An American Face-Tattooed Barber in Moscow

If you’re relatively new to the issues related to Kremlin propaganda and how it’s affecting other countries (including the United States), I recommend reading some background posts I wrote that explains things in more detail along with links to other sites where you can read more to educate yourself.

In a previous post I mentioned that the Russians make two kinds of propaganda for different audiences. One is for people living in Russia and the other is for the rest of the world. Recently the 1420 YouTube channel made this video asking Russians about “Do we have a strong propaganda in Russia?” The answers to that question are very interesting and revealing.

Granted the video is focused on the propaganda for Russian audiences since that is what the respondents would be exposed to. But the Russians are still cranking out propaganda for people who live outside of Russia. There is a YouTube channel known as Russian Code that makes videos encouraging Westerners to move to Russia by featuring interviews with Westerners who actually moved to Russia. Of course they have nothing but nice things to say about their new home country.

I learned about that channel through watching the NFKRZ YouTube channel where he critiqued an interview with Teddy Boy Greg, an American-born barber with a lot of tattoos on his face and most of his body, who moved to Moscow where he opened his own business called Teddy’s Rock n Roll Barbershop. Roman’s review of that interview is snarky, hilarious, and spot-on.

If you don’t like snark, here’s the original Russian Code interview with Teddy Boy Greg.

I’m not surprised that there is a Russian Code video devoted to that guy. I first knew about Teddy Boy Greg, whose legal name is Greg Rossell, last year when one of his photos of his tattooed face went viral (and is now archived in this Reddit post ). It was followed by this article in the British publication The Mirror, which was about the Z tattoo that he had placed on his chin so there would be no doubt as to where he stands on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

I did a few Google searches and found a bunch of Reddit threads about that man and the things that he said and did before he moved to Russia. The short answer is that he has a history of making statements that are racist, homophobic, and antisemitic. For more details, you can click here, here, here, here, and here.

I found an Adult Swim video clip from 2015 where Teddy Boy Greg was one of two people who were profiled because of their extensive tattoos.

I found an interview with him where he admitted that he voted for Donald Trump in 2016 before he left for Moscow the following year. I also found a more recent story that was published in Newsweek last year where he vowed that he would travel to the Russian-occupied Donbass region of Ukraine to interrogate those whom he called “Western scum.” As of this writing, it’s unknown whether he actually did this or not.

In case you want to learn more about his views on life or you just want to see more photos of his extensively inked body, you can check out Teddy’s Rock n Roll Barbershop on Instagram.

I would probably disagree with about 90 percent of Teddy Boy Greg’s politics but I can at least respect him for this reason: He didn’t just sit in the United States constantly posting online about how wonderful Russia under Putin’s rule is, like Jackson Hinkle does from the comfort of his Miami home. Instead Teddy Boy Greg had actually put his money where his mouth is and moved to Russia. In addition he managed to support himself by starting his own business in Moscow and he’s making an effort to learn the Russian language. I sincerely hope that he’s happy living in Russia and he never feels the need to return to the United States for any reason.

What’s more there are rumors that Vladimir Putin wants to build a new village that would serve as a refuge for any disaffected MAGA Republican who is tired of living in a country that provides too many civil liberties for those who aren’t straight cis white men. This is one policy of Putin’s that I would enthusiastically support. I hope that this village actually gets built and enough dissatisfied MAGA Republican Americans move there. It would get rid of enough Trump supporters that the Make America Great Again movement could go the way of the Know Nothings into total obscurity.

In addition Russia has been searching for more people to fight in its ongoing war against Ukraine. Russia could offer recent arrivals from the West instant Russian citizenship in exchange for fighting in Ukraine for a year or two and managing to survive in the process. I would love to see some of those rabid Trump supporters on the battlefield, especially the ones who are overweight and physically out of shape who tend to act so arrogant and macho.

I would consider it a win-win for everyone.

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