Candace Owens and her husband George Farmer met with individuals involved in facilitating the relocation of Western conservatives to Russia during their June 2026 trip, national security analyst Ryan Mauro alleged in a bombshell investigation published this week. Interestingly, Andrew and Tristan Tate met with at least one of the same people at the exact same time in the same Russian city. The meetings, Mauro claims, were part of an “all-but-certain plan to avoid asset seizures from lawsuits & possible prosecution by relocating to Russia & probably moving assets to Dubai, UAE.”
If accurate, it would represent one of the most significant foreign influence operations targeting American media personalities since the Cold War. Owens faces a defamation lawsuit from French First Lady Brigitte Macron. The Tate brothers are fighting human trafficking and rape charges in Romania and the UK (which they deny). Both parties have expertise or interest in evading Western legal systems. Both showed up in Russia. Both, Mauro alleges, met with the same operatives.
Mauro first exposed Owens’ deception in June. She initially framed her trip as a family vacation — cathedral visits, her husband’s “fishing” trips. That story collapsed when Mauro revealed she was a scheduled speaker at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russia’s state-managed answer to Davos. She spoke on a panel titled “Big Family, Big Reach: New Demographics and Narratives for Media Managers” — a session that openly asked “What is more effective: direct financial payments and targeted assistance or a comprehensive ecosystem?” Her co-panelists included four individuals sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department or European Union for information warfare, war financing, and justifying the forced deportation of Ukrainian children.
But SPIEF itself, Mauro now argues, was a second cover. The real purpose: meetings with people who facilitate permanent relocation for Westerners fleeing what Russia frames as persecution. And Andrew Tate — who has spent years perfecting the art of hiding assets from authorities across multiple jurisdictions — was there to help show how it’s done.
The Dubai-Russia Corridor
The Tate brothers’ presence is the critical detail Mauro identifies. They are not ideologues or media personalities in Owens’ mold. They are operational experts in asset concealment. Romanian authorities have seized millions in luxury vehicles and property from Andrew Tate as part of their criminal investigation. He and Tristan operate primarily from Dubai — a jurisdiction known for non-extradition protections and financial opacity. When Mauro broke the story about Owens’ Russia trip in June, he raised a specific question about Dubai connections.
The playbook, according to Mauro’s analysis: relocate legal residency to Russia under the “Shared Values” visa, park assets in Dubai beyond the reach of American courts, and maintain plausible deniability by framing the move as ideological refuge rather than legal evasion. Russia provides the sanctuary. Dubai provides the financial infrastructure. The defection facilitators provide the logistics and “100% guaranteed confidentiality.”
Owens’ subsequent behavior fits the pattern Mauro predicted. When he first publicly accused her of making defection preparations, she did not deny it. Instead, weeks later, she announced she was “moving somewhere for a fresh start” and “getting rid of everything.” Mauro also noted that Owens revealed George Farmer “regularly sweeps their house for listening devices.” That level of operational security is not standard practice for media personalities. It is standard practice for individuals concerned about intelligence collection.
The Defection Infrastructure
Russia has built physical and legal infrastructure to operationalize this pipeline. In August 2024, Vladimir Putin signed a decree creating the “Shared Values” visa — a pathway for foreigners who embrace “traditional Russian spiritual and moral values” and reject what Moscow calls the “destructive neoliberal ideological agenda” of the West. Applicants receive single-entry visas and can apply for temporary residence without demonstrating Russian language skills, knowledge of Russian history, or understanding of Russian law. The United States appears on the approved list of countries deemed to be pursuing that “destructive agenda.”
At SPIEF, Russian architect Anton Glikin — who described Trump administration official Rodney Mims Cook Jr. as his “surrogate father” — revealed he is designing a settlement in Nizhny Novgorod for 450 Western immigrants arriving under the visa. This is not abstract policy. It is operational infrastructure. And the network facilitating it, according to Mauro’s investigation, promises absolute confidentiality — a feature that would appeal to anyone concerned about surveillance, legal exposure, or public scrutiny of their relocation.
The historical model exists. During the Cold War, the KGB spent 5 percent of its budget promoting Angela Davis as a symbol of American injustice, using her to inflame racial tensions while framing the Soviet Union as a haven. Maria Butina, the Russian operative who infiltrated conservative circles through the NRA and was convicted of acting as an unregistered foreign agent, pioneered the modern version — building relationships with American conservatives, identifying potential recruits, and creating pathways for deeper engagement with Russian power structures. The defection facilitators Mauro references may be the next evolution: offering not just ideological affinity but legal and financial sanctuary.
