestyle like there on the daily basis as you go visit these places? And by the way, I've seen a lot of your videos and definitely the food comparison prices are much lower there, it seems. Especially like you'll go in some of these fast food places or what is known as fast food. A lot of that food actually looks pretty good as well. How is the food there and why are people, if they are, are they happy and why do you think that is if they are? Well, yeah, the food here is excellent. And of course, everyone likes to bring up people to make less here. And they do.

But when you adjust for everything, most people, I've got to be honest, most people, the middle class and general. Now, pensioners are a totally separate thing. I will address the pensioners later if you want. But we can talk about a pensioner's in the UK and U.S. who have to go to food banks as well. So it's not exactly perfect on that side either. Or many pensioners or some of them are even living in tents or their cars now. So it's not perfect on the other side.

But yeah, we do have an issue. A lot of pensioners are, some of them are struggling. But for the average person who's working, the income tax here is 13%. first of all. Second of all, you have a right to housing here. Housing is very cheap and very affordable. Even in a city of five million people, you can get a one-bedroom apartment

in the middle of the city for $200 a month. Golly. My electric bill, sorry, cough. My electric bill is around $20 month. And that's actually pretty high because we have a large... Our family house is kind of like... It's like two apartments that are connected.

So it's actually kind of like two apartments. And both the apartments are decent. size to begin with. So, but we have two families living in. So, so people's utilities here, you know, it would be most people's utilities, water, gas, everything are probably $30 a month. Their food bill, you can eat very cheaply here. Education is free. So people don't have student debt. The public transportation is so good here that you don't need to own a car. So if you have money, you can own a car. I would not even want to own a car here. And I travel in the city here, I have a monthly pass, and I pay for unlimited bus, trolley, trolley bus, and metro. I can get anywhere in the

city very easily, and I pay $40 a month for that. And if you're a pensioner or a student, you get it free or reduced. So pensioners also get free travel, you get free health care. So when you factor all these sorts of things in, the reduced housing, people are like, oh, the average salary in St. Petersburg is only $18,000 a year. Well, first of all, it's the average salary. And yeah, it's $15 a month. But if you and your wife work, you got $36,000 a year. If you're electric, you're electric. and water bills are $30 a month and you're paying $200 a month for rent. There goes $230.

You're paying $200 a month for food. You've got $2,000 left per month for what? You don't have any student debt. You don't have, you know, and that's not everybody's situation, but you're seeing you could live in St. Petersburg at $1,000 a month.

You could live reasonably well. 1,500 you could live pretty well in St. Petersburg, actually, as a single person. Yeah, that's nice. Schooling is free. Daycare, you can get daycare for like $30 a month. So, I mean, people don't understand

that it's not just the groceries that are cheap. There's a complete social system here. And so if you earn $2,000 a month here, that's probably like $12,000 or $15,000 a month in New York City or even like $7,000 or $8,000 in a lot of other parts of the United States. So, you know, and not everybody. And we don't really have homeless here because the Constitution gives everybody a right to housing.

So the only time you'll see a homeless person, it's pretty rare. It's usually somebody who has an alcohol problem and refuses to go into treatment. and things like that because even people with alcoholism, there are treatment options here. We don't really have drug addicts and treats. I mean, I post videos in the subways and people like, where are the people pooping in the middle? Where are the drug addicts?

And like, you know, yeah, we have a few, but generally they get picked up and taken the treatment. Yeah, and I want to give a comparison here to your $200 a month and, you know, travel $40. But just in New York City, you know, for a studio apartment right now, the average is 3,051 a month and that's for 400 square foot. if you had a one bedroom that would be 3,700 a month, that's 600 square feet. Then once you get to the two bedroom, that's over 5,000, three bedroom is almost 7,000 in some cases.

I mean, it's ridiculous, and that is New York City, but a lot of the large cities are really too expensive to live in. Now, crime. You did talk about, you know, obviously not many homeless. What is the crime like, especially with public transit, and you kind of made a good point there. You know, in a lot of our large cities in the United States is dangerous to go on, you know, public transit in a lot of ways. What is the crime like there? Well, I mean, if you look at the raw crime statistics,

people like to say they're very high. But if you've got to dig into the statistics to see what they are. There is some domestic violence crimes here. They do take it seriously. But from what I understand, it's a little bit higher than some other countries. Yeah. here. I mean, I go out any time of the day, any time of the night. The street cars are clean. The buses are clean. The metros are clean. There are police everywhere. The police are friendly.

I can't say there's never been interactions to police, but the police, especially compared to U.S. police, you're not going to get shot by police here. That's pretty rare. And if you stop massive police for directions, they're generally going to help you. Yeah. So it's very safe here. There's almost negligent street crime. The only street crime I really hear about is occasionally a pickpocket. And I do, I'm on a telegram channel that has like, it's called trash St. Petersburg. and it has like the worst things that happen in St. Petersburg every day. And the number of things I see in there in a month would happen in one hour in New York City.

