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Republicans are backing Ukraine in the war. So why is there support for Russia on America's far right?
The US far-right highly admires Putin's penchant to rig elections to maintain power, his xenophobia and racism, his aggressive hostility, his co-opting of the Russian Orthodox Church, and his anti-democratic/might-makes-right worldview.
Putin also de-criminalized domestic violence in 2017.
3.26.22
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, there has been near unanimous denunciation of President Vladimir Putin, from President Joe Biden calling Putin a "war criminal," to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell describing him as a "ruthless thug." But the Ukraine invasion has found a significant pocket of support from prominent figures on the far right including white supremacist Nick Fuentes, who regularly gushes about Putin on his Telegram channel. The war is also a hot topic in QAnon chatrooms where Putin is often portrayed as a hero. Conservative pundits have also voiced support for Russia. Candace Owens has pushed the Putin talking point that Russia created Ukraine. She also tweeted "Russian lives matter." She was retweeted by the Russian embassy in the U.S. America's far right shares a common enemy with Putin and Russia: the West's liberal values and the cabal of elites they say controls the economy and the media. It helped for Russian purposes to act like all of these other people agree with them,” Weiss said. “It was a way of creating an echo chamber where there isn’t one.” Former president Donald Trump has frequently professed his personal admiration for the Russian president“ With Trump out of office, many of his supporters are now looking to Putin to take on their enemies.
Fueling support for Putin and his Russian offensive is the perception that he alone can save the world from identity politics and western globalization, extremism experts say. Putin has long fomented aggression towards the LGBTQ+ community. He has passed stringent laws against "gay propaganda," and recently blasted gender nonconformity as a "pandemic" equal to Covid-19. Putin has long fomented aggression towards the LGBTQ+ community. He has passed stringent laws against "gay propaganda," and recently blasted gender nonconformity as a "pandemic" equal to Covid-19. "This is similar to the way that we saw some far-right support for the Taliban last August," Miller-Idriss said. "There's the appeal of a 'strong man' or the idea of a strong resistor against the West and all that's gone with that in both of those cases – anti-feminist, anti-LGBTQ, authoritarian hyper-masculine, all of that kind of tough-guy stuff." For some, the conflict in Ukraine is about the same stuff of the culture wars in the US and that's dangerous, Foggett says. “What really concerns me is that the right especially, they are projecting their own social anxieties into the Ukraine-Russia conflict,” she said.
The US far-right highly admires Putin's penchant to rig elections to maintain power, his xenophobia and racism, his aggressive hostility, his co-opting of the Russian Orthodox Church, and his anti-democratic/might-makes-right worldview.
Putin also de-criminalized domestic violence in 2017.