rightwing support for russia
Harrow, Kenneth
By Sheera Frenkel and Stuart A. Thompson
Sheera Frenkel and Stuart Thompson, who cover tech and misinformation, combed through more than four dozen videos, podcasts and social media posts for this article.
After President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia claimed that action against Ukraine was taken in self-defense, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson and the conservative commentator Candace Owens repeated the assertion. When Mr. Putin insisted he was trying to “denazify” Ukraine, Joe Oltmann, a far-right podcaster, and Lara Logan, another right-wing commentator, mirrored the idea.
The echoing went the other way, too. Some far-right American news sites, like Infowars, stoked a longtime, unfounded Russian claim that the United States funded biological weapons labs in Ukraine. Russian officials seized on the chatter, with the Kremlin contending it had documentation of bioweapons programs that justified its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
As war has raged, the Kremlin’s talking points and some right-wing discourse in the United States — fueled by those on the far right — have coalesced. On social media, podcasts and television, falsehoods about the invasion of Ukraine have flowed both ways, with Americans amplifying lies from Russians and the Kremlin spreading fabrications that festered in American forums online.
By reinforcing and feeding each other’s messaging, some right-wing Americans have given credibility to Russia’s assertions and vice versa. Together, they have created an alternate reality, recasting the Western bloc of allies as provokers, blunderers and liars, which has bolstered Mr. Putin.
The war initially threw some conservatives — who had insisted no invasion would happen — for a loop. Many criticized Mr. Putin and Russia’s assault on Ukraine. Some have since gone on to urge more support for Ukraine.
But in recent days, several far-right commentators have again gravitated to narratives favorable to Mr. Putin’s cause. The main one has been the bioweapons conspiracy theory, which has provided a way to talk about the war while focusing criticism on President Biden and the U.S. government instead of Mr. Putin and the Kremlin.
“People are asking if the far right in the U.S. is influencing Russia or if Russia is influencing the far right, but the truth is they are influencing each other,” said Thomas Rid, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who studies Russian information warfare. “They are pushing the same narratives.”
Their intersecting comments could have far-reaching implications, potentially exacerbating polarization in the United States and influencing the midterm elections in November. They could also create a wedge among the right, with those who are pro-Russia at odds with the Republicans who have become vocal champions for the United States to ramp up its military response in Ukraine.
“The question is how much the far-right figures are going to impact the broader media discussion, or push their party,” said Bret Schafer, a senior fellow for the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a Washington nonprofit. “It serves them, and Russia, to muddy the waters and confuse Americans.”
Many of their misleading war narratives, which are sometimes indirect and contradictory, have reached millions. While Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other platforms limited the reach of Russian state media online after the war began, a variety of far-right Telegram channels, blogs and podcasts took up the task of spreading the Kremlin’s claims. Inside Russia, state media has in turn reflected what some far-right Americans have said.
Mentions of bioweapons labs related to war in Ukraine, for example, have more than doubled — to more than 1,000 a day — since early March on both Russian- and English-language social media, cable TV, and print and online outlets, according to the media tracking company Zignal Labs.
The unsubstantiated idea began trending in English-language media late last month, according to Zignal’s analysis. Interest faded by early March as images of injured Ukrainians and bombed cities spread across the internet.
Reinforcing the ‘Bioweapon Labs’ Conspiracy Theory
Media mentions related to bioweapons labs in Ukraine spiked at the start of the invasion among English-language media. Days later, Russian-language media joined in.
But Russia breathed new life into the conspiracy theory on March 6 when its Defense Ministry claimed in a televised address that it had uncovered “traces of a military biological program being implemented in Ukraine, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.”
Mr. Carlson later aired the Russian statement on his show. Fox News declined to comment and pointed to segments where Mr. Carlson has criticized Mr. Putin.
Russia laid much of the groundwork for its convergence with many on the American right years ago. Before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency, an organization that professionalized online disinformation, spread inflammatory content through Facebook and other social platforms to sow divisions among Americans and boost Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee.
After Mr. Trump was elected, he publicly complimented Mr. Putin, once calling him “a genius.” The comments helped seed a favorable view of Mr. Putin’s strongman style of governance among some Americans.
The coronavirus pandemic further aligned some on the far right with Russia’s propaganda machine. Both sought to undercut confidence in vaccines and mask mandates to foment distrust in the federal government and health agencies. Anti-vaccine Facebook groups and Telegram channels became fertile ground for members of the far right and Russian trolls to hunt for conspiracy theories to promote, Mr. Schafer said.
