US politics Invasion exposes far right's affinity with Putin

‘Can we get a round of applause for Russia?” asked Nick Fuentes, on stage last week at a white nationalist event. Amid applause for the Russian president, days after he had invaded Ukraine, many attenders shouted: “Putin! Putin!”

- Sergio Olmos

It would be easy to dismiss the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC) in Orlando, Florida, as a radical fringe. But controversial speeches by two Republican members of Congress – one in person, the other via video – guaranteed national attention.

The backlash showed how the war in Ukraine has exposed the American far right’s affinity with Vladimir Putin. That is complicated by the tortured relationship between Russia and Donald Trump, whose rise Moscow supported with a covert operation to undermine US democracy.

Fuentes, a notorious anti semite, created AFPAC to coincide with the more mainstream Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where Trump was the headline speaker last Saturday.

At AFPAC, Fuentes introduced the Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who this week interrupted the State of the Union address by yelling “ build the wall ” as an objection to Joe Biden’s immigration policy. She did not interrupt to object to the chanting of the Russian president’s name.