U.S. veteran speaks out on life in Russia after sanctions w\@Wild-Siberia

foreign [Music] I think that nothing has changed since I've been here [Music] I don't see it the gas prices haven't gone up but I know that's by law but everything in the stores are there the people seem happy but I know that there's a limit to how much a human can take and if they reach that limit then they will protest well here's the back story a couple of months ago someone left a comment under my video saying he's an American war veteran who'd found a new home in irkus region Siberia there'

s always been many expats living in Moscow but deep Siberia that's rare So I checked out the guy's Channel it turned out he's an ex-marine Hood fart in Afghanistan and he moved to Russia not long ago after the war in Ukraine started so I traveled all the way to the remote Siberian village where Daniel casteon settled in to see who he really is and what on Earth he's doing in the middle of nowhere Russia picture this it's April 2022 and the biggest military conflict in Europe since World War II h

as just erupted the U.S tells all its citizens in Russia to immediately leave the country because supposedly the world is once again on the brink of nuclear Armageddon meanwhile an undaunted American traveler Daniel castellan gets a one-way ticket to Russia he settles in a small unassuming Village in Siberia and becomes an unlikely witness to some of the country's most dramatic events sanctions war and mobilization when the mobilization started you would be able to see tanks and raw material hea

ding towards the West Daniel a foreigner who previously served in the U.S Marine Corps actually Blends in well on the frontier of rural Russia his background gives him a unique perspective on how things have been playing out in Russia over the past year I have no side in this even though I live in Russia by the way I just don't see Ukraine winning [Music] [Music] right now we're in the outskirts of Sudan cup uh we're just gonna walk down the average Street in sudanka um and show you how the hous

es look [Music] for me this is one of the most beautiful looks the the windows is a signature of Russian uh houses and the people living here I think it's very uh rural as in people work in the in the mines people work in the train station it's a very kind of pass-by sort of town you have that small town feeling bakeries small cafes uh small shops it's very it's that kind of town a KFC here uh now in this KFC you might find a different menu but nonetheless we have a KFC King food sludanka I'm go

nna be honest I think that nothing has changed since I've been here [Music] see it the gas prices haven't gone up but I know that's by law but everything in the stores are there actually hidden right behind you it's world famous around the world it's Coca-Cola Coca-Cola finds a its way back into the Russian Market no matter what no matter what it's also interesting that they kind of keep it low you know don't advertise it you know as much it's on the floor if you want it you know where to find i

t so it's it's kind of like this like uh if you're walking you're walking and you scoop it up and you buy it it's very low low-key the people seem happy there hasn't been any if things were really bad I know protests are illegal but they would be protesting if life was miserable humans can only take so much there's been plenty of demonstrations in Russia that have been shut down but at least they go try because they're fed up or they just have different views but in my town nobody has protested

everything has been calm foreign [Music] look at how much fruits they have mandarins all types of apples his store has always had everything even through the sanctions Tell them I've seen the store has been full and I've lived here for a year and every time we come it's full and has it affected him at all no songs California exports a lot of avocados from Mexico and not a lot of countries can grow our avocados so seeing it here in his store so fresh it blows my mind Chile California Argentina Ca

lifornia thank you well it wasn't my intention to stay but my heart finally changed when I decided to stay because I am in a relationship foreign you can can connect with someone in a place that's brand new to you this place has become my home some people react you know recognize you the door from the United States they uh the initial response is they get a little bit uh shocked they can't they even make a gesture like oh you're not Russian you're American I've had people be angry I've had peopl

e be very happy I've had people being shocked and some people just don't really care like when I lived in Ithaca I was accused of being a spy the man spoke English and he said why are you in iroquoisk so far into Russia and it seemed a little bit strange to them that I was so deep into Russia huh where are you from Los Angeles California I love it I love it tell her that I love it how long you've been living here uh yeah 10 months 10 months and what do you do for a living for a living oh well I'

m a military retired veteran I guess I that's what I am but I'm trying to get my citizenship to work I don't think you would understand [Music] before joining the military Daniel had a troubled childhood as he grew up in one of Los Angeles's toughest suburbs San Fernando Valley growing up in a in a town like Sylmar it's a very heavy with Mexicans you grow up in the gangs and stuff like this I think to other countries it's taboo but for us it's very normal to join the uh organized crime an assaul

t with a deadly weapon shot in yesterday's crime spree caught the robbers in action my family's an immigrant family so I'm Mexican-American nobody before me had gone to school nobody before me had gone to the military so I went to the recruiting office very young at 18 and I signed up to join the Marine Corps 2010 and 2011 I was in Afghanistan just doing what I just said looking for landmines and and fighting every day you have to go out and see how far you can get until the Taliban shoot at you