And it's like, and usually it's either domestic violence or two drunks fighting at a bar. I mean, there were two drunks and one guy pushed one guy down an escalator. I mean, you get things like that, but it's usually a pair of drunks fighting or some sort of domestic issue. You know, just general street violence is very, very rare here. Now, they always call America the free world. What is Russia lacking as far as freedom compared to America? That's a good question. Yeah, that's a good question.

Some things are more free here. Some things are less. Obviously, with regards to freedom of speech around political issues is definitely less here. I'm not going to get into it, but I think everybody can agree that there are less freedoms regarding political speech here right now. But people do talk among themselves. It's not like, sorry, cough. Okay, people do express their opinions to each other. It's not like the old Soviet Union where if I tell my friend what I think of a certain politician, I'm going to disappear.

That doesn't happen. On the street between each other, they'll be completely open about things. But if you have a huge blog or you have your big social media influence or you go post, yeah, that's not going to go well for you. Okay. If you go on TV and say something, that's not going to go well for you. But in private, people generally say what they want about the politics here. But then we have a lot of other freedoms, just like daily freedoms, you know, right? I mean, this is just one kind of a stupid example.

But how many times do you hear of some parent allowing their 12-year-old. to walk to the park and they get arrested for allowing their 12-year-old to walk down the street to get milk or go to a park. I see six-year-olds riding the metro here by themselves and no one harms them. Wow. And no one, no one bothers the parents. I mean, usually not six, but I see 10-year-olds, definitely. Sometimes kids younger than that riding the street's metro by themselves.

I mean, are the penalties for crime there? In daily life, in daily life, we have more freedoms because we don't really have these nitpicking of every, you know, of every tiny little thing they're looking to get you for, this type of stuff. But on the political front, yeah, I will agree there. We have less for years. And are the penalties pretty harsh there, like if you do get in trouble? Is it something that, you know, obviously we're experiencing a huge issue in America

to where they're just letting off people for the most heinous shit nowadays, it seems like? And are the penalties pretty tough there in Russia? Well, there's two aspects of that. In the U.S., I hear you. I hear what you're saying. But in the U.S. also the minimum penalties often are so high. And sometimes, not always, sometimes the judge doesn't want to do it because the crime, the punishment is so disproportionate of the crime

because you have over criminalization in the U.S. That's not always the case they let people off. And I do know about the problem you're headed towards there. But generally here, most things are the first offense is a lower fine and the second offense is higher. So even like driving into the influence here, the first time you do it, if you're not too far over, there is a penalty, but it's more of like, listen, don't do it again.

And the second time, you'll have your license revoked and it'll be much bigger. So most of the penalties here are the first time, depending on what the crime is, it's meant to sting you, but not ruin your life quite yet. Yeah. And then if you kind of do it again, then, yeah, it's, you know, it's meant to be, you know, okay, you already kind of given a little bit of a chance. But they do take drunk driving seriously here.

There are stops for that and things. So it just really depends on the crime. But, you know, daily stuff, it's just you're not going to get in trouble from the types of things you could get in trouble. And I'd have to think of as, you know, the one I was harp on is the one about, you know, 12-year-old kids being able to walk. But I just see, or like, the other one, it's like, I know there was a 17.

year old that he was in New Jersey, I believe, New Jersey, New York. And it was like, late on a Saturday night, he had to pee. So he went over and peed on this wall. And it happened to be the wall of a kid, the wall of an elementary school. It was Saturday at like midnight, but a cop saw him. And since it was a school, he's now listed as a sexual predator for the rest of his life, even though

nobody is in the school. And he didn't know there's a school on the other side of the brick wall. And he peed on the wall. And this kind of stuff happens. There are so many people on the sex predator list in the United States for basically doing nothing. And you're just not going to have that kind of thing. I mean, yeah, if you're an actual predator, we're going to get you here. but they're not going to get you for peeing on a wallet, you know, Saturday at midnight. Yeah.

What is access to media there in the news? Is it primarily, obviously, only Russian media? And as you had talked about, you know, political speech, obviously, there's not going to be adversarial speech on the news there. But I guess you guys really don't have access to the Western media whatsoever, basically, right? I mean, you do have access to social media, right? Well, yes and though. I mean, this is an earlier area that I'm just going to tell the facts. I'm not going to give an opinion on.

I realize certain people want me to come down one way or the other. but I am a guest in this country. The last thing I'm going to do is insult my host. And I explain it to somebody. It's like, if you're a Christian and you're homeless and some Muslim people take you in, you don't insult the religion, right? Yeah. Okay.

So, but I'll just tell it exactly like it is. Some social media is blocked. Sorry, cough. Some social media is blocked. Some social media companies have blocked Russia. So sometimes it's one way, sometimes it's the other. VPNs are not illegal and almost everybody has a VPN here. For example, Instagram is blocked.

