Nick Cohen on how the hard right and extreme left are often Putin apologists

Nick Cohen has a powerful piece on substack, "Why Westerners hate the West" inspired by the decision to re-admit Diane Abbot to the parliamentary Labour party.

He notes some of the extraordinary things she has said about international affairs. As someone who used to be on the far left himself, he explains the mindset of those who hate the West so much that they will defend almost any action, no matter how evil, from those who are the West's enemies. Cohen also notes that a surprising proportion of people on the far right of politics in various countries - he gives Trump and the MAGA Republicans in the USA and Orban in Hungary as examples but also criticises the stance taken by some Reform K members in this country - are dangerously soft on some of our country's enemies, particularly Putin.

(For anyone not familiar with the expression "The horseshoe" in politics, it's the suggestion the left-to-right axis o politics bends round like a horseshoe so that some of the views of the far left are similar t those of the far right.)

Here are some extracts from his article.

Why Westerners hate the West

The horseshoe in theory and in practice

  

"On the face of it, Diane Abbott could not be a more marginal figure. In case you aren’t a British reader, I should explain that she is a left/far-left Labour MP, who would have been Home Secretary if Jeremy Corbyn had ever become prime minister."

"Abbott also lost the Labour whip. But Andy Burnham, Labour’s jovial new leader wants to be everyone’s friend. On Friday, he welcomed Abbott back to Labour, even though, in her declining years, she repeats Putin propaganda, with the frequency other 72-year-olds repeat complaints about their arthritis.

Speaking at an inaccurately named peace conference she said the Ukraine war was “a Nato campaign against Russia”.

Before that she wrote in the Morning Star, which old lefties will remember was the newspaper of the British Communist Party:

“Nato is engaged in a war which is now striking deep into Russian territory, provoking widespread calls for retaliation against Nato countries.”

The Kremlin wants us to believe just that. Even though Russia invaded Ukraine – not the other way round – and Putin has made it perfectly clear that he is intent on expanding and reviving the Russian empire, the war is NATO’s fault.

I could go on at length about what a disgrace the “tankie” wing of the left has become – it’s called “tankie,” by the way, because Abbott and her comrades are the descendants of the Western communists who supported the Soviet Union as it sent in tanks to crush freedom in Eastern Europe.

They say they are against imperialism – but they excuse Russian imperialism.

They say they love peace – but they excuse the Kremlin’s warmongers.

They call themselves socialists – but they excuse a vicious kleptocracy that steals everything it can.

But you might well reply: Why bother with Diane Abbott?

It’s a question that deserves an answer.

The first part of the answer is that this story is not just about one elderly politician but the future of the Labour party.

Burnham is throwing away one of Labour’s advantages. Even under the hapless Keir Starmer, it could hit Farage and the radical right hard by pointing out that they were so fond of Putin, Nathan Gill, Farage’s organiser in Wales, received £40,000 to help pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine.

Burnham won’t be able to do that now. As Tom Tugendhat, the Conservative MP and national security specialist, said of Abbott:

“This isn’t pacifism. It’s someone who wanted to be Home Secretary repeating the Kremlin’s and Beijing’s propaganda. She’s wrong and she’s a throwback to the 70s, siding with tyrants who murdered millions. Starmer fought the cranks in Labour. Burnham’s welcoming them back.”

From now on, whenever Labour talks about Farage and Putin, the obvious comeback will be: “Well, what about Abbott?”

If you are like me, and believe that stopping Farage is our most urgent political priority, indulging Abbott is a high price that is not worth paying.

Globally, the tankie left is “objectively” on the same side as the radical right. Donald Trump and elements of the MAGA movement have lapped up Russian propaganda as eagerly as Abbott. The Kremlin calls Zelensky a “dictator,” even though he won free and fair elections. (Incidentally, the Kremlin never calls Putin “a dictator” – even though he is, in fact, a dictator.)

Trump did the same when he accused the Ukrainian leader of being a “dictator ruling without elections”.

Just as Diane Abbott covers up the Russian invasion, the murder and torture of civilians, and the abduction of children by saying NATO started the war, so Trump claimed that Ukraine was responsible.

“You should have never started it,” he told Ukrainians.

For a few days last week, Europe’s remaining optimists believed that Trump would give Ukraine a licence to manufacture Patriot interceptor missiles to protect civilians in Kyiv from Russian terror attacks.

But by Friday he was backtracking – as he was always going to. Like Diane Abbott, Donald Trump is happiest when he is on Putin’s side.

Abbott and the worst elements of the British left are also on the same side as Viktor Orban, who repeated Putin propaganda lines until Hungarians got sick of hearing them and threw him out. Marine Le Pen, who may well be the next French president, used Russian banking facilities, and the extreme right-wing AfD in Germany is so pro-Putin, it is as if it wants to revive the Hitler-Stalin pact.

Having been on the far left myself, I understand how people like Diane Abbott can agree with Trump.

Whether you are far left or far right, you hate the established order so much, you believe everything it says is a lie. You cannot bring yourself to accept that there are other systems, such as Putin’s Mafia state, which are worse than the West. Instead, you make excuses for them, and deny the realities of their oppression.

In short, you make the West the root cause of all the world’s problems. It’s a racist position because it denies agency to non-Western peoples and rulers. This mindset is unable to admit that Putin and Russian imperialists are perfectly capable of invading their neighbours for their own dark reasons. They can only do it if the supposedly all-powerful West provokes them.

Put like this, it sounds as if pro-Putinism is dumb but understandable. But you only have to look at Abbott and Trump to see how quickly it degenerates.

They can’t tell the truth. Indeed, they cannot even say that Russia started this war.

Because they cannot admit to Russia’s criminal responsibility, they tacitly cover up its crimes. Most absurdly of all, in the name of peace, they justify invading armies.

Burnham’s decision to readmit Abbott to the Labour party may seem a small matter but it is part of a wider corruption of the West which may yet lead to its destruction."