Nearly a year and a half ago, Russia invaded its peaceful neighbor, Ukraine, in a wholly unprovoked act of imperialistic aggression. Many of the “experts” at the time predicted that Russia would quickly prevail and Vladimir Putin would expand his tyrannical empire. But that isn’t exactly the way it has turned out. With the help of the United States and other Western allies, Ukraine has steadfastly held off Putin’s armies, although not without significant and painful losses.

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However, now Putin is battling not only Ukraine, but a mercenary force that he had recruited to fight on his behalf. The Wagner Group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, has turned on his Russian bosses and is marching toward Moscow in what appears to be an attempt to topple the Putin regime.

This is a complicated state of affairs. It’s difficult to know precisely what is going on as both sides are notoriously dishonest. And Prigozhin is a terrorist for hire who is no better than Putin. What we do know is that Prigozhin is undercutting Putin’s narrative about the war against Ukraine, and “has accused Moscow’s leadership of lying to the public about the justifications for invading Ukraine.”

All of this raises questions about the pro-Putin contingent in America. It’s a group that includes shameless shills in the Republican Party and on their Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News. Most prominently the Putin faction features the likes of Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson. Both have fiercely defended Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and have argued for Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to surrender and give Russia everything that it wants. And both have been conspicuously silent since the coup effort began.

Early on Trump praised Putin as a “genius” for invading Ukraine. Among Trump’s other public adorations of Putin are…

Trump Claims to Have Magic Words that Will End Ukraine War in 24 Hours, But Won’t Tell Anyone
“[The war against Ukraine] would have never started had I been president. There was no chance of this war starting and, frankly, I don’t think Putin wanted to do it. I think he was sort of forced in by the statements being made by Biden.”

Blame America First: Trump Says if Putin Goes Nuclear in Ukraine ‘It’s Because of the U.S.’
“I’m reading somewhere that there’s at least a 40% chance that Putin will use nuclear weapons. How the hell did this happen? And it’s because of the United States.”

Trump’s ‘Solution’ to the War in Ukraine is to Appease Russia and Quash Any Criticism of Putin
“It doesn’t make sense that Russia and Ukraine aren’t sitting down and working out some kind of an agreement. If they don’t do it soon, there will be nothing left but death, destruction, and carnage.”

And as for Putin fanboy Tucker Carlson, who boasted explicitly that he is “rooting for Russia”…

Putin Puppet Tucker Carlson Spews Russian Propaganda in Defense of the Intelligence Leaker
“This is not Ukraine’s war. It’s our war. The United States is a direct combatant in a war against Russia. As we speak, American soldiers are fighting Russian soldiers.” (Which is totally false).

Fox News Senior Putin Apologist, Tucker Carlson, Pleads to Keep the Russian Dictator in Power
“will destroying the entire Russian economy make Putin less bad? [and] what happens to Russia after Vladimir Putin leaves?”

Tucker Carlson of Fox News Rattles Off His Ridiculous Reasons for Why You Shouldn’t Hate Putin
“It might be worth asking yourself, since it is getting pretty serious: What is this really about? Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked my business and kept me indoors for two years? Is he teaching my children to embrace racial discrimination? Is he making fentanyl? Is he trying to snuff out Christianity? Does he eat dogs? These are fair questions. And the answer to all of them is ‘No.'”

Meanwhile, Republicans and Fox News are floating bizarre conspiracy theories that the coup was staged by President Biden to distract from the problems of his son, Hunter. Or that the U.S. is somehow orchestrating the coup to topple Putin. Either way it assumes an astonishing measure of backbone and strategic prowess by Biden, who the GOP regards as too senile to dress himself. Needless, to say, they have no evidence for any of their conspiracy mongering.

Perhaps a better conspiracy theory would be that Putin is staging the coup as a false flag to deflect from his military bungling in Ukraine. Or maybe he’s trying to help Trump by creating a diversion from his recent indictments and upcoming trials for obstructing justice and stealing and hoarding classified documents. Or it’s a plot to cover up his secret romantic interludes with Hillary Clinton at Moscow-a-Lagostan. Sure, it sounds crazy. but it’s no crazier than what the American Putinists are dreaming up.

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