“They’re gonna keep peace all right,” he added. I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper.” So, Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine. “I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine - of Ukraine - Putin declares it as independent,” Trump said. Support for Putin has come more from the right, from Trump and some of his allies.Īfter Putin recognized two portions of Ukraine as independent countries - the final pretext for invasion - Trump repeated his long-standing praise for the Russian leader, recounting to a conservative radio talk show on Tuesday how he had watched Putin’s declaration on television. And they’ve called for Ukraine to agree to abandon its goal of eventually joining NATO, while also urging Russia to show restraint.Īs a share of the American electorate, however, the anti-imperialist left is in the single-digit range. They also have highlighted the uglier sides of Ukrainian nationalism, which includes militias with clearly anti-Semitic and anti-democratic programs. As tensions have risen in recent weeks, prominent voices in that group have argued that there’s merit in Putin’s complaints about NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe in the late 1990s and early 2000s. involvement overseas as a continuation of past imperialist adventures. On the left, a fairly small, but notable, segment views U.S. In a rare bit of agreement, Republicans and Democrats had equally negative impressions of Russia, although Republicans were slightly less favorable than Democrats in their view of Ukraine, 66% versus 57%.ĭissent from that mainstream, anti-Russian view has come largely from two directions.
American views of Ukraine were favorable by nearly 2-1, the poll found. As the Ukraine crisis intensified this month, Gallup found that 85% of Americans had an unfavorable view of Russia, with just 15% favorable. That image only worsened during Trump’s years in office, despite the former president’s consistent warmth toward Putin - a friendliness that has generated endless speculation, but no clear explanation ever since his presidential candidacy started.Īmerican views of Russia have only worsened since. The spokesman added: “If there were such people in Chechnya, law-enforcement agencies wouldn’t need to have anything to do with them because their relatives would send them somewhere from which there is no returning.By the time Trump became president, Americans had an unfavorable view of Russia by about a 3-1 margin, according to the Gallup poll, which has tracked U.S. The Russian branch of Human Rights Watch said the account in Novaya Gazeta was consistent with multiple reports the group has received from trusted sources over the past several weeks.Ī spokesman for Mr Kadyrov called the accusations “absolute lies and disinformation”, contending that there were no gay people in Chechnya.
Novaya Gazeta, a Russian newspaper, and human rights groups said this week that they had seen evidence that security forces loyal to Ramzan Kadyrov, the president of the republic, had been rounding up suspected gay men, beating them, and threatening them with death.Īt least 100 people have been detained and three people killed during the campaign, the paper reported. The Putin photograph is the 4,071th banned item on the register of 4,074 banned materials that also includes Nazi imagery, white power slogans, and jihadist websites encouraging terrorism.Įarlier this week reports emerged of systematic torture and killing of gay men in Chechnya. The "gay propaganda" law, which bans the promotion of homosexuality to minors, was criticized as state-sponsored homophobia and a sop to extreme a conservative constituency.
The picture was one of several posted by a man called Alexander Tsvetkov which were banned by a court in Tver, a city northwest of Moscow, in May last year. they say there are lots of them, but there aren't any among the people I know.” The meme produced a host of images, and was even played on by Scottish brewery Brewdog for a special edition beer called "Hello my name is Vladimir."Īccording to the description posted on the justice ministry's register, the ban applies specifically to a picture posted on Vkontakte, a Russian social network, that is intended to represent "the supposed nonstandard sexual orientation of the president of the Russian Federation" and carries the caption: “Putin voters. The Vladimir-Putin-as-a-gay-clown meme appeared after Russia introduced a controversial "gay propaganda" law in 2013. Russia's justice ministry added the image, which depicts the Russian president in lipstick and mascara, to its list of banned extremist material last week. Russia has banned a picture depicting President Vladimir Putin in heavy makeup as "extremist."