Pro-Putin authoritarians are pretending they aren't

France's radical right Putin supporter Marine Le Pen 

is now pretending she now isn't as much of a Putin supporter 🤨

Apparently, Putin's mass murder and destruction in the Ukraine is causing a bit of heartburn among not just some radical right Republican authoritarians in the US. Some radical right dictator lovers in other countries are running for cover. They are expressing faux concern over the Russian invasion of and war in Ukraine. WaPo's Editorial Board writes in an opinion piece entitled Right-wing nationalists backpedal as Putin’s Ukraine war worsens:

For years, right-wing nationalist politicians pronounced a dewy-eyed admiration for Russia’s Vladimir Putin, a strongman they couldn’t resist. It wasn’t only Donald Trump who rhapsodized about Mr. Putin’s supposed “strength” and “traditional” values. It was also the leaders of similarly inclined movements in France, Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic and elsewhere.

Many of those leaders have now been knocked off balance by Mr. Putin’s scorched-earth campaign in Ukraine. Heedless of the Russian leader’s previous acts of murderous brutality — against Ukraine, Georgia and various Russian dissidents who crossed him — the current carnage has triggered a backpedaling stampede. For many Europeans in particular, the unfolding barbarity in Ukraine, alarmingly nearby, has placed nationalist parties and politicians in an unflattering and clarifying new light.

In France, ahead of national elections next month, right-wing politician Marine Le Pen has been embarrassed by a photograph of her shaking hands with Mr. Putin, featured in more than 1 million pamphlets recently printed by her National Rally party. Ms. Le Pen, who previously supported Mr. Putin’s annexation of Crimea, part of Ukraine, after her party took a 9 million-euro loan from a Russian bank to finance her 2017 presidential campaign, could plausibly have been regarded as a Russian asset by Moscow. As recently as last month, she parroted the Kremlin’s denials that Mr. Putin planned to invade Ukraine, saying she didn’t believe a bit of it. “I don’t see what … would be their interest there,” she declared.

Her eyes having been opened, she now asserts the invasion is “unjustifiable.” Another French right-winger, Éric Zemmour, who also scoffed at the odds of a Russian attack, and made no secret of his admiration for Mr. Putin, has undergone a similar awakening. 

Hungarians, too, have been subjected to rhetorical acrobatics by their nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orban, who never hid his admiration for Mr. Putin despite his country’s membership in NATO. Mr. Orban, also blind to Mr. Putin’s intentions, said the Russian president’s demands on Ukraine leading up to the invasion were perfectly reasonable.

Now, Mr. Orban, who faces a tough fight ahead of Hungary’s April 3 elections, has changed his tune. Hungarians would be within their rights to question his coziness with a predatory strongman whose naked aggression has now caused more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees to flee into Hungary, a number very likely to rise.

In the United States, Mr. Putin’s invasion has prompted some Republicans to distance themselves, uncharacteristically, from Mr. Trump, who termed the Russian leader a “genius.” Some will have their own explaining to do when confronted by their previous remarks. And Americans will have the chance to judge who did, and did not, try to delude them about the Russian leader.

One can reasonably doubt that Republican politician support for Putin and Trump is likely to hurt them. They're in the cult and probably mostly safe at the polls.  

The same will very likely apply to the authoritarian right's propaganda Leviathan. It is unimaginable that professional liars and bloviators like Tucker Carlson will change their tunes in the long run. The liars at Fox and other radical right propagandists probably will tone down their propaganda and lies until Ukraine passes from prominence in the media. Then the anti-democracy daggers will slowly come back to continue the neo-fascist assault.  

Residential buildings in Ukraine that 

Putin attacked and damaged or destroyed

Putin is has stolen billions, maybe ~$70 billion 

Putin should pay for the lives he took 

and what he has damaged and destroyed

Russian censorship extremism is on the launchpad

The NYT writes:

Russia clamped down harder Friday on news and free speech than at any time in President Vladimir V. Putin’s 22 years in power, blocking access to Facebook and major foreign news outlets, and enacting a law to punish anyone spreading “false information” about its Ukraine invasion with up to 15 years in prison.

The crackdown comes as the Kremlin scrambles to contain discontent over the war and to control the narrative as Russia faces its most severe economic crisis in decades as a result of this week’s crushing Western sanctions.

Putin signed a law that effectively criminalizes any public opposition to or independent news reporting about the war against Ukraine. Taking effect as soon as Saturday, the law could make it a crime to simply call the war a “war” — the Kremlin says it is a “special military operation” — on social media or in a news article or broadcast.

Facebook, Russia’s internet regulator claimed, had engaged in “discrimination against Russian news media” by limiting access to pro-Kremlin accounts, including that of the Defense Ministry’s television channel. The decision was a blow to internet freedom in Russia, where Western social networks have remained accessible despite Mr. Putin’s creeping authoritarianism.  

The text of the new law offered few details about what constituted an offense, but Russian journalists and Kremlin opponents take it to mean that any contradiction of the government’s statements on the invasion could be treated as a crime. Besides criminalizing the sharing of “false information,” it makes “discrediting” Russia’s use of its military in Ukraine, calling on other countries to impose sanctions on Russia or protesting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine punishable by fines and years of imprisonment. (emphasis added)

Woof, that's a good one. 

What's interesting here is Putin's tactic of shutting down information sources that do not allow his propaganda machine access to spread lies, slanders, irrationality and crackpottery. Implicit in Putin's tactic is that his lies and deceit are truth, while sources that try to stop lies and deceit are attacked and blocked. That is true, in-your-face lying and deceit from a pure demagogue-despot. There's not one shred of shamelessness or moral qualm in any of Putin's elimination of sources of inconvenient but actual facts and truths.

Also noteworthy is ambiguity in Russia's new anti-truth law. That leaves it up to Putin to tell the judge who is guilty and who just made an innocent boo-boo. Dictators love ambiguity in their laws. Makes it easy for the rule of dictator to look exactly like the rule of law (because it is). 

Meanwhile back in the grumpy US of A, Republican snowflakes in America whine about being canceled for their lies and deceit, which they falsely call truth. They really should go visit their friend Russia and see what real cancellation of real facts and truths looks like. No doubt, they will be inspired to do the same here. That assumes they don't get caught up in Putin's 'keep your mouth shut' law and sent to a Russian slammer to experience some of the kind of government service they want to emulate here. Or, is that criticism over the top?

Also, it seems reasonable to think that Putin has graduated from creeping authoritarianism to a brutal, full-blown kleptocratic despotism. Or, is it premature to draw that conclusion?

Former Attorney General William Barr explains how Trump fired him

Starting at 4:35 of this 6:11 video, Barr describes the Ex-president's infuriated reaction when he was told there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Trump had no concern whatsoever for truth. Not one iota. That is the mindset of the current leader of the morally rotted Republican Party.

The Russian public comments on war, or not

This 2:32 video says a lot about police state tyranny, the power of propaganda and lies, and the frailty of facts and truth in the face of aggressive demagoguery.

Thanks to Freeze Peach 🍑 for posting this in a comment here. The video merits its own post.