Last month, the coalescing crystallized. As Western intelligence showed that Russia was preparing to invade Ukraine, Mr. Putin declared Ukraine an American colony with a “puppet regime” and denied that he planned an invasion.
In the United States, Mr. Carlson also called Ukraine “an obedient puppet of the Biden State Department.”
On Feb. 16, Russian state-owned media claimed that Ukraine had “fired mortar shells” at a separatist enclave within Ukraine backed by Russia. Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist, quoted the Russian media’s false assertion on his Telegram channel to 256,000 subscribers. Days later, Mr. Kirk also described the heightened situation as a “border dispute.”
A spokesman for Mr. Kirk said it was “patently false” that the podcaster was sympathetic to Russia’s invasion and that he was “rightly questioning” U.S. foreign policy.
On Feb. 24, Mr. Putin delivered a speech justifying an invasion of Ukraine. It was transcribed in full on Infowars. On Twitter, Ms. Owens, the conservative commentator, repeated Mr. Putin’s claim that NATO was expanding eastward toward Russia, blaming the United States for the war. She urged her three million followers to read Mr. Putin’s speech directly to learn what was “actually” going on.
In an email, Ms. Owens said she encouraged “all citizens to read speeches that are given by leaders around the world to better understand their motivations behind actions.” Infowars did not respond to requests for comment.
But the invasion proved highly unpopular among many Americans, leading to a backlash against those who seemed to side with Mr. Putin. After the far-right podcaster Mr. Oltmann said on his Feb. 24 show that he would “stand on the side of Russia,” his co-host, Max McGuire, pushed back.
“Russia’s the bad guy in this situation,” Mr. McGuire said. Mr. Oltmann and Mr. McGuire did not respond to requests for comment.
Others on the right refuted some Kremlin talking points, including that neo-Nazis are rampant in Ukraine and that President Volodymyr Zelensky is a “drug-addled Nazi.” On Feb. 26, the Fox News host Neil Cavuto said those accusations were “incredibly over-the-top crazy criticisms.” (Mr. Zelensky, who is Jewish, signed a law combating antisemitism last fall.)
The lull did not last. American anti-vaccine channels on Telegram soon picked up the bioweapons conspiracy theory, which jumped from private chat groups to far-right podcasts and Infowars.
When Victoria Nuland, an under secretary of state, was questioned in the Senate this month over whether Ukraine had biological weapons, she said laboratories in the country had materials that could be dangerous if they fell into Russian hands. Jack Posobiec, a far-right commentator, insinuated on his March 9 podcast that Ms. Nuland’s answer bolstered the conspiracy theory.
“Everybody needs to come clean about what was going on in those labs, because I guarantee you the Russians are about to put all of it onto the world stage,” said Mr. Posobiec, who did not respond to calls seeking comment.
Russian officials also latched on to Ms. Nuland’s comments. “The nervous reaction confirms that Russia’s allegations are grounded,” the country’s official account for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted on Twitter.
Beyond the bioweapons conspiracy theory, Joseph Jordan, a white nationalist podcaster who goes by the pseudonym Eric Striker, repeated Russia’s claim that a pregnant woman who was injured in the bombing of a Ukrainian maternity hospital had faked her injuries. In his Telegram channel, Mr. Jordan told his 15,000 followers that the hospital photos had been “staged.” He did not respond to a request for comment.
Some Russians have publicly commented on what appears to be common ground with far-right Americans. Last week on the Russian state-backed news program “60 Minutes,” which is not connected to the CBS show of the same name, the host, Olga Skabeeva, addressed the country’s strengthening ties with Mr. Carlson.
“Our acquaintance, the host of Fox News Tucker Carlson, obviously has his own interests,” she said, airing several clips of Mr. Carlson’s show where he suggested the United States had pushed for conflict in Ukraine. “But lately, more and more often, they’re in tune with our own.”
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Cornelius Hamelberg
Goodness gracious, that was an unusually long one from Professor Harrow om defence of Ukraine and his native land
With regard to what the USA’s vice president Kamala Harris says about Ukraine, once again, it’s “the lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
Since once again, the third world war is on the brink of breaking out in Europe, those of us who live here (in Europe) are naturally more agitated about saving our own skins, whilst for all they care, those living in America may be thinking that no bombs will be dropped in America because since they are so far away from Europe all the fighting and bombing will be taking place in Europe, Russia, China and therefore entertain no fear of intercontinental ballistic missiles North Korea.
