The right’s rationalization of Putin colors the Russia-Ukraine tension
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The right’s rationalization of Putin colors the Russia-Ukraine tension
The word “great,” of course, has multiple meanings. One meaning is that something is superlatively good. Another is that something is simply superlative, great in the sense of massive or important.
When the cover of Newsmax’s monthly magazinedescribesRussian President Vladimir Putin as “Vlad the Great,” it’s not clear the sense in which it is meant.
The right-wing media outlet’s description of Putin includes various negative descriptors, but they’re offered in the way one might describe Darth Vader: titillating, exciting.
“From his days as a cutthroat KGB spy stationed in East Germany to his power-hungry ascension to the presidency of Russia, Putin has given the U.S. and the world unending headaches with his nonstop amassing of nuclear weapons, incessant saber-rattling, and deadly espionage plots,” the description reads. “ … Newsmax exposes Putin’s private life — from his secret girlfriend to his love children, to his favorite books and pop group. And you’ll learn why, incredibly, he has become a sex symbol in Japan!”
Tiger Beat for authoritarian teeny-boppers.
This isn’t particularly surprising, coming from Newsmax. The outlet has made clear where it stands in the tension between performative toughness and liberal democracy with its post-2020 embrace of Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud. But the timing of the issue is awkward: As The Washington Post has reported, Putin’s Russiaappears to be poisedto invade Ukraine, a key U.S. ally. Should that happen, Newsmax magazine readers might be primed to view the incursion with sympathy.
Granted, that’s probably not many people. For example, it’s not anywhere near the hundreds of thousands of people who probably tuned in to Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show last night, where Carlson explicitly rationalized a potential invasion.
In his telling, Putin is salivating over Ukraine because the Russian president simply “wants to keep his western border secure.” After all, Ukraine might join NATO, which Carlson describes as the United States “plan[ning] to control Ukraine no matter what.” Massing tens of thousands of troops at the border with Ukraine is simply Putin acting defensively, Carlson insists, akin to “how we would feel if Mexico and Canada became satellites of China.”
Of course Carlson also couldn’t resist framing this as a celebration of Putin particularly when contrasted to President Biden. He showed a snippet of an interview in which Biden agreed that Putin was “a killer,” a belief probably born in part of the number of political assassinations (and assassination attempts) that have unfolded inPutin-era Russia. But Carlson waves this away.
“These people are children, again, children pretending to be leaders,” he said of Biden. “Vladimir Putin is a killer — presumably unlike every other head of state on Earth through all human history.” Shrugging at an invasion threat is one thing. Shrugging at political murder is another.
Carlson centered his defense of Putin on the Russian naval base at Sevastopol.
“NATO’s takeover of Ukraine” — an odd way to describe Ukraine joining an international alliance — “would compromise Russia’s access to its Sevastopol naval base,” Carlson insisted, something that an expert quoted by Carlson said would be “the biggest military geopolitical defeat of Russia in the last thousand years.”
What Carlson is doing here is not just defending Putin’s current aggressive posture toward Ukraine but also rationalizing his prior attack on Ukraine’s territory. That naval base is on the Crimean peninsula. When the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, Russia paid rent to Ukraine to maintain the base. In 2014, though, Russia simply seized the peninsula, triggering international blowback — and a separate round of Putin apologia by the American right.
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, for example,appearedon Fox News to declare that Putin was “what you call a leader” for his strong hand in annexing the region. A number of other conservativessimilarlyframed Putin as a more effective leader in contrast to President Barack Obama.
What really shifted how partisans view Russia, though, was not Putin’s efforts to influence Europe but, instead, the United States. The brief war with Georgia that occurred in 2008 prompted a spike in the number of Americans who saw Russia’s power as a threat to the United States, as did the seizure of Crimea. After each of those incidents, the increase was seen among both Democrats and Republicans, according to Pew Research Centerpolling.
It wasn’t until the 2016 election, when Putin and Russia sought to influence the outcome on behalf of Trump (who’d similarlyexcusedPutin’s assassination efforts) that a partisan gulf emerged. Suddenly, Democrats were far more likely to see Russia as a threat than were Republicans. In fact, Republican concern about Russian influence decreased in the wake of those revelations.
This isn’t just about the Democratic response to the interference effort. In August, YouGov conducted polling on behalf of the Economist that asked Americans how they viewed various world leaders. Republicans were more likely to say they viewed Putin at least somewhat favorably than they were to say the same of Biden. Among those who reported having voted for Trump last year, twice as many viewed Putin with at least some favorability.
In the abstract, one can chalk this up to the fervor of partisan sentiment or to the Republican Party’sincreasing antipathyto liberal elections. But that Newsmax’s elevation of Putin and Carlson’s defense of his geopolitics emerge now removes the discussion from the abstract. Government officials believe that Putin has designs on Ukraine more broadly than just protecting its base in Crimea — which, again, Russia already controls. It’s certainly true that those officials might be wrong, and it’s certainly true that there are officials and politicians on both sides of the aisle who are eager to embrace military solutions to problems. But if Russia does invade Ukraine with precisely the sort of ambition that Carlson went to great lengths to deny, how will Newsmax readers and Fox News viewers consider any American response?
