Russian President Vladamir Putin has once again delivered a speech in which he extensively referenced so-called “culture war” themes commonly espoused by rightwing/conservative Western elements. In his keynote speech yesterday at the 19th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Moscow, Putin asserted the existence of a Western “neo-liberal,” cosmopolitan elite that stands in contrast to the traditional values of both Russia and the West:
You just need to clearly understand that there are, as I said before, two West – at least two, and maybe more, but at least two: the West of traditional, primarily Christian, values, freedom, patriotism, the richest culture, now, Islamic values too – a significant part of the population of many Western countries profess Islam. This West is close to us in some ways, we have many things in common, even ancient roots. But there is another West – aggressive, cosmopolitan, neo-colonial, acting as a tool of the neo-liberal elites. Russia, of course, will never put up with the dictates of this West.
Global Influence Operations Report (GIOR) reporting has extensively covered the Russian disinformation campaign centered on the “Great Reset” conspiracy theory, a growing online conspiracy pushed by rightwing US and European extremists that claim a global elite is using the coronavirus pandemic to dismantle capitalism and enslave humanity. (It is also notable that Putin includes “Islamic values” as part of the traditional forces opposing the global, elitest West, a development that will be covered in future GIOR reporting). Putin goes on to link “traditional values” with national sovereignty, further referring to “Eurasia”:
Traditional values are not some fixed set of postulates that everyone must adhere to. Of course not. Their difference from the so-called neo-liberal values is that in each case they are unique, because they follow from the tradition of a particular society, its culture and historical experience. Therefore, traditional values cannot be imposed on anyone – they must simply be respected, carefully treated with what every nation has chosen for centuries.This is our understanding of traditional values, and this approach is shared and accepted by the majority of humanity. This is natural, because it is the traditional societies of the East, Latin America, Africa, Eurasia that form the basis of world civilization.
“Eurasia” is a nod to the idea that Russia is at the heart of a Eurasian empire defying Western decadence, a view espoused by US sanction ideologue and Russian confidante Alexander Dugin. (Somewhat ominously, Putin also said, “A natural part of Greater Eurasia could also be its western tip – Europe.) Putin returns to the theme of “cancel culture,” an idea often espoused in US rightwing circles. Referring to a ‘movement to remove celebrity status or esteem from a person, place, or thing based on offensive behavior or transgression:”
And now what is happening? At one time, the Nazis reached the point of burning books, and now Western “guardians of liberalism and progress” have fallen to the prohibitions of Dostoevsky and Tchaikovsky. The so-called cancel culture, but in fact – we have already talked about this many times – the real cancel culture mows down everything that is alive and creative, does not allow free thought to develop in any of the areas: neither in economics, nor in politics, nor in culture. The very liberal ideology today has changed beyond recognition. If initially classical liberalism understood the freedom of every person as the freedom to say what you want, to do what you want, then already in the 20th century liberals began to declare that the so-called open society has enemies – it turns out that an open society has enemies – and the freedom of such enemies can and should be limited, if not abolished. Now they have reached the point of absurdity, when any alternative point of view is declared subversive propaganda and a threat to democracy.
GIOR reported last January on what we described at the time as another somewhat overlooked speech by Putin at the Valdai Club, characterized by a Russian academic as the “first major and strong call for reinventing Russian ideology for Russia and the world.” We also noted that in his speech, Putin was closely mirroring rightwing themes that dominate the so-called “culture wars” in the US, such as a passage where he asserted that “social progress” advocates are adopting Marxist ideas in their fight against racial discrimination. We also reported in May on Putin’s Victory Day speech, in which he returned to many of these same themes, including the West’s alleged “cancellation of millennia-old values.”
An earlier GIOR report on the “National Conservative” movement documented Putin’s desire to become the ideological center of a new conservative alliance centered on national sovereignty, cultural identity, and opposition to global institutions. That report identified Hungary as the center of that alliance:
Russian President PUTIN has expressed an interest in Russia becoming the ideological center of a new global conservative alliance, and European far-right leaders have taken pro-Russian positions based on a similar ideology. Hungary is at the center of a developing alliance between European far-right nationalists and American conservatives that Russia could potentially exploit for use in information warfare. This alliance operates under the rubric of “National Conservatism,” centered on national sovereignty, cultural identity, and opposition to global institutions and representing a potentially radical change for the US conservative movement away from long-held Reagan-era philosophies
Read the full report here.
In his current speech, Putin points to what he calls the Hungarian attempt to “consolidate the commitment to European Christian values and culture:”
Out of habit, Washington continues to call the current world order American-style liberal, but in fact, every day this notorious “order” multiplies chaos and, I might add, becomes more and more intolerant even towards the Western countries themselves, towards their attempts to show any independence. Everything is suppressed right on the vine, and they impose more sanctions against their own allies – without any hesitation! And they agree with everything, lowering their heads low. For example, the July proposals of the Hungarian parliamentarians to consolidate the commitment to European Christian values and culture in the EU treaty were perceived not even as a fronde, but as a direct hostile sabotage. What is this? What does it mean? Yes, some people like it, some people don’t.
GIOR reported earlier this week on the role of US academics promoting Russian-style culture war themes in Eastern Europe using a Hungarian education facility as a base.
For the full transcript of Putin’s speech, go here.
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