This time, during sleepy Joe Biden’s watch they could be dead wrong about Trump’s “little rocket man”, as a matter of course.
Since, when it comes to war propaganda, truth is the first casualty whether it’s Uncle Sam’s search for the mythical “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq or Uncle Sam denying the existence of real chemical and biological labs in Ukraine, and we are to suppose in the USA too, for balance from the Russian side we could looka here:
Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Dear Kenneth,
Shabbat Shalom and heads up.
At last, Joe Biden is beginning to show some spunk, like a real American president. The logic behind the “turn the other cheek” is that at the defining moment you must be prepared to deliver the first slap, a really terrible slap – and that’s why Putin is nervous about NATO planting missiles in Ukraine and thereby destroying the equilibrium of terror by diminishing the value of Russia’s early warning system by further reducing their 5 mins reaction time by about 3 mins.
This piece of good news should not give you the goose pimples:
Joe Biden says that he is ready to do a first strike in order to keep America safe.
Once Biden has announced that option, Americans can bet all their dollars that Putin would not dare. However, with an incrementally desperate Putin under such severe pressure, we should not rule out the possibility of a suicide mentality taking him over completely and pulling the nuclear trigger. Some will say “God” made him do it. Reminiscent of the death of Samson: No danger of that when you de-escalate, decrease the pressure and level the playing field
The second piece of good news is Russia has announced that Phase one of the special military operation has been mostly completed.
This means that the peace deal should be within reach:
NO NATO, Yes to Crimea as Russia’s, yes to the autonomy of the separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, and an end to the fighting
Phase three is the cemetery.
Why should we be afraid of phase three, if we know that there’s eternal life beyond phase three and we’re all going to heaven? If we’re all going to the other place, I suppose that it should be reasonable that we want to prolong life on earth and delay our arrival at the other real or mythical place (the everlasting nuclear fire)
In its usual polemical mode with regard to Bani-Israel, the Holy Quran asks this rhetorical question (you may click on it if you like)
The Holy Quran says that those who believe are not afraid:
Shia Islam is very emphatic about “ Those who believe are not afraid. “ I once asked a Shia alim from Kenya, why the Prophet of Islam, salallahu alaihi wa salaam, once hide in a cave with Abu Bakr and was told that of the two, it was Abu Bakr that was afraid...
The Holy Bible, the Holy Quran’s predecessor says,
“The wicked flee without a pursuer, but the righteous are as trusting as a young lion.”
You ask, “where could we go?”
In a slightly different context (the end drawing near) the same question is echoed in Morte D’Arthur:
Then loudly cried the bold Sir Bedivere:
"Ah! my Lord Arthur, whither shall I go?
Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?
For now I see the true old times are dead…
Etc. Etc.
If the third world war breaks out now, as a supplier of weapons to Ukraine, NATO-friendly Sweden will not be safe...
I know a place in the Stockholm Archipelago that can take a nuclear hit - every other year, I spend a few summer days there, the place is Muskö (pronounced “Moscow”.
I must ask Baba Kadiri if we should be able to relocate to Nigeria where I’m sure we will not be targeted. We will only have Boko Haram and some ransom kidnappers to worry about, and if we will be staying at the Hilton, there should be round the clock electricity there.
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Re - “we should not rule out the possibility of a suicide mentality taking him over completely and pulling the nuclear trigger. “
I meant a suicide bomber mentality taking over, take us all to Thy Kingdom Come...
It’s precisely the suicide bomber mentality that would cause Joe Biden to do what he believes would be a pre-emptive first strike and then run for cover to his presidential bunker…
But, not to worry, because the war will soon be coming to an end:
Russia has destroyed thousands of Ukraine's military sites
After war, it should be peace, even after a long war, it should be peace and today only Zellenskyy is standing in the way of peace; he’s probably dreaming of conducting a long drawn out guerilla war and of going down in history as some sort of Ukrainian Che Guevara
I cannot see a peace deal that falls short of Russia’s demands, can you?
Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Cornelius Hamelberg
Professor Kenneth Harrow,
Vladimir Putin is very clear about Russia’s conditions if Zellenskyy wants to bring Russia's special military operation to an immediate, peaceful end:
NO to Ukraine joining NATO
Recognising Crimea as Russian
Acknowledging Donestk and Luhansk independence from Ukraine
To stop attacking and killing Russians.
