Why right-wingers support Putin

I still find it a bit strange that right-wingers (by which I mean ultra-right-wingers, not well-meaning social conservatives) are so supportive of Vladimir Putin and his soviet crusade in Ukraine. Whether it's Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson and many other elements of the right-wing Fox News-viewing side of the US Republican Party, or the nationalist/populist edge of European politics, or the ultra- nationalist faction in China, the extreme right worldwide clearly has a soft spot for Mr. Putin and his ambitions.

It's a less common view here in Canada, but even here some right-wingers have been tempted to try and draw parallels between Trudeau and Putin, for example, branding the moderate Canadian Prime Minster as a dictator in the mould of Putin. A recent poll in Canada suggests that vaccine refusers (who are almost all on the far reaches of the right, for whatever reason) are 12 times more likely to be sympathetic to Russia compared to fully vaccinated Canadians.

Putin may have come up through the Stalinist/KGB axis of the Soviet Union, but that doesn't mean that he is Communist, or even towards the left of the political spectrum. The Soviet Union left all that behind many years before Putin came of age, thanks to Stalin. Make no mistake, Putin is firmly on the right, quite a long way out on that wing. His philosophy, if you can call it that, favours nationalism, racism, homophobia and misogyny, and opposes progressive trends of any sort. He is also, at least nominally, "Christian", although of a rather warped Christianity that might be easily recognizable by the evangelical wing of American Republicans.

So, it should probably come as no surprise that there is a sneaking respect for Putin among the political hard right of the West and elsewhere, and many of them have an unhealthy appreciation for aggressive foreign policy and authoritarianism of any stripe. Of course, any support for Putin is all in the context of their own local interests and aspirations - they don't actually care about Russia or, still less, the Russian people - that is just the way these people think.

And remember, Russia has done its best to support Western extreme right groups and movements, through the proscribed Russian Imperial Movement and other conduits, so many of them will see it as only fair to show support back.