By Adam ZivoNational Post (Mar. 10, 2025)
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/how-putin-hoodwinked-american-conservativesIt’s unfortunate that some populist conservatives in the West have bought into the myth that Russia is a haven for “traditional values.” This fairytale is nothing more than Kremlin-sponsored propaganda, and it bears little resemblance to the realities of Russian society, where divorce, abortion and secularism are widespread...
Russia’s self-anointed status as a defender of global conservatism can be traced back to 2011, when anti-government protests erupted following the country’s rigged parliamentary elections. These disruptions threatened to topple the autocratic rule of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but were eventually suppressed.
Putin’s governance subsequently became more jingoistic and anti-western. By directing the nation’s anger outward and fostering an atmosphere of permanent besiegement, the president was able to effectively draw attention away from his domestic shortcomings and stagnating economy. He fixated on the LGBTQ+ community, associated it with foreign interference, and passed laws curtailing both.
This won Putin crucial political support from the Russian Orthodox Church, imbued his regime with an aura of moral authority and, most importantly, vested the Kremlin with an ideology that could compete with western liberalism...
By the late 2010s, Russia had won over much of Europe’s far right and was flinging its tendrils into the United States. It found fertile soil there, owing largely to the collapse of neoconservativism (which had been discredited by the failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) and the Republicans’ inability to define a replacement foreign policy framework.
Ideologically destitute, some Republicans treated foreign policy as an extension of America’s culture wars — they allied with Moscow, a geopolitical rival, simply so they could vanquish woke culture domestically. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, only accelerated this realignment.
As of now, a considerable number of Republican influencers, particularly those affiliated with Trump, portray Russia and Putin as the defenders of family and God. They are the modern analogue to the socialist traitors who, decades ago, forsook their own countries to pledge allegiance to a Russia that never existed — only this time, it is the clergy, not the proletariat, that are being romanticized. But the useful idiots are being duped, again, because Russia is no more a conservative utopia than the Soviet Union was a socialist one...
Russians also love divorces and abortion. The country’s divorce rate (3.9 per 1,000 people) is among the highest in the world — far higher than the United States (2.7), Canada (1.1) and much of Europe. Similarly, Russia’s abortion rate is higher than many western countries.
What about family values? Domestic violence is an epidemic in Russia, abetted by a 2017 law, which stipulates that, unless hospital treatment is required, such abuse should be considered an administrative, not criminal, offence.
First time wife-beaters can get away with paying only a 5,000-rubles (C$80) fine.Free speech is also non-existent: criticizing the government can easily lead to a long prison sentence or, in some cases,
a mysterious death. Whatever faults the West might have with policing speech, Russia’s restrictions are a magnitude worse and crueller.
Why do some conservatives glorify a society so woefully unaligned with their values? Who knows. But their behaviour is nothing new, and it fits within an established tradition of boundless self-delusion...