Even if through some alleged military successes that Zellenskyy believes will improve his bargaining position, the idea of holding onto all of Ukrainian territory in the name of Shalom is definitely not realistic since that would be on a collisions course with Russia’s basic demands.
Even after another year of fighting, I cannot imagine Russia losing or surrendering Crimea or deserting Luhansk and Donetsk. That’s why I can’t understand why Zellenskyy doesn’t see the light already, instead of prolonging the tragedy of more death and destruction. Can’t he understand that from the points of view and the goals he has in mind, his situation can only get worse, not better?
What kind of light does he glimpse at the end of the tunnel? He is now singing this song
In his maiden speech in the once most antisemitic and now de-Nazified Roman Catholic Poland, tough-talking Biden has warned the Kremlin: “Don’t even think about moving on an inch of NATO territory!” Roman Catholic Biden warns Russian Orthodox Putin on behalf of Jewish Zellenskyy...
There’s so much talk about inches these days, Zellenskyy committed to defending “every inch” will soon be speaking in his master’s voice in Ukrainian, repeating the threat. In some ways, Comical Ali of Iraq and the retired Comedian Zellenskyy are in a very similar position today: If Saddam had indeed been in possession of some weapons of mass destruction then Baba Bush would not have invaded Iraq, and of course, if Ukraine has not already surrendered their weapons of mass destruction than for a surety, Putin would have thought twice about starting any special military operation “to de-Nazify” Ukraine.
And what does that tell you, Watson? It may or may not be true that a democracy does not invade another democracy, but what is even more certain is that a nuclear power does not invade another nuclear power.
Therefore, since accidents do and can happen, my question to Biden is, what if one of Putin’s missiles accidentality lands a few kilometres over the Polish border and obliterates a military base there?
Since NATO is supposed to be only a defence pact, what should be NATO*s reaction?
Re- “the once most antisemitic…” I get that impression from history books, living witness accounts and from Bruno Schulz
Toyin Falola
Questions for you:
- Are you saying Putin won’t run out of missiles?
- Suppose Ukrainians continue to resist, what can Russia do?
- What do you concede to Ukraine to have in exchange for peace?
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Cornelius Hamelberg
SIR,
1. There has been this kind of joke about suicide bombers and the seventy-two holy virgins waiting for them in Heaven, but perish the thought that Russia could “ run out of missiles” or “run out of ammunition”. Despite what looks like a porous Western border, Ukraine faces all kinds of logistic problems such as how can e.g. Sweden deliver this kind of weapon to Commander-in-Chief Zellenskyy?
No doubt, NATO is very curious and wants to see some of the Russian missiles in action and what they could be up against, just short of an all-out nuclear war in which Europe is destroyed. Biden would like to celebrate a Zellenskyy victory and then start singing, “And Now We Take Taiwan.”
2. It’s possible that Ukraine has the potential to resist indefinitely or forever without her besieged cities running out of water, food, fuel, electricity, weapons and fighting men…
3. Peace by itself should be sufficient. Joe Biden might offer a kind of Marshall Plan which should mean that they could start rebuilding their country and perpetrating to receive the millions who are now seeking refuge outside of the country. In peace, Ukraine will probably be offered a rapid entry into the EU and fat contracts will be offered by Zellenskyy to Swedish firms that he hopes will help with reconstruction...
Cornelius Hamelberg
Corrected.
SIR,
1. There has been this kind of joke about suicide bombers and the seventy-two holy virgins waiting for them in Heaven, but perish the thought that Russia could “ run out of missiles” or “run out of ammunition”. Despite what looks like a porous Western border, it’s Ukraine that faces all kinds of logistic problems such as how can e.g. Sweden deliver # this kind of weapon to Commander-in-Chief Zellenskyy?
No doubt, NATO is very curious and wants to see some of the Russian missiles in action and what they could be up against, just short of an all-out nuclear war in which Europe is destroyed. Biden would like to celebrate a Zellenskyy victory and then start singing, “And Now We Take Taiwan.”
2. It’s possible that Ukraine has the potential to resist indefinitely or forever without her besieged cities running out of water, food, fuel, electricity, weapons and fighting men…
3. Peace should mean that Biden could offer them some kind of Marshall Plan, and they could start rebuilding their country and preparing to receive the millions who are now seeking refuge outside of the country. In peace Ukraine will probably be offered a rapid entry into the EU and fat contracts will be offered by Zellenskyy to Swedish firms that he hopes will help with reconstruction...
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