But there's 65 million. users last month from Russia in, on Instagram from Russia. Everybody's Instagram here. That's almost half the Russian population. Yeah, that's crazy. And so they're all using VPNs. So VPNs are not illegal here, number one.

YouTube is not blocked. So everybody here can see YouTube no matter what. But as far as what's on the TV and radio, yes, that generally is what, you know, generally government views. You're not going to find really generally opposing views on that. Yeah. I'm just stating it it is.

I'm not taking an opinion on it. That's just exactly what it is. But people do have access to YouTube. So there's a big divide between the older generation and the younger generation because the younger generation tends to be online on Instagram and YouTube, whereas the older generation tends to generally watch TV. So there are, I would say that the political views of the younger generation tend to differ from the older generation a lot because of that where they get their news from.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it sounds like you've met a lot of Americans there. I'm just curious, just for my own. opinion, or not opinion, just wondering. The primary language is Russian, but is there a lot of English speaking people there, or you have to know Russian? Well, when I was here 20 years ago, almost nobody spoke English.

I mean, it was like almost nobody. But since I'm back now, I would say most people under 30 speak some, they speak broken English. So they understand a little bit. In fact, my Russian accent is so identifiable as English. I will go and speak Russian to somebody because I'll practice my Russian and they'll answer me in English. I'm like, dude, I want to practice my Russian stuff.

speak in English. They want to practice their English. And I would say about maybe 10% of the under 30s, at least in the cities and so forth, speak fluent English. So you're not going to have to go very far to find something to speak English because most of them speak broken English, again, 30s and unders. And then maybe 10% of them. From 30s and up, you're going to find less. But even then, you'll find some of the people from 30 enough to speak English, just not as common. Yeah. So you can get by as a tourist here very easily with Russian. I know somebody who's lived here six years and he barely speaks any Russian whatsoever. And it's like, dude, how do you live here six years?

And he's like, I don't know. Now, is there? I just long in six years. I think it's nine years now. He's been here. It's like he speaks almost no Russian whatsoever. Yeah, no joke. That's crazy.

And I was wondering that myself actually watching her videos. I didn't know if you knew Russian or not, but obviously you do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what that means. I speak Russian. I said I speak Russian.

I don't speak Russian. I don't speak Russian. Oh, my God. Is there a lot of division amongst people? there like you see in the United States. Is there a like a huge divide? No, no, no, absolutely not. When the conflict first started, there was a division that, you know, broke some families kind of apart, especially between younger and older. But they're back together now and they just, they talk about it and they realize they have different views. But no, not, not the thing that happened to the U.S.

is not always like this. I remember what the U.S. was like in the 80s. And it wasn't like this. And here, no, people generally, even if they disagree on things, you know, there, there is a big here on opinions on the conflict. And I'm not going to get into that obviously because I don't talk about local politics. Again, I'm a guest here. It's not my place. But I will say that there are many different views on the conflict. Some people support it. Some people don't. I explain to people's a lot like Vietnam. And many of your listeners may or may not be old enough to remember Vietnam. But I remember Vietnam. I was born early 70s. And so in the early 80s, it was part of popular culture. I grew up watching Full Metal Jacket and all these movies. And my friends that I

went to school with, their parents, many of their dads came back from Vietnam, and we talked about these things. So Vietnam was very big in the culture and anger we got. And during Vietnam, some people supported the war. Some people didn't. Many people left the country because they didn't want to go fight. Does that sound familiar? Yeah, absolutely. People went to fight because they said their government's to go to fight. Some people didn't. People agree, people disagreed. People disagreed. People who were protested were targeted. In fact, that's why Nixon ramped up the war on drugs is because he wanted to get the anti-war protesters, most of whom were hippies. So he told the FBI to go after. And he said, marijuana and ramp up the marijuana drug laws mainly to go after the anti-war protesters.

Does that sound? Yeah. I don't know. That makes sense. To me, it feels a lot like Vietnam. If you're in the country, you see recruiting posters. It's on the news, but you don't feel really involved in the war. I mean, you're involved in conflict.

You know what's going on. You're cogniz of it. People do talk about it, but it's not something that comes up every day. Yeah. It's just it's there. It's we can't really do anything about it. it's it's the reality of what's going on and we support it or we don't support it

and again I'm not going to get into my position on it but it's I'm just trying to explain to people I'm not trying to take a position on it because obviously I can't right I'm just trying to explain to people what it's like and it feels very much like Vietnam life is going on is what I'm saying people are aware of it people are aware of what's happening

but they have their own lives to live it's not that people don't care whether they whether they're on one side of the position or the other it's not that they don't care about it it's that life has to go on at the same time you can't stop life because of that. Yeah, for sure.