and what my job was go in the front of everybody and look for contact 50 meters East and it was at night uh a lot of Taliban came and they started lighting the fields around us on fire and then they started more shooting mortars into our position and you know we have machine gun positions outside uh start fighting fighting them back I got one of them I I traveled with uh with a flag that my mom gave me and it survived that battle that we were in it wasn't the toughest day but it was certainly o

ne of the most meaningful days because um my mom sent me to war with a flag and I was intending to bring it back and I did [Music] speaking from military experience what can you tell me about how this current war between Russia and Ukraine is being fought I have no side in this even though I live in Russia by the way I just don't see Ukraine winning they're doing all the bad moves the way that Ukraine has been fighting it in a conventional way I thought was a very bad idea you don't want to go c

onventional war against a Powerhouse like Russia so when they build trenches and all these things building trenches hiding in buildings it's only a bloodbath against Ukraine because they're putting all their eggs in one basket I don't think that the Americans want Ukraine to win because they're not giving them what they actually need Germany has now said yes to leopard two tank delivery it's very significant substantively on the battlefield America is preparing to follow suit and send its own Ab

rams tanks tanks do nothing not against a good a superior Air Force and a superior artillery Russia is the king artillery is King other tanks they want but Ukraine's not supported by infantry artillery or an Air Force all the good stuff is on the other side NATO has to actually get involved in the war with boots on the ground if they want to win the war which is talking about world war three my predictions for the war on record and even if you don't put this but um I think it'll take three to fo

ur uh major battles and by major battles I mean a place like where they lose catastrophically from 50 to 100 000 men where they really commit ukrainians like to do that they like to apparently they like to fight to the last man foreign rails that we're about to go under and when the mobilization started you would be able to see tanks and raw material heading towards the West it happened around September October for this town and the people went in support for it [Music] if there was anything aga

inst it I'm guessing like I said a lot of people would have gone against it and also I see the same people in town a lot of young men who hold jobs in stores a lot of young men that never didn't leave you would hear stories about people fleeing the country to Georgia and were very close to Mongolia [Music] can you ask him for me because I fished Shuka can you ask him where he catches the Shuka I fish all the time I go outside and walk and I get lost on purpose there's many forests behind the hou

se there's Lakes there's Baikal I like to be with nature [Music] stress disorder I'm diagnosed for combat trauma so in Los Angeles there's too much noise a lot of sudden noise can affect me I get flashbacks [Music] when I go out there it's just me and the birds and and whatever is in nature I find peace they live inside the water a lot of uh bugs if the lake is healthy then it has bugs because other fish can eat this I can go fishing anywhere in the world if I would have left Los Angeles and dri

ven somewhere I could have found a lake I could have found a river but you don't choose the place you love traveled here to to Siberian to irikutsk and I found sludanka it called to me growing up as a warrior and going to war I feel uh closer to to myself when I'm far away and this is as far as I could go in America you feel that there's over an overwhelming amount of Institutions that are trying to assimilate you you have to choose whether you're Republican you have to choose if you're a Democr

at you have to choose if you support gay rights you have to everything is constantly being thrown at you in schools at work every time there's a new movement about something at work they tell you you have to be considerate of this you have to be agreeing with this so uh what I find very satisfying is that in this place whether people agree with it or not there is not so much of that pressure coming down from the top I haven't seen it so if you ever wondered that if in Russia you were forced to h

ave any ideology well here it is here's the proof that there's no nobody's forcing you for anything you could have a communist Soviet ice cream or you could have a capitalist American ice cream one will you pick well I have both at home so I take both I don't chew sides and I went to war but there's a comfort that you get after you survive misery becomes a part of you and I thought that I needed to come here to be miserable and feel happy but I just actually just became happy I left to try to be

miserable in Siberia to test myself like I said I wanted to feel the cold but I fell in love with the nature besides the woman and you look for adventure to come back and say look look at my skin look at my my scars I can tell you stories now but now I don't feel like going back home and telling them about my my battles here now this is my life usually the Sun is going down by the time when it's the best fishing time so I look at the the mountains over there and I daydream about one day having

kids really because I have no kids and I want to learn all these things so I could teach them teach them all my secret places and so they can live a little bit more more happy from the beginning because I didn't have this until I was in my 30s it might sound stupid but I think about how happy I am [Music] foreign [Music]