I am an American Orthodox Christian, so I find this question interesting. If I were your Russian friend, what might I do? It seems possible still to go to Spain, which seems like maybe the best choice. They're far from Russia, so not so concerned about Russian immigration; the weather's great; population collapse, so they need workers. What about Armenia; jobs aren't easy there, but it's affordable, and while Yerevan the capital is expensive, Gyumri, the second biggest city, has internet, and is extremely cheap. Maybe try to just immigrate to work in Mexico? The Mexican economy is booming because American businesses are reshoring from China; that's probably the best chance your friend has to find a somewhat decent paying industrial job. He might even be able to immigrate into the USA from Mexico. Some more off-the-wall ideas: Get together with a few other Russians you trust, try to immigrate to South America or Spain, buy land as a group to form a kibbutz/coop/moshav. - Another wacky idea: Even with just US$7k, your friend can probably afford to buy or build a folkboat and sail it somewhere. Probably the easiest would be to build it on the Baltic and sail it from there, but I dunno how various European countries will react when an all alone boat person shows up and wants to stay. Can someone sail a folkboat across the Atlantic, or from Kamchatka to Alaska or Canada?