(Jewish Group) White Supremacists, Other Extremists Respond to Russian Invasion of Ukraine

[Behind the Aegis]

In the week since Russian President Putin declared a “special military operation” in Ukraine, the Russian leader has become a pariah among much of the global community. Even white supremacist communities, once steadfast in their support for Putin’s Russia, are now questioning whether the invasion is worth the cost in “white” lives. They are also railing against non-white refugees resettling in “white” Europe and offering support for a Ukrainian military arm with neo-Nazi ties.

Putin and his Russia have long been admired by the far right and white supremacists, thanks largely to perceptions of today’s Russia as an all-white, Christian nation. White supremacist and alt right leader Richard Spencer called Russia “the sole white power in the world.” Meanwhile, Mathew Heimbach, founder of the Traditionalist Workers Party, called Russia “The New Shining City on the Hill” and President Putin as “the leader of the free world.” Today, however, in light of Putin’s actions in Ukraine, some white supremacists are having difficulty aligning reality with their long-held beliefs.

Divergence on Putin

White supremacists have expressed a range of opinions around Putin’s role in this conflict. The initial declaration of the invasion being an effort for “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine has caused a large backlash among neo-Nazis. The American Futurist, an accelerationist media platform, stated it does not support Putin: “So again, if you’re NS[National Socialist] and you’re supporting Putin who is literally invading a country with a listed reason of destroying NS[National Socialist] groups like Azov Battalion then your pretty fucking retarded…, ”a reference to the Ukrainian national guard unit with explicit neo-Nazi ties. Many other groups have begun referring to Putin as Jewtin, implying that he is controlled by Jewish Russian Oligarchs. One user on the Fashwave Telegram channel wrote “this invasion will result in nothing but dead Europeans at the behest of Russian jewish [sic] oligarchs.”

Others, meanwhile, believe that criticism of Putin is suspicious and may be coming from “the Feds.” One poster on a Telegram channel run by Milo Yiannopoulos wrote “most of these ‘Putin is a Jew’ takes come out of NatSoc [national socialist] circles that are heavily compromised by the feds.” In some cases, support for Putin is lukewarm: “I’m not ready to say that Vladimir Putin is some really great dude but he has more reason to invade Ukraine than we did Iraq,” one post reads. Another wrote, in a response to Yiannopoulos, “I don't think Putin's our guy, but I also think he's preferable to atheist Western hegemony.”

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