Now, joining the Army over there, is it strictly a voluntary basis? Or do they have any kind of drafting going on or saying you have to go to the military at a certain age? Yeah, okay, this is a little tricky to understand. So at 18, unless you have an exemption, so if you're a university student, you don't go in. There are certain professions that don't go in.

But generally, if you don't go to the university, and this is the way it was in the Soviet Union as well, and I may not have this 100% accurate, so maybe some Russians can correct me on some. small details. But otherwise, if you don't go to college and you're not in a certain trade, then yes, you do, I believe it's one year mandatory service. But you could be a cook. You could be all. There's all sorts of things you could do. And then so generally with a concept right now, they were taking people who were already active in there or decided to stay in the military longer

or were in the reserves and wanted to go back in. And that proved to not be 100% popular here. So what they've been doing since then have been focusing on contract people. So what they do is, They're getting people to join under contract. So now it's voluntary. So they're not, you know, pulling people from here and there and making people upset anymore. Yeah. So the Army itself, yes, there is some mandatory service, but with regards to the conflict, at the beginning they were pulling people who were already in the service.

Some who wanted to go, some who didn't. But now they're focusing on voluntary recruitment on contract. So you mean contract kind of like the Wagner group type people? No, no, no, because that's been folded into the. army. Direct contract with the army itself. So basically saying you don't have to enlist for five years, you come in and we're going to pay you a certain amount every month.

And it's a higher rate than you would get if you get in the army. But then you could leave after a certain number of time. I don't know exactly what the deals are. There's posters everywhere. But they're focusing on trying to get people to voluntarily join rather than, you know, trying to. Because there was no draft. There was a difference between conscription and draft here.

So one is you have to serve your time. And one is there's something going on. we're going to take other people. And they didn't necessarily do that before they were taking people who were already some way affiliated with the military. Yeah, for sure. That makes sense. And I'm very glad that we were able to have you on today just because, you know,

we've been kind of on this little Russia kick for the past couple days. And obviously with Tucker Carlson's interview with Putin. And, you know, from American perspective, obviously I've never been to Russia. Sherry's never been to Russia, although I think part of your family is from Russia. But, you know, it's always good to hear someone that's actually there and kind of seeing what's going on, at least from your perspective. Chad, what are your plans? Are your plans to stay in Russia?

Do you think that your case in the United States will ever be resolved? And if it was, would you ever come back to the United States? Good question. Before you get that, one thing I want to say, though, because people ask, know what time is, is it safe to come here as a tourist, American tourists? And I tell people, actually, right now, you'll be safer here in a Russian city than you will in a U.S. city. That's how low the crime is here.

So as far as my case, my plans are to, stay here until I can get enough publicity to get this thing resolved. So I hope someday I'll be able to get resolved. But until somebody takes notice, because my case is very complex, it's hard to get somebody to look past the cover of it. So I don't trust that the U.S. governments never, even if it gets clear, I don't trust that they're never, ever going to come after me again. So I will likely apply for Russian citizenship here on the fast track. Because if it gets clear and I travel again, who knows they come after me for something else in the future, I wouldn't have a place I could just show up and say, okay, I'm here.

Yeah, so there is that. I would like to come back to visit. I've not seen my mother in over 10 years. She's elderly and she can't travel. But as far as moving back, no, I never want to live in the United States again. I left in early 2001 long before they were after me for anything. And that's when I moved to Russia, actually. And that's kind of where everything started.

You know, once I moved to Russia, I started having troubles. Once I went back to the U.S. after 9-11, and I'm not connecting myself to 9-11 in any way. But the point is they ramped up all the intelligence agencies. Those guys went all nuts. And that's when they seemed to notice that I wasn't a Russian the Russian had me on their watch list. I started having serious problems in the TSA, which we talked about before. So I started having problems.

A minute I moved to Russia, after 9-11, I started to come back, I started having problems once they knew who I was connected to in Russia, which is ridiculous. Because I didn't do anything. I don't want to be a spy for anybody. I just don't want to do it. Spies end up dead or in jail. I'm just a family man who wants to spend time with his family, and I don't want to work for any government. And it's just, it's pathetic that I'm now being accused

to being a Russian asset when, in fact, the likely truth was very likely the opposite. that the Americans wanted me to be an asset. I'm in trouble now because I didn't want to work with them. And that's just ridiculous. Can I prove it? No, but if you go through my story and you look at the evidence, that's the more likely of the three options.

Now, are you able to work there if you wanted to? Yeah, what are you doing? Are you doing anything for work right now or how's that going? Well, my health is not 100% yet. So I'm not quite able to hold down a full-time job yet. But now that I have asylum, legally I'm able to work here. Yes. I basically am a resident with all the rights.

