[Most of the leaders of the alt-right are scrambling to distance
themselves from Vladimir Putin. It might be too late. ]
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WILL UKRAINE WRITE THE ALT-RIGHT’S EPITAPH?  
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John Feffer
March 16, 2022
Foreign Policy in Focus
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_ Most of the leaders of the alt-right are scrambling to distance
themselves from Vladimir Putin. It might be too late. _

A protester holds a poster of Vladimir Putin, Marine Le Pen and
Donald Trump,

 

Many figures on the new right sold their already discounted souls to
Vladimir Putin over the last decade. Now, after the invasion of
Ukraine revealed Putin’s true political colors to almost everyone
who’d previously been in denial, it has been grimly amusing to watch
these right-wing opportunists try to explain away all the fawning
quotes and damning pictures.

Some of the greatest offenders—Marine Le Pen in France, Matteo
Salvini in Italy, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, the UK’s Nigel
Farage—have spent the last three weeks trying to reinvent themselves
as staunch defenders of Ukraine. A select few have doubled down on
their idiocy, chief among them Thierry Baudet
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the Netherlands and Tucker Carlson from the land of Fox News. White
nationalists aside, Putin’s once formidable alliance of global
sympathizers has been hemorrhaging support by the day.

Putin’s overreach in Ukraine may ultimately prove his political
demise. But has the alt-right, in losing a massive political gamble,
also earned a return ticket to the fringes from whence it came?

THE FAR RIGHT’S DILEMMA

Moscow used to be the Mecca of the far right. Any figure with hopes of
making a name in right-wing politics was once desperate to shake hands
with Vladimir Putin, snag a photo, and establish some kind of tie with
Putin’s political party, United Russia.

Matteo Salvini, for instance, used anti-immigration sentiment
to transform
[[link removed]] Lega
from a splinter group of northern separatists to a far-right force in
Italian politics. In 2017, Salvini traveled to Moscow to sign
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cooperation agreement with United Russia, which included a pledge to
work on removing sanctions against Russia for its seizure of Crimea
and actions in the Donbas. Putin’s plan at the time: funnel oil
money
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Lega to amplify its voice as a Russian mouthpiece.

Today, Lega has fallen from its top position in the polls last April
to third place. The neo-fascist Brothers of Italy is still number two,
behind the social democrats, so the far right is still strong in
Italian politics. But Salvini’s pro-Russian tilt may well spell the
end of his political career.

Another casualty might be Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of
Hungary. Elections are coming up on April 3, and the opposition is hot
on Orbán’s heels.  Quite a few members of Fidesz, Orbán’s
party, have had a hard time pivoting from their knee-jerk pro-Putin
positions. Supporters of opposition leader Peter Marki-Zay have
gotten traction
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their posters that urge voters to choose between “Putin or
Europe.” Anti-Russian sentiment, which Orbán used to fuel his own
rise to prominence in the late 1980s, may prove in the end to be his
undoing.

If Orbán falls, it will be a major defeat for the alt-right,
which flocked
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Budapest to pay homage to Putin’s water-carrier in the European
Union. Tucker Carlson broadcast a full week of his show from Hungary
last summer with one episode on Orbán’s anti-immigration policies
entitled “Why Can’t We Have This in America?” Later this month,
the Conservative Political Action Committee is scheduled to descend on
Budapest to give a Orbán a final, pre-election boost, but it might be
too late.

India’s Narendra Modi threw his fortunes in with Putin in part
because of their shared distaste for liberalism—Modi also befriended
Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro— but
also because of India’s longstanding military and economic ties to
Russia. The invasion of Ukraine has forced Modi to choose between his
Russian ally and pretty much the rest of the world. So far, Modi has
held off on sanctions and criticism of the invasion. But like China,
India will come under increasing pressure to fall in line with the
economic pressure on Putin or face an ostracism of its own.

Brazilian elections aren’t until October, and Lula continues to
poll
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ahead of Bolsonaro. The war in Ukraine won’t help Brazil’s
strong-arm president. While virtually all other world leaders were
distancing themselves from Putin in the run-up to the invasion of
Ukraine, Bolsonaro traveled to Moscow in a very public display of
support. Since the invasion, he has declared Brazil’s
“neutrality.” Being tarred as Putin’s “man” in Latin America
may not do as much damage to the Brazilian far right, however, as
the economic fallout
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the war, which will hit the country hard and make it very difficult
for Bolsonaro to catch up in the polls.

