Those who care about conservatism’s moral integrity should vehemently condemn the misguided Russophilia on the right
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Most of the western world is united in opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but unfortunately, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been supported by many on the far right and the far left. While the far left has spent decades apologizing for foreign autocrats under the misguided belief that anything anti-American is inherently good, the far right’s infatuation with Russia is a newer and more unexpected development. Those who care about conservatism’s moral integrity should vehemently condemn this misguided Russophilia.
In the United States, far-right politicians, such as Republican representatives Madison Cawthorn and Marjorie Taylor Greene, have echoed Russian talking points, suggesting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a “thug” and that his government is filled with neo-Nazis.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump made several statements lauding Putin’s aggression towards Ukraine and initially called the invasion “smart.” To Trump’s credit, after photos of Ukrainian suffering reached the public, he shifted positions and condemned Russia’s invasion as a “holocaust,” though he continues to praise Putin and criticize NATO.
American far-right media figures have also parroted Kremlin propaganda. Conservative commentator Candace Owens has consistently promoted Putin’s narratives, such as the claim that Ukrainian nationhood is an illegitimate invention of the Soviet Union, which is historically inaccurate. Meanwhile, conservative media icon Tucker Carlson amplified a Russian conspiracy theory that the United States was operating secret bio labs in Ukraine.
In Canada, People’s Party Leader Maxime Bernier has latched onto conspiracy theories that undermine support for Ukraine. He has implied, among other things, that Canada supports Ukraine because Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland’s grandfather may have been a Nazi sympathizer (I guess Bernier believes that political views are hereditary).
Russia obviously does not have the West’s best interests in mind, as Putin frequently argues that Russians must prevail in an existential battle against the United States and the European Union. Why, then, have so many western conservatives lost their moral compass and chosen to support a regime that actively opposes their own interests?
The main reasons seem to be the all-consuming viciousness of America’s culture wars and the delegitimization of neoconservative foreign policy.
Many on the far right are so narrowly focused on litigating cultural issues that they’re willing to make unethical alliances if it helps them vanquish wokeism. In the post-Soviet era, Russia has re-embraced Christianity and traditional values, which it has conspicuously positioned in opposition to the “degenerate” West. Russia’s cultural conservatism makes it a convenient ally against wokeism — “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is a devastatingly relevant adage here.
Putin has cleverly exploited this and has explicitly drawn parallels between Russia and American anti-wokeism, claiming, for example, that western elites are trying to “cancel” Russia like they cancelled J.K. Rowling.
Many conservatives swallowed Putin’s bait and now gleefully align themselves with Russia, despite the fact that, in practically every other respect, Russia does not align with western values. There are now conservatives who ostensibly champion freedom, but defend a dictator who poisons political dissidents. We have conservatives who rally against out-of-touch elites, but romanticize Russia, a country that is ruled by an unaccountable oligarchy.
“Has Putin ever called me a racist?” asked Tucker Carlson, as if that single factor, which is so inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, absolves Russia of responsibility for its war crimes.
I consider myself a moderate conservative and think that wokeism is a problem that needs to be addressed. But I oppose wokeism because of its infringements on personal liberty, individualism and pluralism. When the far right looks to Russia as an ideal, a country where liberty is non-existent, I find it embarrassing and discrediting.
It’s the conservative equivalent of when moderate leftists feel mortified by their extremist counterparts who romanticize the Soviet Union and Maoist China. In both cases, ideologues lose the forest through the trees, wilfully blinding themselves to the obvious immorality of repressive regimes.
Not too long ago, conservative Russophilia would have been inconceivable. From the 1960s to the early 2010s, neoconservatism dominated right-wing politics. This strain of conservatism was confident in the supremacy of American values. It had faith in liberal democracy, which it aggressively promoted throughout the world through a highly interventionist foreign policy.
However, in the aftermath of the Cold War, neoconservatives became arrogant. The Bush era, with its endless entanglements in the Middle East, made it clear that imposing liberal democracy on unwilling nations was a recipe for disaster. Neoconservative foreign policy lost its moral credibility and collapsed under the weight of its own hubris.
This created an intellectual and political vacuum that was filled with Trumpist isolationism. Conservatism turned inward, towards domestic frictions, both economic and cultural. Foreign policy became an afterthought, and the less attention that was given to it, the more it could be subsumed by the demands of domestic politics.
So now we have an American conservatism that lacks a strong foreign policy vision — a diminished and pessimistic conservatism that doesn’t have faith in liberal democracy. Rather than asserting western excellence to the world, this brand of conservatism tethers itself to Russia, a hostile second-rate regional power. It’s a sad development to see — not only because of the immediate humanitarian costs that are abetted by Putin’s useful idiots, but also because conservatism should be bigger than this. We need a stronger conservative movement that has the integrity to stand against its enemies, rather than betray itself to score petty partisan victories.
National Post
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