My health care is free. I can basically do everything except for a vote or join the military. I don't want to join anybody's military anyways, whether it's Russian or American. I just, that's not me. I'm not quite 100% pacifist, but I'm pretty close to a pacifist. And I'm anti-war in the sense that I don't like any war, although I agree. Sometimes I're necessary ones, but I'm an anti-war person. So I have the ability to work, but my health is quite there yet.

So we're still living off of savings and support from family. It's not going to last forever. So we're definitely nearing an end game on the finances. So I'm putting the feelers out at some point, but I'm looking for the right job. I don't want to have to resort to teaching English or something here, although I could make a pretty good living at that. So I'm looking for some kind of public speaking job, but in English, because my Russian is not to that level yet.

I've been doing stand-up comedy. I'm hoping to do that in Russian next month. But my Russian still is a way to go. So, yeah, I'm kind of looking for work, but I still got a little ways yet, and I still have to bring my health a little further. I still have some surgeries to come. So sometime later this year, next year, I have to have a, reasonably serious surgery.

It's not as, it's not like brain surgery or open heart surgery, but they're going to have to actually go into one of my kidneys. They can't, and not the way they want to be fourth a laser. They're going to have to go in through my back and cut into one of my kidneys, which is in the type of health care I have here, it's not super risky because they have some of the best hospitals in the world here. Yeah. And some of the best surgeon in the world specials for this four thing.

So I'm not that worried about it, but it is a mid-level surgery. Okay. It's not, you know, it's not like just, you know, patching up your foot or something like that. It is going into the organ. and sometimes it does have some risks, but I'm confident about it because I have so the best options in the world for that type of surgery here.

That's interesting. I'm getting access to the top specialists in Russia here. It is interesting, though, that you have free health care. And you often hear horror stories about countries that have free health care to where the health care is not good. But that's, I was going to ask that question last. Well, it does vary. I will say, I mean, you could definitely find some Russians with some stories.

Yeah. Especially in some of the far-flung regions. I mean, you go out in some of the village and things, of course, I get good. And I've heard of some people in the cities, and even sometimes I've heard of people waiting and a few things. But in general, it's pretty good here. In general. Let's go. Okay.

I'm not going to say they're not exceptions. Sometimes people have to wait a little bit, but it's not as bad as Canada. I know people in Canada have waited a very long time for things. And people I know here that have had to wait is generally a fairly reasonable amount of time they have to wait. And again, there are exceptions. I'm not saying that you cannot find people with stories. Yeah. But generally if you live in, you know, I forget how many cities in Russia have a million people, but it's not just St.

river to Moscow. There are quite a few cities in Russia that have more than a million people. Yeah. And it's not, you know, it's not like the whole country's rural. But of course, if you go out into a village that's, you know, off the grid or something, it's going to be quite different or to even some of the smaller towns. But even the cities of 100,000 here and so forth, generally have access to most of the things. I mean, even some of our family lives in pretty remote areas of Siberia. And they have free health care and they have access to those things. And they're getting adequate to it. And they're pretty far-flung areas of Siberia. But they live in a city that's like 100,000 or 200,000.

Yeah. That makes sense. Well, what a Cinderella story this is for you, in a way, here you were pretty much dying on an island and you were just sitting there dying. And thank God you were able to get to Russia to get the medical care you need. And now you're walking up to five miles a day because, like I said, when we spoke to you the last two or three times, you were in really, really bad shape. Like, I prayed for you at night because I was really worried that you were going to die.

Yeah, we appreciate that. Remember, let's not forget Cuba either. I mean, the Russians, Russia has saved my life, but Cuba certainly played a role as well. Cuba helped me get me out of there and stabilize me. And is life absolutely perfect in Russia? No, but it's not what's being portrayed in the media. People call me propaganda. But the thing is, I'm just going out and showing what my life is on a daily basis. I'm showing, you know, showing the prices in a grocery stores, not propaganda. Yeah. You know, somebody says, show me the toilet paper aisle. I'll, I show it's not propaganda. I'm just answering questions as faithfully as I can. I don't have an agenda here other than to show what daily life is.

Yeah. And I do stay out of the conflict, and I do stay at a politics, but it's not for the reason people think. It's because if I take a position on the conflict one way or the other, I'm going to lose half of my audience. Yeah. Because let's say half my, because a lot of my audience is Russia and a lot of it's not. So if I take a position, I'm going to piss off one audience to the other.

And I don't need that because I have my own issue and my own issues with the FBI. Yeah. And I don't need to alienate my audience. So I don't talk about those things. We know all about that. able to think. We know all about that. And again, I'm just showing my daily life here. I'm not, if I see something that's not so fantastic, I'll show that too. I mean, we had a problem with clearing the snow where there was ice falling off the roof. So I showed that. It's not like I hid that.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, trust me, it's one of those things. If you're, if you're, if you say anything about the opposite of anything, you're a propagandist. And the reality of it is, it's just like our podcast. You know, we we want to get a truth out there no matter what it is, whether it's Russia, Ukraine, whether it's Israel and Palestine, whether it's, you know, left versus right or freaking, I don't know, Australia versus Africa. I don't know. I mean, it's just we want the truth, right? We don't care what it is.

