What's behind Putin's popularity in the West? Family values, nationalism and a strongman persona

By Nicola Heath for the ABC

Russian President Vladimir Putin became an international pariah when his nation invaded Ukraine on 24 February.

But in the last decade - a period which included Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 - the Russian president had become a "poster child" of the far-right, according to Andrew S Weiss of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

In the United States, Putin's high-profile admirers include alt-right agitator Steve Bannon and former White House communications director and presidential candidate Pat Buchanan.

Prominent television host Tucker Carlson spoke out in support of Putin just one day before Russia invaded Ukraine, questioning whether Putin was the enemy liberals painted him to be.

Putin has earned supporters in the political world too.

"Russia is a Christian nationalist nation," Republican candidate Lauren Witzke told the audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February.

"I identify more with Putin's Christian values than I do with Joe Biden."

A radical shift from the Cold War era

The open admiration for Putin among some on the American right represents a dramatic reversal from the Cold War period when conservatives were famously anti-Soviet.

As recently as 2012, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney described Russia as America's "number one geopolitical foe".

David Smith, an associate professor in American politics and foreign policy at the United States Studies Centre, points to the 2016 presidential election as a pivotal moment in Russia's relationship with conservative America and the religious right.

With the election of Donald Trump to the White House, anti-Russian sentiment was replaced by admiration for Putin's strongman persona and his regime's anti-liberal stance on issues like LGBTQ rights, gender equality and immigration.

"The fact that Trump openly admired Putin meant that a lot of his supporters openly admired Putin as well," says Smith.

"Republicans abandoned their traditional distrust of Russia and became a lot more pro-Russian."

Russian interference in democratic elections and Putin's anti-evangelism laws, introduced in 2016, have not dented the president's popularity among some conservatives and some on the religious right in the US.

A recent poll showed that 62 per cent of Republican voters believe Putin is "a stronger leader" than Joe Biden.

"What matters to them is they see Putin taking on liberalism, they see him taking on LGBT rights, they see him taking on feminism," says Smith.

"They believe he's trying to create the kind of homogenous society with a strong national identity grounded in traditional values that they would like to see in America."

Ultimately, Smith says, "it's not about Putin at all - it's all about American domestic politics."

Links to right-wing nationalism in Europe

The Putin regime has also established strong links with populist right-wing individuals and groups in Europe such as Matteo Salvini and the Lega Nord party in Italy, Marine le Pen and the National Rally in France, the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán.

Russia has provided many of these groups with financial and cyber support and paramilitary training, says Robert Horvath, a specialist in Russian politics at LaTrobe University.

Members of the European far-right have welcomed the Putin regime's conservative push and its "hostility to secularism", Horvath says.

Putin's admirers in the West view his "readiness to take the side of the Russian Orthodox Church against people like the members of Pussy Riot who staged their punk prayer in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour" as evidence of his commitment to Christian values.

The influence of oligarchs

Oligarchs such as billionaire Konstantin Malofeev, who has close ties with both Putin's regime and the Russian Orthodox Church, are central to the expansion of Russian influence in the West.

Known as the Orthodox Oligarch, Malofeev is a powerful figure, says Horvath. "He is very wealthy; he clearly gets many personal benefits as a business figure from his connection with the regime, and he has served as an intermediary with European conservatives and the European far-right."

Malofeev owns pro-Kremlin television network Tsargrad TV and is a stringent supporter of Putin's anti-LGBTQI agenda.

He has emerged as "a central figure in the international conservative movement for family values," says Horvath, which is spearheaded by the World Congress of Families (WCF), a faith-based coalition in the US that campaigns against same-sex marriage.

Energy and the economy

Putin's influence in Europe extends beyond politics.

Russia is the world's third-largest oil producer after the United States and Saudi Arabia, and the main supplier of crude oil, natural gas and solid fossil fuels to the European Union.

Horvath says Russia's dominance of the EU energy market provides "opportunities for coercion" through tactics such as economic blockades and threats to cut off energy supplies.

"The results, particularly in winter, can be hardship for many people or economic problems as energy supplies are used for heating instead of keeping factories running."

Horvath says these economic links also serve as "a mechanism for political influence".

In one "notorious example", former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder joined Russia's state-controlled energy company Gazprom after leaving office in 2005.

"He's far from the only prominent European political figure who's found an opportunity to convert connections into very well-paid positions working for the Kremlin and helping the Kremlin to exert influence in Europe," says Horvath.

Conservatives' reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Since Russian missiles began raining down on Ukrainian cities in February, many conservatives and members of the religious right have walked back their support of Putin.

The increasingly bloody conflict - which has seen Russia accused of war crimes for targeting civilians - has shown that Putin's regime is not one to be admired, says Smith.

"This is a regime that invades a much smaller regime without any justification and threatens the rest of the world with nuclear weapons."

In Europe, right-wing leaders such as Le Pen, Salvini and Orbán have also withdrawn public support for Putin.

"For populists who are seriously hoping of winning the next election, being identified with this genocidal war would be political suicide," says Horvath.

- ABC