Idiots in America jumped in to blame Russia for Charlottesville but no one hates fascists more than the Russians!
Driven from US shores, neo-Nazi website finds no haven in Russia either
Kremlin watchdog Roskomnadzors' decision to shut down The Daily Stormer hate site underscores the very one-sided nature of the 'alt-right's' love affair with Russia.
17
August, 2017
AUGUST
17, 2017 MOSCOW—Russian critics have long worried about the
propensity of the country’s communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor
(RKZ), to cast an overly wide net in censoring “extremist”
content on the internet.
But
when RKZ brought its weight to bear against The Daily Stormer, a
US-based neo-Nazi group whose hate-laced website briefly came to be
registered on Russian servers, it was a satisfying moment for even
the most strident RKZ gadflies.
“This
is one of the few times when we can feel like RKZ’s intervention is
totally warranted,” says Alexey Kovalev, a blogger and media
critic. “Normally they are looking for ways to declare any kind of
opposition website as extremist.”
The
Daily Stormer has been getting chased around the internet in what
looks like an international game of whack-a-mole in the aftermath of
the events in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend, where one
woman, Heather Heyer, was killed by an attendee of protests by the
so-called alt-right, an offshoot of conservatism mixing racism, white
nationalism, anti-Semitism, and populism. The Daily Stormer published
articles disparaging Ms. Heyer, leading the Stormer’s site
registration to be canceled by its registrar for violation of terms
of service.
The
site tried to register a domain name with several other companies and
was rejected each time, before finally finding a brief haven under a
Russian RU domain name. The publication subsequently claimed on its
front page that Donald Trump personally arranged the RU domain for it
in a phone call with Vladimir Putin.
That,
however, is unlikely.
“You
can get a domain in about five minutes” from several private
companies that peddle them over the global internet, says Andrei
Kolesnikov, director of the non-state coordination center for RU
domain names. “It’s just as easy to open one in Ukraine, Moldova,
Morocco, or just about any other zone. Russia is no safe harbor. But
RKZ is watching, and if they get complaints they can shut it down, no
matter who owns it.”
And
shut it down they did in less than a day – quite quickly, by
Russian standards – after Russian social media activists swamped
RKZ with complaints. The watchdog quickly instructed the domain names
coordination center to deregister the Daily Stormer. It did so, and
posted an explanation on its website.
Strange
bedfellows?
The
Daily Stormer’s dubious claim of Mr. Putin’s involvement calls
attention to the one-sided love affair that American “alt-right”
activists and white nationalists appear to have with Putin amid the
tensions laid bare by Mr. Trump’s chaotic presidency.
Also,
it seems likely to feed suspicions that somehow the Kremlin has been
using the odd pro-Trump alignment of far-right agitators,
anti-Semites, and white nationalists to spread Russian propaganda,
deepen discord, and further weaken US democracy.
Some
US conservatives, including Trump, have expressed admiration of Putin
as a “strong leader.” Other symmetries could be that Putin seems
to be a devout Christian who has allowed the Russian Orthodox Church
unprecedented leeway to promote its socially-conservative domestic
agenda. Putin, and the Russian media in general, tend to sympathize
with anti-globalist forces, particularly if they are seen to be
driving wedges in the West’s anti-Russia unity.
And
Putin has, since his arrival in power, promoted what might be
described as a “make Russia great again” agenda, elevating
national identity and interests over internationalist currents.
“There
was a time when all sorts of people got invited to Moscow,” says
Nikolai Petrov, a professor at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics.
That would include Texas separatists, Euroskeptics, US gun lovers,
religious-right types, and other conservatives. Putin famously (or
perhaps infamously) dined with Trump adviser Michael Flynn – who
was briefly White House national security adviser – at an RT event
in Moscow in 2015.
“I
don’t think it was connected with sharing ideological views. It was
more a matter of ‘those who criticize your opponents are your
friends,’” says Mr. Petrov.
Fallow
ground for nationalism
In
fact, says Petrov, there’s very little tolerance in Russia for the
kind of philosophy that the “alt-right” espouses. “In Russia
itself, hard-line nationalists face very tough pressures. They are
the most heavily persecuted type of political activists.”
Nor
is there any evidence that Putin, who runs a sprawling multi-ethnic
and multi-confessional country, holds any ethno-nationalist or white
supremacist views. Nor has he ever been associated with
anti-Semitism. Under his leadership Russia has taken a hard turn
toward intolerant social conservatism, but there seems little doubt
it enjoys widespread popularity.
“Putin
is a pragmatist and a consummate populist. He’s interested in
keeping power in Russia, and can be quite flexible about that,”
says Petrov. “I doubt he has an interest in building any
international alliances based on ideology, or anything like that.”
Mr.
Kovalev also says he’s very dubious about allegations of an axis
between the Kremlin and the American “alt-right.”
“There
seems to be very little cross-over in ideas, maybe a few vague
similarities,” he says. “Mostly it seems to be based on the fact
that one of the leaders of the ‘alt-right’ in the US, Richard
Spencer, was married to a Russian woman. But she doesn’t come off
as anyone that has contacts with the Russian government. It all looks
pretty empty....
“In general, I’m skeptical of this idea that Putin is waging a campaign to sow chaos in the US via the ‘alt-right.’ It’s lazy conjecture to blame outside forces for things that are going wrong in your own country. It sounds more like what Russian officials always try to do.”
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