Putin’s bandmates return praise

Supporters of Vladimir Putin’s populism across the West are running in the hills.

Italian right-wing politician Matteo Salvini, an undaunted Putin fan, condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but failed to bring himself to criticize his hero. Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who spoke with Putin in Russia, claims to not consider today’s Putin to be someone he once knew. France’s far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour has admired Putin’s efforts to restore “a decaying empire” —until his attempt to rebuild it has gone too far. Another far-right French presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, whose party received a large loan from a Russian bank, was forced to pull out more than a million campaign flyers showing her shaking Putin’s hand. . The Russian invasion rendered Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban mute, a rare occurrence, and forced him to accept European Union sanctions against Russia.