‘Key to white survival’: how Putin has morphed
into a far-right savior
The Russian president’s ‘strong man’ image and disdain
for liberals has turned him into a hero for white nationalists
Sergio
Olmos
Sat 5 Mar
2022 07.00 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/05/putin-ukraine-invasion-white-nationalists-far-right
“Can we get
a round of applause for Russia?” asked Nick Fuentes, on stage last week at a
white nationalist event. Amid a roar of applause for the Russian president,
just days after he invaded Ukraine, many attendees responded by shouting:
“Putin! Putin!”
Conservative
activists and elected officials from across United States attend CPAC 2022, in
Orlando<br>Greg Aselbekian, supporter of former President Trump, sells
hats as he attends the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in
Orlando, Florida, U.S. February 24, 2022. REUTERS/Octavio Jones
It would be
easy to dismiss the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC) in
Orlando, Florida, as a radical fringe. But speeches by two Republican members
of Congress – one in person, the other via video – guaranteed national
attention and controversy.
The
backlash showed how the war in Ukraine has exposed the American far right’s
affinity with Putin. That affinity is complicated by the tortured relationship
between Russia and former president Donald Trump, whose rise Moscow supported
with a covert operation to undermine US democracy.
Fuentes, a
notorious antisemite, created AFPAC to coincide with the more mainstream
Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where Trump was the headline
speaker last Saturday.
At AFPAC,
Fuentes introduced the Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who would
this week interrupt the State of the Union address, rising to yell “Build the
wall!” as an objection to Joe Biden’s immigration policy. But here she did not
interrupt to object to the chanting of the Russian president’s name.
Ukraine was
a place where the same perceived downfalls of western society existed and Putin
embodying a strong man authoritarian-type figure stepping in and inflicting
suffering on Ukraine was viewed in a positive light
Jared Holt
“I don’t
believe anyone should be canceled,” Taylor Greene told the attendees of the
white nationalist conference. She lashed out at a wide range of topics from
Marxism to cancel culture but avoided the invasion of Ukraine, saying even less
on the topic than Russian state media.
Devin
Burghart, executive director of Institute for Research & Education on Human
Rights, said: “In the world of the white nationalists, you are seeing a lot of
support for Putin, as expressed by the cheerleading at AFPAC over the weekend.”
Others
agree, pointing to a shared socially and culturally conservative ideology,
disdain for democratic systems and appreciation for a “strong man” form of
government. There was also the fact that it was the current Ukrainian
government whom Trump attempted – and failed – to bribe to investigate his
political rival Biden: actions which led to his first impeachment.
Jared Holt,
a domestic extremism researcher with the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic
Research Lab, said: “When Russia invaded Ukraine, large parts of the far right
were supportive.”
“The common
thread is this idea that because of western European and US influence on
Ukraine, Ukraine was a place where the same perceived downfalls of western
society existed and Putin embodying a strong man authoritarian-type figure
stepping in and inflicting suffering on Ukraine was viewed in a positive
light.”
Fuentes is
certainly the real deal of white nationalism. He attended the deadly “Unite The
Right” rally in 2017 and was recently subpoenaed over his involvement in the
pro-Trump insurrection on January 6 2021. He now carries on that effort with
AFPAC, aiming to create a kind of far-right archipelago by bringing together
white nationalists, fascists and Trumpist crowds talking only to each other in
their own islands.
The
three-year-old conference sees itself as part enfant terrible, piquing the
genteel wing of the Republican party, and part Weimar-era beer hall organizing
before the putsch. It is far right, but no longer on the fringe of Republican
politics.
Taylor
Greene was condemned by some in her own party for speaking at AFPAC but is
unlikely to be disciplined. And she was not alone. The Arizona congressman Paul
Gosar made a video address. A lieutenant governor from Idaho and state
legislator from Arizona also spoke at the event, which also attracted figures
such as Gavin McInnes, the founder of the violent extremist gang the Proud
Boys, which currently has more than three dozen members under indictment for
the insurrection.
This
represents a disorienting shift for a Republican party once staunchly opposed
to communism and the Soviet Union, which President Ronald Reagan dubbed “the
evil empire”. But Trump, who in 2015 ran for president promising to build a
wall and impose a Muslim ban, stoked the party’s nativist elements.
And as
America and the world grow more diverse, critics say, Russia has come to be
seen as a beacon of salvation by white nationalists. In 2004 David Duke, a
longtime leader of the Ku Klux Klan, described it as “key to white survival”.
In 2017 Ann Coulter, a rightwing author and commentator, opined: “In 20 years,
Russia will be the only country that is recognizably European.”
Researchers
who monitor far-right groups agree that the moment of Putin enthusiasm in the
US has intellectual underpinnings with deeper roots. Burghart said: “For almost
a decade the work of Russian fascist Alexander Dugin has found a home in
American white nationalist circles.”
Dugin’s
ideology is steeped in Russian Christian nationalism and has chimed with
Putin’s world view. At the same time, it echoes much of the Christian
nationalist activism in the US, where liberal values, gay rights and a desire
to keep religion out of the state, are seen as decadent and responsible for
American decline.
Burghart
added: “There’s an attraction to Putin’s hardline authoritarian stand, his
aggressive policies, they are attracted to his brand of traditional
Christianity that Putin’s expressed. Some have liked Putin’s attacks on the
Russian LGBTQ+ community.”
On the eve
of the Russian invasion, former Trump aide Steve Bannon hosted private security
head Erik Princ, founder of the Blackwater military contracting group, on his
popular War Room podcast. The two men – who are highly influential in Trumpist
circles – praised Putin as “anti-woke”.
After four
years of praise for the Russian leader there’s a large swath of the right that
has internalized that message.
Devin
Burghart
Bannon
declared: “Putin ain’t woke.” Attacks on wokeness were also a constant thread
running through CPAC, which this year had the official slogan: “Awake not
woke.”
The legacy
of the Trump years shapes the perception of Putin among the right in the US as
Trump demonstrated a clear affinity for the Russian leader, even as details
emerged of the Russian attempt in the 2016 election to disrupt US democracy.
Trump himself praised Putin as “genius” and “smart” as the invasion began only
to change his tune later as the military action faltered and casualties
mounted.
Even then,
while condemning the assault, Trump told CPAC: “The problem is not that Putin
is smart – which of course he’s smart – but the real problem is that our
leaders are dumb.”
The same
was true of America’s most popular conservative broadcaster, Fox News’ Tucker
Carlson. Right up to the invasion Carlson was lambasting Ukraine as “not a
democracy” and a puppet state of the US state department. He also praised
Putin, saying: “Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me
fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my
town to Russia?”
Tucker
Carlson has questioned the merits of Washington’s backing through Nato of
Ukraine in the face of Putin’s expansionist threat.
That sort
of language – contrasting Putin favorably against Democrats on mainstream US
television – has an impact.
Burghart
commented: “After four years of praise for the Russian leader there’s a large
swath of the right that has internalized that message. Some of the right have
embraced Putin while others have been slow to denounce the invasion of
Ukraine.”
Burghart
says some extremist rightwing militias even see Ukraine as a potential scenario
to discuss how to prepare for urban warfare and a future insurgency in the US
itself. Instead of horror at the outbreak of brutal urban warfare, some US
extremists are obsessed with the idea of a coming civil war in America.
“They see a
societal collapse and need to prepare for an impending civil war, and their
focus is on preparing for the battles of that here in the US,” Burgheart added.
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