I mean, obviously, you, you, everyone's going to have some loyalties here and there, right? And one of the hardest things to do in media is try to put some of those lollities apart. We've not always done the best of that always, but, you know, we are just at the very least trying to just tell the accurate story, right? And that's why another reason we wanted to have you on, we just wanted to, you know, we wanted to get your opinion on what your life is like there, especially since you lived there before, obviously, and get an update on kind of where you've been out. Chad, where is the best place people can follow you if they want to check out your new stuff

or your old stuff too? TikTok, Instagram or YouTube. My YouTube is very, very small. If people could help me grow my YouTube, that would be great. My TikTok is currently at $203,000. My Instagram's 117. My YouTube is at $1,400. Nice.

So what is your hand? thoughts. It's a TikTok fugitive on all of them. It may not be my username, but if you go to those platforms and search for the TikTok future, you'll find me. Or if you go to my website, all my socials linked to the website. Now, the website is, it's a best, it's garbage, and it doesn't have the updates about

Russia. It's very out of date, but it does have my social media link to the website, which is Alex is not missing.com. So everything's linked there. We also have a telegram group. There's a petition they could sign that would help. And I just want to say, even like Putin, people want me to take a position on Putin. Let's say I took a position. First of all, I'd piss off people one of the other

but I'm not going to change. I'm not going to change whether he's in power or not. So it's not going to change anybody's mind either. So it doesn't, you know, but I will say things like, look, Putin has rebuilt this country. That's not parpaganda. That's true. And that's why he's popular here. And that's not taking position on Putin.

That's just saying the truth. Yeah. That's not ignoring other issues that people may or may not have with Putin. I'm just telling people, if people want to know why he's popular here, that's why. Yeah. There's no question. I mean, you got to look at life. You know, and even in your case, I mean, Cuba helped.

Russia helped and, you know, these are places that, you know, a lot of people think are horrible places or whatever, but, you know, there's a lot of people that could say the same thing about the U.S. or many other countries. And I think a lot of times when people are so close-minded and not willing to see the other side of things, that's when they're name-calling you. I mean, because really after the interview with Tucker and Putin, I was like, darn, I'd like to go visit Russia. Yeah.

Yeah. And I think people should because, listen, even if somebody doesn't, they're like, I don't want to go. come the only way we're going to solve these problems in the world is if the people start talking. Yeah. Okay. If we only allow the politicians to talk and we say, you know, as an American, I'm not going to talk to Russians because I don't like their leader or people over here say I don't like America leader. That's not how things work.

We as the people need to talk to each other. So I would encourage everybody. Yes. Come to Russia. Okay. Are you going to drop a little bit of money in Russia and help people? Okay. Yeah, you're going to drop a few dollars here, okay?

But you're going to communicate with the people here. They're going to learn about you and you're going to learn about them. And the more of that we have, that's going to be better for the world. Because then we're going to learn really what's true on both sides and not what the media or from whatever side wants us to know or whatever the government wants us to know. We're going to see for ourselves. And the more communication we have among the people,

that's what we need is less division among the people. And I understand if they say people, we don't want to fund it. But listen, if you come here for a week, how much money you're really going to leave for you? You think you're going to have a huge influence on funding the government because you bought some restaurant food here and paid for a hotel? I mean, seriously. The amount of a cultural exchange you're going to get here is going to be worth that.

Yeah, for sure. And how are the people there? Are they receptive to Americans? I mean, oh, my gosh, they're so incredibly friendly. Yeah, I definitely want to address this because the thing is, there's two aspects here. One, since the conflict started, a lot of foreigners did leave. And so now they're extra welcoming here. The minute they find out you're a Western, they're like bending and they're fawning.

Oh, my gosh, we're so glad to have Westerners here. Because we thought they all hated us because so many that they are extremely friendly. But Russians are extremely friendly to begin with. People say, why don't they smile on the streets? Because there's a difference between Americans and Russians. Now, when you walk into an American restaurant, and I'm not trying to make fun of America, because I'm going to be a little bit,

I'm going to be a little bit exaggerating. You just to have a point. You walk to the rest are like, hey, I'm Jody. How can I help you today? Blah, blah, blah. Is everything okay? Do you have an advice? Blah, blah, blah.

You get what I'm saying, right? In Russia, they don't do that. You walk into a restaurant here, and they will say in Russian, Suluuvas, which means I'm listening to. It's polite. It's not overly greedy. Russians don't like to fake smile.

