Russia’s war against Ukraine: “lateral thinkers” for Putin

Various “lateral thinkers” and right-wing extremists defend Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Many of them see Putin as a resistance fighter against “multiculturalism” and “genders.”

While politicians are largely in agreement and condemn Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, the milieu of “lateral thinkers”, conspiracy ideologues and right-wing extremists shows a lot of approval and admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin. In this way, the attack on Ukraine is played down or justified. A widely shared post says, “It’s not an invasion, it’s an operation.”

The tenor in well-known telegram groups in the scene: Russia must use this “counterstrike” to prevent “genocide” in its own country by NATO and Ukraine. The editor-in-chief of the right-wing extremist “COMPACT” magazine, Jürgen Elsässer, classified the attack as “defensive”. “After days of attacks by Ukrainian forces on the Donbass republics, Moscow’s step serves to protect the population there.”

“Thinking outside the box” follows Russian propaganda

Many profiles that railed against an alleged “corona dictatorship” in Germany on social media are now spreading Russian propaganda. The radical corona vaccination opponent Bodo Schiffmann thinks that the federal government is destroying with its “boycott and isolation measures”. [Fehler im Original] against Russia “just the rest of Germany that they didn’t destroy with the Corona policy”. He describes the alleged exclusion of “vaccination opponents, Russians and lateral thinkers” as “incitement to hatred”.

The Russian propaganda channel RT Deutsch ran as a live stream on the Telegram channels of Schiffmann and Xavier Naidoo. RT German heard according to one Study by the Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy (CeMAS) to the most important “alternative media” on Telegram and was recently able to expand its reach there.

RT Deutsch has worked for years to gain credibility in the scene, says Miro Dittrich from CeMAS. According to Dittrich, the Russian foreign broadcaster was able to increase its credibility, especially during the pandemic, which it is now using to spread blatant propaganda.

The ideological connection to Putin’s war is not difficult for the leading protagonists of the “lateral thinking” scene, agrees Oliver Gottwald. “At the moment the scene is swinging towards Putin’s war,” said the Offenbach judicial officer. The more “lateral thinking” invoked ideological clichés from the “Reichsbürger” scene, the more they could be connected to Putin’s propaganda.

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But not all of the actors who are considered to be the cues of the “lateral thinker” scene are on Russia’s side. Some are still trying to find their position, while others are clearly opposed to Putin, such as Boris Reitschuster. Reitschuster was Moscow correspondent for “Focus” and runs an “alternative” blog.

In it he condemns Putin’s declaration of war and writes of an “incredible speech” that is “full of aggression, lies and fairy tales.” However, his attitude has not gone down well with his followers. “Reitschuster.. did you drink paint?” asks one of his followers on Telegram. Another calls him a “puppet of the regime”. The analyst Miro Dittrich notes that this also has an effect on Reitschuster’s number of followers: “The scene punishes him massively for his statements.”

Parts of the right-wing extremist scene, such as “The Third Way”, are also siding with Ukraine. They even use Telegram to recruit volunteers to fight alongside the Ukrainian far-right unit Azov. The security authorities in Germany are alarmed and prohibit German neo-Nazis from leaving the country at the borders. According to information from “Zeit”, the authorities are so far aware of three German right-wing extremists who managed to leave the country and who have joined the right-wing Ukrainian militias.

Putin as “savior” against gender

Putin is currently replacing former US President Donald Trump as the scene’s beacon of hope. The Russian President is stylized as a resistance fighter against the West. The “COMPACT” magazine writes: “Putin is hated by the West because he represents an alternative model. He is a patriot and not a fatherland hater, he rejects multi-culturalism and gender.”

A member of the Telegram group “Hanau Stands Up” would like Putin to “march through to Berlin.” Then gender would be gone. “Are men men and not women. Left-green is locked up”. Also in the channel “Ask us” it says in an audio message: “We don’t need to be afraid when the Russians come and finally free us.”

The “Free Saxony” are similarly enthusiastic about Putin. They combine their corona protest with a pro-Russian attitude. On “walks” Putin masks are worn and Russian flags are waved. The extreme right-wing Saxon micro-party explains on Telegram: “Suddenly the unvaccinated is no longer the number one enemy!” now “the Russians are Enemy No. 1”.

An ideological turnaround in these groups is only possible at the cost of one’s own credibility, says Oliver Gottwald. “Conspiracy believers have been claiming all along that politicians and the media are lying to the public about Corona. If they were to suddenly tell the truth about the Ukraine war, their entire world view would collapse,” says Gottwald.

“Theme is interchangeable”

A number of “old conspiracy narratives” – such as those on the “Deep State”, the “Great Reset” and the “New World Order” – can now be found in the context of the Ukraine war. Legends are circulating about kidnapped Ukrainian children whom Putin wants to liberate with a war of aggression, or alleged bioweapons that are being developed in Ukraine.

The topic is interchangeable, explains Miro Dittrich, because “the belief in a global world conspiracy is behind the individual stories”.