Communications administration trump with Russia are changing, however, Vladimir Putin still enjoys strong support from one segment of American society: conservative movement.
American President Donald trump apparently cooled hopes for improved relations with Moscow, saying last week that they declined to a record low level; however, many American conservatives still see Russia as a natural ally in those matters which cause them greatest concern.
“Of course, cooperation is extremely diverse. We work together with our Russian friends for quite a long time,” says Brian brown (Brian Brown), who heads the conservative National organization for the protection of marriage, which advocates for traditional family values and against gay marriage.
For many religious conservatives who think that they are losing in the American “cultural wars” such cooperation is more important than geopolitical concerns Republican hawks who worry about Russia’s actions in Syria and Ukraine.
Putin is a strong opponent of gay marriage. Such marriages cause outrage among American social conservatives, who fear that their values today are moving away from the dominant line. Twice-divorced trump, who said that the issue of gay marriage resolved, initially could not become a spiritual ally of the Protestants.
“Putin is doing on these issues such statements that are truly important to conservative Christians, who see in it an ideological fellow traveler,” says senior analyst of the Washington analytical center Rand Corporation Samuel Charap (Samuel Charap).
The Russian President, each year attending a service for Orthodox Christmas, has repeatedly talked about how pious was his mother secretly baptized him, against the will of the father-Communist.
In support of Putin, or at least the establishment of closer ties with Moscow, advocate and other members of the American conservative movement.
Republican libertarians such as Senator and former presidential candidate Rand Paul (Rand Paul) in favour of non-confrontation with Moscow and the thaw in relations.
Meanwhile, representatives of the alternative right (is a white nationalist group that supported the coming to power of trump) comment on the nationalist Putin’s approach to politics in Russia and in the international arena.
According to a February survey by the Gallup Institute, only for the year the level of support of the Russian President among the American Republicans has nearly tripled — from 12% in 2015 to 32% currently.
However, the most ardent supporters of Putin in the West are social conservatives. Its ties with Moscow, they began to build even before trump, and these ties can be much stronger, because the Russian-American relations in General today is very tense after the American strike on the Assad regime in Syria, which has the support of Moscow.
In 2013, many American conservatives applauded Putin when his ruling party supported the law banning propaganda of homosexuality among minors. This is very obscure law contrasts sharply with the Western trends, especially the U.S. Supreme court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriages.
Charap said that Russia is trying to take advantage of their proximity with some of these growing conservative institutions of America.
In February the Russian delegation which structure included the former head of the Central Bank and former Deputy Alexander Torshin, went to Washington at the annual event of the national prayer Breakfast, where Torshin was promised a short meeting with trump.
The meeting was canceled at the last moment when aides of trump became known that the Spanish authorities suspect Torshin’s ties to organized crime, as reported by Bloomberg and Yahoo News. Torshin denies these accusations.
American Christian conservatives also sometimes depart from their positions in support of Putin.
“We do not go along with Russian parade on Madison Avenue in new York,” says Ruth Austin (Austin Ruse), head of the conservative organization Center for the protection of the family and human rights, and several times visited Russia.
However, he notes that the alliances on issues such as gay rights and abortion, “we cannot choose with whom to cooperate and with whom not.”
In 2014 brown and Roose, as well as some other conservative American activists have been criticized for participating in the Moscow conference on family values, which took place a few weeks after the Russian annexation of Crimea and Pro-Russian rebels capture Eastern part of Ukraine.
Among the organizers of the conference were the Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeev, which the United States included in the sanctions list for ties with the leaders of the Pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine.
“I know many American Protestants who, according to them, in the 70-ies and 80-ies every Sunday, prayed that Russia had removed the yoke of godlessness, says Malofeyev. — Now our task is to pray that the yoke of atheism was removed from the Christians in the West. That was the purpose of our brotherhood.”
Malofeev adds: “the Liberals in America always blaming Russia, and this proves that even they understand that Russia today is the leader of the conservative world. Otherwise they would not began to accuse Russia”.