They will tell you exactly it is. But if you get into a Russians home, they will hug you, they'll be the most friendly people, and they'll be so completely honest, they would give you anything. I mean, I slipped on the ice twice this year,

and just because it's been icy, okay? And I slept one time, it was like, especially St. Petersburg, because St. Petersburg is known for being extra friendly, especially, I mean,

Moscow is not unfriendly, but St. Petersburg is a whole separate city apart. And there were like five people picking me up before I even finished falling. I mean, it's incredible here. Wow. If you bump into someone,

in the subway here, they will say, excuse me, if you even barely touch them. Where's in Moscow? They won't be like rough, but they probably won't say sorry. I mean, if they knock you over, they would. But, you know, St. Petersburg, if they even brush you, they're going to say sorry about it. And St. Petersburg is at a whole down level. But in general, Russians are friendly. They just don't walk around smiles in their faces.

They're closed in public. But if you go up and talk to them right away, even on the street, you'll find they're very friendly. They're just not, I don't want to call it fake friendly, but that's what they call it. Russians, it's not just Russian, it's Eastern Europeans in general. They call Americans fake friendly and they don't mean it in a bad way. They just mean that if I'm friendly, it's because I want you to know I'm really friendly, but I don't walk around to smile on my face. Yeah, that makes sense.

So it's just a different aspect here. And some of the Nordic countries are like this too. But if you go up and talk to them, they'll be extremely friendly to you. And if they accept you and so forth, then they'll be smiling. And if you're in their house, Russians, when they're alone and so forth, they absolutely smile, they hug, they're very friendly people. But on the streets, yes, it's not that they're unfriendly. they just don't, it's a different public kind of attitude. It's like, it's like a social

distance thing there, if you will, but it's very easy to break it just by speaking to them is often enough just to break that down. Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, it's been very insightful for sure. I couldn't wait to talk to you about, you know, your experiences so far in Russia. And, you know, even more so, we're definitely glad that you've received medical care and that at the very least, you had another chance at life from that aspect. And hopefully, listen, all of our governments or government employees that are listening to this episode because we know you are. If there's any way that you can look into this story or help,

let us know, reach out to us. Because, you know, the reality is, I mean, just for your peace of mind and just to kind of put it behind you, regardless of whether you would ever live in the U.S. or not, obviously it would greatly benefit you. But I also wonder, though, just since you were granted asylum, if even if someone looked into it now,

whether they would ever be willing to drop anything on, you know, Oh, no, they could. I mean, they could. Even the prosecutor himself could just drop it, but the reason they don't want to is once they do this, someone is going to have to look at the case. And these guys have been in there for 20 years. It's going to cost them hundreds of millions of dollars

to reexamine every case these guys touched. Yeah, that's true. And that's if they don't get charged with prosecutorial misconduct. And people say, and the thing is, there are a lot of precedents. I mean, anybody who thinks the FBI wouldn't do this, Google the Newberg-4 or Google the Larry Nassar case and see that the FBI covered up the abuses

of those young women for another year. And that was the actual scandal. Yeah. And only after an independent journalist came out and showed that the FBI knew about her for a year and did nothing, did they get in trouble. So the FBI has done, Newburgh 4, they completely set them up.

And even the judge said the only conspirator was the FBI. Yeah, that's crazy. So there's a history of this. Or anybody else, remember Richard Jewell? Oh, yeah. Yep. I can't remember. What did he do?

They ruined that man's life. Richard Joel. Or look at the Netflix series right now called American Nightmare, which I've not looked at yet. But apparently the FBI set that family up too. Wow. Yeah, I mean, you know, and hopefully, like I said, hopefully something can be done with it. And, and, you know, but at the very least, you know, we're thankful that you are at least healthier than you were last time we talked to.

Yeah, because even like some of my kids, I mean, my kids were young when I got sick and some of them never knew me anything but sick. And now I'm having a life and being able to spend time and actually be a dad to my kids, which is just completely amazing. That is cool. And by the way, where is your kid now, the one that, you know, the whole. Oh, Alex, the 27 year old? He's still back in the. Caribbean. He's in our house in the Caribbean. Now, is he going to stay there, you think? Or what is? Yeah, because he's got a job there. His friends are there and stuff. So he's 27. I mean, he's got his own life. And plus, we need somebody to help take care of the house there. So. Okay. That makes sense. Now, can he send you stuff? Like, you know, as far as some of your items that you probably

left, I guess, back there. Not really easily because it's kind of hard to ship things here. But we can buy everything here. Things are so cheap here that anything, almost pretty much anything I need, I can buy cheaper here than it cost me to even ship it anyways. But yeah, we did have to leave a lot of things. We had to leave the pets behind, which I'm not happy about it. I do miss, you know. Yeah. Not just the cat's dog, but we had a rabbit. I really miss that rabbit. I mean, it's the cats too, but it's just it

than the dog. But, you know, it's my whole life. I've had to restart my life a number of times. At least I got my family. You got to roll with the punches. It's rough. You got a roll with the punches. And maybe this is just a story to anybody that's going through something or you feel like you've lost everything. there's always someone that's lost more and going through more, but it doesn't mean you can't get through it.

