In 2013, for example, Russia enacted an anti-LGBTQ law that banned “propaganda” that promoted “nontraditional” relationships for children. Over time you start to see that trickle down to the base.” Autocrats like Putin, she said, “are seen as model leaders now that America has become too liberal. “Russian leadership post-communism was embracing this idea of Russia as a Christian nation,” Posner told Al Jazeera. Support for the Russian leader among some American evangelicals dates back to the 1990s, when they began noticing Russia’s renewed embrace of Christianity in the aftermath of the Cold War, said Sarah Posner, author of UNHOLY: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump. In recent years, Putin also has made inroads with some leaders of the American Christian right, who viewed Russia as a country that led on moral issues while, in their view, the US fell into moral decay. “He is to blame for what we’re seeing tonight.” Putin admiration “Vladimir Putin started this war,” Carlson said after the invasion began. Like many others, Carlson’s tone changed when the tanks began rolling into Ukrainian territory in the following days. “Before that happens, it might be worth asking yourself, since it is getting pretty serious: What is this really about? Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?” “Hating Putin has become the central purpose of America’s foreign policy … Very soon, that hatred of Vladimir Putin could bring the United States into a conflict in Eastern Europe,” Carlson said in a segment, part of which was rebroadcast on Russian state television. In the days before the invasion, Fox News host Tucker Carlson questioned why Americans should be made to prefer Ukraine over Russia, or to hold a negative view of Putin. “We are praying for the proud people of Ukraine. “The Russian attack on Ukraine is appalling,” he said in a speech during the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 26. I’d say that’s pretty smart.”īut Trump changed his tune after the invasion, taking a harder stance on Putin’s actions. “He’s taken over a country for two dollars worth of sanctions. “Putin is smart,” Trump also told a gathering in Mar-a-lago, Florida, on the eve of Russian forces’ all-out attack on Ukraine, which has killed hundreds of civilians and forced more than a million people to flee. In many ways, the American right’s Putin problem starts at the top.įormer President Donald Trump, who has voiced admiration for Putin for years, appeared to praise the Russian leader’s advances days before the invasion on February 24, calling the moves “smart” and “savvy”. Some like Putin’s attacks on the Russian LGBTQ community.” Others are attracted to the brand of traditionalist Christianity Putin has expressed. “There is an attraction to Putin’s hardline authoritarian stance and his aggressive foreign policy. “The question of the American right’s support for Putin and Russia is a complex, many-layered issue,” Devin Burghart, president of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, told Al Jazeera.
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As Russia’s deadly invasion of Ukraine continues, a number of prominent American conservatives who had previously been complimentary of Vladimir Putin have been forced to confront past comments praising the Russian president.įor years, Putin has enjoyed support from an unlikely coalition of elected Republican officials, conservative Christian leaders and right-wing television hosts, whose praise has ranged from admiration of his intelligence to his hardline position against progressive cultural ideas.