The SPIEF Recruitment Pipeline
SPIEF itself functions as what Mauro, citing what he described as leaked documents, called a “recruitment pipeline” for Western influencers. The forum’s partner architecture is entirely composed of sanctioned Russian state entities: VEB.RF, Rosatom, Sber, VTB Bank, PSB Bank, and Gazprom-Media. Every funding partner is either sanctioned or run by sanctioned individuals. Positive Technologies, one of the forum’s partners, was specifically designated by the U.S. Treasury in 2021 for using its conventions as “recruiting events for the FSB and GRU.”
The forum also has a documented Jeffrey Epstein connection. Epstein and his Russian assistant helped organize SPIEF panels before his 2019 death. Mauro noted that Epstein’s closest Russian collaborators remain involved in the forum’s structure. In September 2024, the Justice Department indicted two Russia Today employees for funneling $10 million through shell companies to pay American right-wing influencers to produce pro-Kremlin content. RT, the sanctioned outlet at the center of that operation, is now the General International News Partner of SPIEF 2026.
Alexander Dugin, the Russian ideologue who also spoke at the forum, provides the intellectual architecture. His 1997 book Foundations of Geopolitics, used as a textbook at Russia’s military academy, explicitly prescribes destabilizing the United States by “encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts” while “supporting isolationist tendencies in American politics.” In December 2024, the Treasury sanctioned Dugin’s Center for Geopolitical Expertise for running a GRU-funded operation using AI deepfakes to target the 2024 U.S. election across a network of at least 100 fake news websites.
What Owens Won’t Answer
Mauro has repeatedly asked Owens to answer two basic disclosure questions: What communications has she had with Alexander Dugin? When and why did she endorse a Putin-style Tsarist model of government? She has not responded. Instead, she posted from Russia that criticism of her trip was “fake and gay” and that “literally everything is fake” about Western coverage of Russia. She told reporters at SPIEF that “Americans are getting tired of funding and not knowing where the money is going” in Ukraine. Russian state media amplified every statement.
Her husband’s travel patterns add another layer. Owens claimed George Farmer “regularly travels to Russia to go fishing.” For a British businessman with no publicly documented business interests in Russia, repeated trips raise questions about the nature of those visits. Combined with the operational security measures — sweeping the house for listening devices — the pattern suggests contact with entities or individuals who would have reason to conduct surveillance.
The Tate brothers’ simultaneous presence in Russia, which they posted from Moscow with videos of a traditional Russian welcome ceremony, appeared designed to look coincidental. But Mauro’s allegation that they met with at least one of the same defection facilitators as Owens transforms coincidence into coordination. A representative for the Tate brothers told NBC News they visited “to see how the country works, understand how people live, and talk about it based on what they actually experience.” That explanation does not address why their itinerary overlapped with Owens and Farmer in the same region at the same time.
The Broader Operation
The defection network, if it functions as Mauro alleges, represents something more operational than passive amplification. It offers legal sanctuary, financial infrastructure, and guaranteed confidentiality to Western figures facing legal pressure or seeking to relocate assets beyond the reach of their home countries. Russia provides the ideological cover — “shared values,” religious freedom, escape from “woke” persecution. Dubai provides the financial mechanism. The facilitators provide the operational bridge.
Mauro has indicated he has additional evidence he plans to release, including what he described as “another bombshell.” The investigation is ongoing. What is already documented is this: Candace Owens traveled to Russia under false pretenses, spoke on a panel with sanctioned Russian officials about funding mechanisms for Western media, and, according to Mauro’s investigation, met with people who facilitate defection of Western conservatives to Russia. Andrew and Tristan Tate were there at the same time, in the same place, and allegedly met with at least one of the same people. Weeks later, Owens announced she was moving and liquidating her assets. Her husband sweeps their house for listening devices.
Cross Currents previously documented the SPIEF panel structure and the warning signs Mauro identified in Owens’ initial Russia trip. The new allegations connect those warning signs to an operational network with physical infrastructure, financial mechanisms, and expert facilitators. Whether Owens ultimately relocates to Russia or moves assets to Dubai remains to be seen. What is already clear is that Russia has built the capability to offer both options, and that it extended that offer to one of America’s most prominent conservative media personalities — while simultaneously hosting the men who wrote the playbook on evading Western legal systems through jurisdictional arbitrage.
The question is no longer whether Russia is targeting American influencers. The question is how many have already taken the meeting.