Putin’s goal in seeding conflict during the 2016 election was to amplify divisions in American politics. Five years later, that effort has generated a weird side effect: It seems also to have widened the gap on perceptions of Putin himself. If Russia further invades Ukraine, there will be a lot of Americans who are primed to take Russia’s side.
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Would a patriot favor Putin over the US president?
Of course not, but we're not discussing patriots, we're discussing dicksucking Trump loyalists. They would much rather support Putin and Russia than Biden and America.
I hope Biden sends all our snipers who were recently called home from Afghanistan to support Ukrainian troops. Every fucking Putin soldier that crosses the Ukrainian border should have their heads popped. Perhaps that would convince the shirtless dictator to back the fuck off.
How many people you would like to see killed in the World War that would follow such a stupid action? Ukraine was lost the moment they were refused full Nato membership... Even with all the troops we have over there, the hardware we have given them, the US position that Ukraine is already a full part of Nato which the Germans refuse to recognize...
US Troops blowing the heads off Russian troops would really do a whole lot for world stability wouldn't it?
Don't hit them with facts and reality.
The second US forces were detected in Ukraine it would lead to reprisals across the world. We have troops stationed everywhere, and it would become open season on them. Russia has just as many well train snipers and special forces as we do. As the article states Putin is former KGB; he is not above using less conventional methods of disposing of those he wants removed.
Also, if this is a full on invasion of the Ukraine like the left is hyping- US snipers aren't going to stand a chance no matter how many Biden sends. Without air support, and a way out, they would be sentenced to death. Or does anyone think Putin cares about human life not to use rockets, missiles, or even carpet bombing to remove any pockets of resistance?
If Putin wants Ukraine he is going to take it; and like China and Taiwan there is not a damn thing Biden can do about it. It is too late to put either Ukraine or Taiwan under the US nuclear umbrella; no one would believe Biden if he tried anyways.
Curious as to how you felt when he annexed Crimea while President Obama watched.
Well, that was different.
Obama backed the Ukrainian overthrow of a duly elected pro Russian government; and then only chose to support the new pro western government by sending non lethal aid.
Trump allowed the Ukrainian government to purchase US weapons; and allowed them access the lethal aid.
Now which one was Putin's puppet again?
First, they are the fucking invaders, Ukraine defending it's territory is their right. Second, how would Russia know who was popping their piece of shit soldiers if we had our snipers dressed like the "little green men" Russia used last time with no affiliation markings on them?
Ukraine is not lost. That's a claim I can only imagine coming from dicksucking Putin loyalists.
Putin assassinating dissidents and journalists outside Russia soil is destabilizing. The US helping Ukraine defend their borders is heroic.
Putin believes he can do whatever he wants because the US has continued to back down and refuses to engage him when he slaps us and our allies in the face. Trump and the sniveling weak spineless conservative apologists for Putin have convinced Putin that no matter what he does the US won't get involved because they "don't want to start WWIII". But why isn't Russia worried about starting WWIII by provoking us, the superior military power? If it were up to me, the first time another "little green man" from Russia that crosses the Ukrainian border would not only have their heads popped by snipers but we'd send an armada of drones and wipe their border positions off the fucking map. Then Putin would think more than twice about doing whatever the fuck he wants to our allies.
By the way, when did right wing conservatives turn into such fucking cowards that they're actively defending a vile piece of shit dictator like Putin just to avoid conflict with an aggressor?
Frankly I was pissed and felt it was one of the worst decisions President Obama made. I have made no secret about how I feel about Putin and his murderous cadre of fucking fascists. If Putin were skinned alive, castrated, delimbed and then made to watch a passel of hogs munch down his amputated parts before letting his armless and legless torso get covered in pregnant female Tunga fleas that burrow down under his skin, feed, then lay their egg sacs that gestate and eventually rupture from the flesh to finish off the host, it would be treating him too well.
No shit Sherlock, by the weapons they are using?
Sure they are if they decide to take it with the current president in charge... and a Germany and France that is unwilling to support helping them.... And why do you always have to state your pecker puffing preferences?
Yep I agree, 100% you should go back and see the discussions I had with Fly about Obama's inaction when they were taking the Crimea, then when nothing happened with that, they took a land corridor to connect it with mother Russia, and again Obama did nothing but appease...
What's really amazing is he did nothing when Trump was in office, Trump sent them weaponry and assured them that we will defend them it's why Germany and France really don't appreciate us as much as they used to...
