Tomás Ó Flatharta

The Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke for several hours to a captive audience in a Moscow palace on February 21, describing LGBT Rights as “Pure Satanism”. Brendan Ogle, a UNITE Trade Union official in Ireland, responds. Source : https://www.facebook.com/camilo.ogle

It had to come to this.

In fact for those watching, those not completely blinded by their understandable hatred of US and NATO imperialism, it came to this a long time ago. But yesterday it happened in horrific awful technicolour. Putin threw left supporters – and there are still far too many of them – under the bus.

A year from his invasion of Ukraine Putin’s war with what he calls ‘the west’ has now openly gone full #FarRight. The language of the toxic fascist inspired racist protests that took place here and elsewhere recently is 100% Putin’s language. He helped to create it. Yesterday in a lengthy monologue in front of a room of nodding donkeys applauding rapturously in case they got a nerve agent in their lunch, he described LGBT rights as ‘pure satanism’, engaged in transphobic hate speech and described paedophilia as the ‘new norm’ in the west.

A year from his invasion of Ukraine Putin’s war with what he calls ‘the west’ has now openly gone full #FarRight. The language of the toxic fascist inspired racist protests that took place here and elsewhere recently is 100% Putin’s language. He helped to create it.

Yesterday in a lengthy monologue in front of a room of nodding donkeys applauding rapturously in case they got a nerve agent in their lunch, he described LGBT rights as ‘pure satanism’, engaged in transphobic hate speech and described paedophilia as the ‘new norm’ in the west.

Sound familiar?

The Putin script could have come out of the mouths of any of the #farright grifters here recently making money online by inspiring thugs to throw hammers at hotels housing women and kids fleeing war. Including fleeing the latest of Putin’s many imperialist wars. The script could actually have come right out of the mouth of the new hero of the Irish Far Right, British nationalist thug ‘Tommy Robinson’.

But it didn’t come out of their mouths.

In fact, for those observing Putin for over 2 decades, it’s clear that it’s actually him that helped to put it in their mouths in the first place. Putin’s absolute visceral hatred of our gay, lesbian and trans brothers and sisters is on full display and it has been for all of those years. He’s persecuted the community in Russia from the very start.

And it’s not just hate filled rhetoric either. Decades of abuse, intimidation and violence led in December last year to Putin signing into law a bill that broadens Russia’s ban on ‘LGBTQ propaganda’ and makes it illegal for anyone to promote same-sex relationships, or to even as much as suggest that non-heterosexual orientations are normal.

Nice man ha?

The next time one of your left comrades, one of your ‘soft on Putin, soft on the causes of Putin’ friends, one of the ‘but NATO’ brigade soft propagandising for him from Brussels to Bantry seeks to answer his abhorrent war crimes, his imperialism, his fascism, his poisonings, his soldiers raping everywhere they go by reminding us of other equally abhorrent crimes such as Iraq and Afghanistan remember too his hatred of our LGBTQI+ comrades. He’s a fascist!

As I’ve said many times, imperialism is imperialism, fascism is fascism, war mongering is war mongering, and hate is hate whether it comes from Moscow or Washington, from Bejing or Tehran, from Riyadh or Damascus.

Putin, just like his great friend the war criminal Tony Blair, and his ally George Bush who Putin joined in their so called ‘War on Terror’ (an oft ignored fact that one) deserves absolutely nothing but utter contempt from every single one of us on the left, without ambiguity.

(The image below has been banned in Russia since 2013. Yes, we are literally talking about a world leader so insecure, so extreme in his insecurity, that he has legally banned a meme)

PUTIN THROWS LEFT SUPPORTERS UNDER THE BUS

It had to come to this.

In fact for those watching, those not completely blinded by their understandable hatred of US and NATO imperialism, it came to this a long time ago. But yesterday it happened in horrific awful technicolour. Putin threw left supporters – and there are still far too many of them – under the bus.

A year from his invasion of Ukraine Putin’s war with what he calls ‘the west’ has now openly gone full #FarRight. The language of the toxic fascist inspired racist protests that took place here and elsewhere recently is 100% Putin’s language. He helped to create it.

Yesterday in a lengthy monologue in front of a room of nodding donkeys applauding rapturously in case they got a nerve agent in their lunch, he described LGBT rights as ‘pure satanism’, engaged in transphobic hate speech and described paedophilia as the ‘new norm’ in the west.

Sound familiar?

The Putin script could have come out of the mouths of any of the #farright grifters here recently making money online by inspiring thugs to throw hammers at hotels housing women and kids fleeing war. Including fleeing the latest of Putin’s many imperialist wars. The script could actually have come right out of the mouth of the new hero of the Irish Far Right, British nationalist thug ‘Tommy Robinson’.

But it didn’t come out of their mouths.

In fact, for those observing Putin for over 2 decades, it’s clear that it’s actually him that helped to put it in their mouths in the first place. Putin’s absolute visceral hatred of our gay, lesbian and trans brothers and sisters is on full display and it has been for all of those years. He’s persecuted the community in Russia from the very start.

And it’s not just hate filled rhetoric either. Decades of abuse, intimidation and violence led in December last year to Putin signing into law a bill that broadens Russia’s ban on ‘LGBTQ propaganda’ and makes it illegal for anyone to promote same-sex relationships, or to even as much as suggest that non-heterosexual orientations are normal.

Nice man ha?

The next time one of your left comrades, one of your ‘soft on Putin, soft on the causes of Putin’ friends, one of the ‘but NATO’ brigade soft propagandising for him from Brussels to Bantry seeks to answer his abhorrent war crimes, his imperialism, his fascism, his poisonings, his soldiers raping everywhere they go by reminding us of other equally abhorrent crimes such as Iraq and Afghanistan remember too his hatred of our LGBTQI+ comrades. He’s a fascist!

As I’ve said many times, imperialism is imperialism, fascism is fascism, war mongering is war mongering, and hate is hate whether it comes from Moscow or Washington, from Bejing or Tehran, from Riyadh or Damascus.

Putin, just like his great friend the war criminal Tony Blair, and his ally George Bush who Putin joined in their so called ‘War on Terror’ (an oft ignored fact that one) deserves absolutely nothing but utter contempt from every single one of us on the left, without ambiguity.