As most know, my friend was referring to Mr. Trump, who in a radio interview, named Putin a genius for officially recognizing parts of Ukraine as independent, while knowing full well that Putin would be launching a full-scale invasion imminently. He added that Putin’s tactics were “smart” and “wonderful”.
Although Mr. Trump has not endorsed the invasion, it still betrays his mindset and those of his admirers and media acolytes. One of his most voluble boosters, Tucker Carlson of Fox News, in finding some redeeming qualities in Putin stated, “Has Putin ever called me a racist?” In truth Carlson has not praised the attack since Russian artillery opened fire against Ukraine, but just hours before, Fox News’ brightest star was praising Putin knowing full well that an attack was imminent.
Others among Trump’s coterie are his former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, now the head of the far-right online portal Breitbart, who has praised Putin for not flying pride flags and for his hatred of the transgenders. Charlie Kirk, a pro-Trump media personality suggested that Greta Thunberg and Leonardo DiCaprio might responsible for Russian aggression. It’s a long list of the Kremlin’s assets in the USA and Europe.
Canada has its own, modern ‘fellow traveler’. Global Research, far left conduit of Russian disinformation is an outright stooge for Putin. Just a small sample of the dozens of headlines appearing with their on-line postings, before and after the Russian assault: “Ukraine: The US and NATO created this mess”; “Seven fake news stories coming out of Ukraine”; “Russophobia in Western sports media”; “The mad men of Washington”; “US/NATO is in the grip of a daemonic death wish”. The headlines leave no imagination for the contents of the articles.
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While the far-right world-wide championed the misnamed “Freedom Convoy” – even helped to finance it – the ultra-left Global Research also devoted numerous pro-Conoy postings on-line. It wasn’t surprising for journalists to perceive a congruence of opinions between some of the Convoy organizers, traditionally anti-Communist, but clearly pro-authoritarian. Both (yes, also some Convoy representatives) absolved Putin for the Ukraine crisis and directly accused the Biden/NATO tandem as instigators. Global Research and its politically motivated group of the left-wing fringe of Kremlin’s proxies help Russia’s intense propaganda campaign from a traditional ideological perspective that hasn’t changed from the cold war era. The romance between the ultra-right and Moscow stems from the admiration of Putin’s cunningness, hyper-macho image, his cold-blooded authoritarianism, his false image as a devout Orthodox Christianity, etc. Is this a strange romance? No, the two are rather cozy bedfellows, embracing despotic, powerful leaderships.
Why should the immediate past be of concern? Why should it worry Estonians? Because an old adage states, “If you don’t understand the past you’re doomed to repeat it?” Numerous analysts have indicated that Putin’s unpredictability, recklessness and obvious mental instability should be of concern for the Baltics.
(Pikemalt saab lugeda Eesti Elu 4. märtsi 2022 paber- ja PDF/digilehest)