It's not cowardice, it's recognizing a situation you cannot win.. Discretion is the better part of valor? that's what they teach in the military academy's, don't fight a battle you can't win... Calling us cowards cause we don't want to get a bunch of soldiers and marines killed uselessly cause of your hard on for Putin, we will be fighting alone.... Germany will not allow us to use bases on their soil so logistics becomes a serious problem, ie if we could even get sufficient troops over there how to we supply them with the bullets they will need? Food Water shelter? And what about heavy equipment tanks and such? we can't ship them there cause they will have to cross France or Germany which means we will have to fly them in against Russian advanced anti-aircraft two at a time... Drones? there aren't enough drones in our entire inventory to handle 250,000 Russian troops... (yeah that's the 150k they already have there from Obama's supervision time, and another 100k during Biden's supervision time...
I don't think you have a clue about how a military has to function on the battlefield, just a puffed up small headed peckers sense, (since you like pecker references) of what you think you know...
I would have no problem with putting a bullet right between Putin's eyes if I was in the position to do it and get away cleanly... But I'm not interested in a suicide mission, but according to you, in opposition of what our military believes and teaches, do.... And then stupidly call it bravery ...
Come back when you get a clue...
Ethnically speaking, it's much more complicated than that. The Russians will use that complexity to their advantage, very much like they did in Crimea.
By the time they're done behind the scenes, they will able to portray themselves as liberators.
That what they did in taking the Crimea, posed themselves as invited liberators, then held a very questionable vote on re-joining Russia.... (just never mind the gun barrels pointing at people during the vote)
The Ukraine politics Biden is pursuing simply isn't pragmatic. Russia is not going to give up the Crimea or Sevastopol. And the only land access to the Crimea is through eastern Ukraine. Russia has a strategic interest in Ukraine east of the Dnieper River.
The choice is to either allow Russia land access to Crimea - or - fight a separatist war. Economic sanctions won't deter Russia because the strategic importance is too high.
Wait. How did Joe get above 40%.
Did he invent cold fusion or something? All kidding aside, this seed is ridiculous.
I get accused of tacitly supporting Putin here all the time and i served in the Better Dead Than Red era ..... nearly 40 years later i feel exactly the same about that. Putin can kiss my olive drab, Marine Corps ass.
I know of no American that really trusts Putin, Trump included.
Trump says discussed forming cyber security unit with Putin
Really, so Biden must be Putin's puppet as well for ending sanctions that Trump imposed on the Black Sea Pipeline. Biden caved to Putin and got absolutely nothing in return. The pipeline will allow the Russian oil to bypass former Soviet Union block states (our allies) that get money from having the current pipeline run through their country.
Maybe the left better take a closer look at all of the actions that the Trump administration took against Russia; instead of concentrating on what Trump said.
Hunter is looking to do some bidness with Putin's oligarchs
He needs more money for blow ....
Hard to fuel that art habit of his.
It's really amazing the party of Obama/Clinton/Biden can accuse anyone of supporting Putin.
It's really amazing that anyone can deny Trump's love affair with Putin.
Unreal that you think Obama, Biden and Clinton support/supported Putin
It’s a waste of time Sean.
The denial is strong in this group, chronically so.
It’s a waste of time Tessylo.
The fake denial is strong in this group, chronically so.
Take a good look and talk to the people around you, you may be surprised by what you find.
I have.
What do you think i found
This is the setup to blame "the right" for Biden's failures. His own side doesn't even believe Biden can handle Putin competently, so they are preemptively searching for scapegoats.
Sure it is!
They have zero shame that’s for sure. Look no further than NT for proof of that.
This is the setup to blame "the right" for Biden's failures. His own side doesn't even believe Biden can handle Putin competently, so they are preemptively searching for scapegoats.
You would think that one issue where we would enjoy bipartisan accord would be the understanding that Vladimir Putin is a piece of shit dictator who has been bad for Russia and bad for the world. There is no context in which you would be justified comparing him favorably to any American.
"You would think that one issue where we would enjoy bipartisan accord would be the understanding that Vladimir Putin is a piece of shit dictator who has been bad for Russia and bad for the world. There is no context in which you would be justified comparing him favorably to any American."
One would think that the older, "better dead than red crowd," would never support Russia. I guess when someone is willing to throw away their principles, ethics and morals for political expediency, one should not be surprised by who they count as their new "friends." Such people have turned away for the ideals of this country and now embrace an authoritarian regime to get their way.
As a rule, we don't. However, most of us are not TDS ridden nor are we stupid.
I find it hilariously obtuse that some of the same people here who bagged on how Trump handled Putin are now giving Biden a free pass on how he is handling Putin.
Amazing amounts of TDS and hypocrisy at play with that crowd.
Your comments really dont make any sense.
Has Biden fawned before Putin like Trump did? I must have missed that.
You read it in other seeds, i'm sure of it but there is no point to bringing it up again.
You won't agree with it, so it's a waste of time to bring it up again and i've got better things to do right now John.
Anyone who has the gall to mention "TDS" incessantly has no other arguments to make.
Anyone who denies the existence of very real psychological maladies like TDS, deserves no serious consideration from real thinking people.