In the United States, meanwhile, the far right faces a dilemma. White
nationalists still support Putin. Witness Nick Fuentes, the head of
the America First Political Action Committee. At AFPAC’s recent
gathering, held just days after the invasion, Fuentes appealed
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his audience: “Can we get a round of applause for Russia?” The
crowd chanted back: “Putin, Putin.” Then there’s Tucker Carlson,
who hasn’t stopped shilling for Putin after the invasion, which
has earned him
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love from Russian state television. The far right that has nested in
the Republican Party has condemned the invasion, more or less
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but has been decidedly lukewarm
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providing aid to Ukraine.

There are of course some Putin sympathizers on the left, but they are
both ignorant and ignorable. In the United States, only Tulsi Gabbard
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any political following, and it’s miniscule. Given the number of her
appearances on Tucker Carlson’s show and her recent participation
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CPAC, I wouldn’t be surprised if she switches parties.

WHAT ABOUT NEO-NAZI SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE?

Some neo-Nazis are heading to Ukraine to join their brothers-in-arms
in far-right military units. As Rita Katz writes
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Washington Post_:

_Their goal is not to defend Ukraine as we know it — a multiethnic,
democratically minded society led by a Jewish president. Some
neo-Nazis simply see this new war as a place to act out their violent
fantasies. For others, though, the force pulling them toward the
conflict is a shared vision for an ultranationalist ethno-state. They
see Ukraine as a golden opportunity to pursue this goal and turn it
into a model to export across the world._

But let’s not exaggerate their influence. The vast majority of those
volunteering to fight in Ukraine have no ties
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the extreme right.

Nevertheless, there has been speculation that the war in Ukraine will
be a boon for the European far right, which will acquire combat
experience fighting Russian troops.

“With a steady flow of military assistance from NATO nations,
Ukraine will soon become awash in weapons and ammunition. Given the
presence of Ukraine’s far-right military regiment the Azov Battalion
and its foreign supporters, these Western-supplied arms could easily
land in the hands of violent white supremacists and far-right
insurgents,” writes
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Young in _World Politics Review_. “In a bitter irony, Putin’s war
of ‘denazification’ in Ukraine may actually produce a more
emboldened and insurrectionist global far right movement.”

It’s true that the far-right Azov Battalion acquired considerable
political capital from its initial participation in the fight in the
Donbas. But that political influence faded to such an extent that
far-right political parties no longer have representation in the
Ukrainian parliament.

So, yes, the far right will inevitably seek to exploit the current
conflict. But residual affections for Putin
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the limited appeal of far-right sentiment in Ukraine will hamper this
effort to take over the country.

A DOUBLE DEATH?

Putinism is dead outside of Russia.

His ideological assault on democracy, which is the core of his
worldview, is revealed as morally bankrupt every time a photo of a
bombed apartment building in Kyiv appears on the news or civilian
casualties from a destroyed hospital somewhere in Ukraine are
tabulated.

Putin could once claim to “own” the leaders of the United States,
India, Hungary, Brazil, and Austria. He is now a political liability
to virtually everyone outside of Syria, Belarus, and Nicaragua. He has
forfeited the title of spiritual head of the Euroskeptical movement.
He can no longer count on support from illiberal leaders in Eastern
Europe. His effort to establish a beachhead in the United States ended
when Trump left office.

Without Putin, the alt-right lacks an international leader. Subtract
Trump from America, Orbán from Hungary, Salvini from Italy, and
Bolsonaro from Brazil, and Steve Bannon’s Nationalist International
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about as robust as Bannon’s own reputation.

The alt-right’s demise does not, however, mean that democracy will
thrive in its wake. The Ukrainian debacle is a sad commentary on the
fragility of international law and international institutions as well
as the long odds that democracies face against determined and ruthless
authoritarians. The hypocrisies of the West—around NATO expansion,
immigration, economic inequality, and climate change—certainly
don’t help.

But maybe, just maybe, if Ukraine can survive this conflict with its
political structures reasonably intact, it will inspire people
everywhere to fight for democratic principles. From the Euromaidan
protests on, Ukrainians have wanted democracy in their own country and
an opportunity to join with other European democracies. An possible
compromise—a neutral Ukraine on its way toward EU membership—would
preserve its democracy from both Putin’s real, existing militarism
and NATO’s encroaching militarism.

Putin’s primary target has been the democratic will of a sovereign
people. The alt-right, with its racist authoritarianism, has a similar
aim to undermine democracy. Let’s hope that Ukrainian resistance
drives a stake through the heart of both Putinism and the alt-right
once and for all.

_John Feffer is the director of Foreign Policy In Focus. His latest
book is Right Across the World: The Global Networking of the
Far-Right and the Left Response
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_Foreign Policy in Focus is a project of the Institute for Policy
Studies._

* Vladimir Putin [[link removed]]
* Alt-Right [[link removed]]
* Marine Le Pen [[link removed]]
* Donald Trump [[link removed]]
* Steve Bannon [[link removed]]
* white supremacists [[link removed]]

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