I mean, you know, there's always a new opportunity. So I think you're a great example of that story. And I hope people, you know, just kind of take some solace in that. And like, you know, there are other people that suffer and you can always make it through it. But Chad, we're definitely glad we had you on. Like I said, anyone that wants to check out Chad's story or all of his content, TikTok Fugitive on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube. wherever you can possibly find him.

And I really do. I do like your content, by the way. Go ahead. Thanks. Because I have a lot of people contact me that are going through dark times as well. And they ask me for advice. And with that getting into me, I mean, I have been through some dark periods over these last few years, especially with the amount of pain that I've gone through.

And I've certainly been in some areas where my mind has been in some errors where I've had some very dark thoughts. And so I have a four-day rule. And I found this to be very useful. anytime you are thinking about doing something rash or you think that things can't get better, wait four days. Now, different people might be different. Some people may need to wait a week or two weeks. I don't know.

For me, it's four days. And I just realized that any time that my mind is necessarily not in the best of places, wait four days and see how you feel in four days. And for me, within four days, my mind is, even if the pain was still there, within four days, I've looked at my family or found something to change my mind. And I think that's the best advice. I can't say that's work for everybody, but find a time period. And again, it might be weak for somebody. And if you're ever in that place, just have a waiting period. Yeah.

Call it a waiting period and say, I'm thinking about doing this rash thing and just say, I'm going to put it on hold for four days. Yeah, I agree. Things always have a chance to get better. But if you do certain things, you're going to eliminate the chances for things to get better. Exactly. But if you wait, there's always that chance. I mean, look at how many years I suffered under pain.

And now I'm in a place. where I can enjoy life with my family again. And a year ago, I couldn't imagine. I mean, a year ago, I could barely walk and talk about almost every day. I mean, there were very few days. I mean, I had trouble some days I couldn't call my lawyer. Three weeks ago, I went skiing. I could never imagine that a year ago I could have been skiing again.

When I went skiing and I taught one of my kids to ski, it was so magical. Because I love skiing to begin with, but to be able to ski, it was so incredible. It was like flying. And I want to go skiing again this year. This year. I hope I will, but just, I cannot, I can't even describe the feeling to go from having trouble walking it, having trouble speaking most days, it's going skiing. I just did not even

imagine it was possible. Yeah, practice optimism. And I think that's something that people don't do very often. And that's something I used to do. You know, especially in dark times or you know, even jobs I used to freaking hate. I would just, every day, I'd be like, I'm quitting this job tomorrow. So I'll just make it through

this day. And then tomorrow's like, damn it, why am I going to this job again? But I'm going to quit tomorrow. Sometimes it is day by day. Sometimes, the other thing, too, is sometimes you just have to focus on, don't focus on the war, focus on the battle. Yeah. Because yes, you need to have a long-term plan, but sometimes looking to long-term plan will distract you from what needs, what's right in front of you. If the house is on fire, don't worry about paying the mortgage. Yeah. Get the fire out. Yeah, exactly. For sure.

Well, this has been an awesome conversation, Chad. We'll definitely check back very soon. I hope everybody goes and follows you and sees your content. Like I said, it's very interesting, and very entertaining and you're very well-spoken. I love actually just seeing kind of your perspective in Russia on your new videos. It's pretty cool, especially your food. By the way, I think you should do more of that. I think you do a lot of it. But I love how you highlight the foods you're eating and kind of what you're getting in Russia

and even comparing the prices to the U.S. versus Russia. And it is a lot of food that he gets for very little. It's crazy. But, yeah, Chad, thank you so much for coming on. We really appreciate it. And we'll definitely talk to you soon. You got to come here. We'll do a live here.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Until next time, stay safe and keep getting better, man. Thanks. Much appreciated. Thanks so much for the prayers. Not a problem. See you.

All right. That was Chad Howard. Great interview. I thought it was cool to kind of hear his perspective on, you know, what was going on. Or sorry, you know, at least his experience in Russia. And, you know, we've been talking a lot about Russia lately. So I was like, dang, and let's get an update on Chad. And then also ask him about what he thinks about Russia and life.

Russia. That's a very complex story. It really is. And, you know, hopefully one day they will drop the charges and the indictments in the United States. It's crazy. If you really go and listen to our original podcast episodes with Chad and where he goes through the entire situation of exactly what happened, it's nuts, right? And it's over his son. And it's over just something that's complete BS. And really, it could be a movie. Yeah, honestly. It could. Yeah, for documentary or something. It absolutely could. But guys, that's where we're going to leave it for today.

We're so glad you guys are joining us again. And until next time, take it easy and peace out. And be optimistic. Absolutely, be optimistic. Peace out, guys. See you.