This information originally appeared in an article on Northeastern Global News, written by Cody Mello-Klein.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has found support in an unlikely place: the U.S.
Specifically, Christian nationalists, a subsection of America’s religious right, have flocked to the country’s autocratic leader, according to new research from a team of social scientists, including Sarah Riccardi-Swartz, an assistant professor of religion and anthropology at Northeastern University.
Riccardi-Swartz says this level of support for Putin among Christian nationalists is especially notable given their simultaneous opposition or indifference to Russia itself.
“Even if Christian nationalists are ambivalent to Russia as a geopolitical construct or if they view it as a threat, they are still favorable towards Putin as a political figure,” Riccardi-Swartz says. “This seems to suggest that Americans who subscribe to Christian nationalist ideology are attracted to Putin as a strong man and ethno-nationalist leader just as they were with Trump.”
