Nigel Farage's Admiration for Putin and 'Concern' for Russian Oligarchs Exposes His Fake Patriotism
The truth is Farage has only shown loyalty to one country in recent years, and it isn't Britain.
Nigel Farage said this week that he is “concerned” about the UK’s sanctions on Russian oligarchs.
He told his GB News viewers that the government had seized their assets “without any form of due process” and without “equity”.
This simply isn’t true.
There has been no serious suggestion that the UK government has broken the law by imposing these sanctions.
And if any Russian oligarch did believe otherwise then they would be perfectly free to challenge the government in court with a judicial review.
In any case, Farage’s sudden interest in “due process” is highly curious, not least because his interest does not seem to extend to the actions of Russia.
On the contrary, ever since Russia launched its illegal invasion of Ukraine, Farage has devoted almost all of his efforts to blaming the West for it.
In the immediate aftermath of the invasion, Farage took to GB News, Fox and other channels to blame Western governments, who he said “did start much of this” by “poking the Russian bear with a stick”.
So what is really going on here? Is Farage genuinely worried about “due process” or does he have some other reason to be “concerned” about what the government is doing to Russian oligarchs?
Is Farage a Russian Asset?
Farage’s support for Putin and Russia is longstanding. In 2014 he told GQ Magazine that the Russian President was the leader he most admired.
“The way he played the whole Syria thing. Brilliant,” Farage told the magazine.
When later challenged about this, he nsisted that his admiration for the Butcher of Chechnya was merely about his ability as “a very canny, very sharp, very clever political operator.”
It is impossible to know for certain quite how far the former Brexit Party leader’s admiration for Putin extends.
However, what we do know is that his views have often been closely aligned with those of the Russian President.
Farage has blamed the European Union and Nato for Russian aggression in Ukraine and previously called for the UK to align itself with Putin in Syria.
These positions have certainly been noticed by Moscow, which has repeatedly highlighted his comments as evidence that Russian and Putin is supported in the West.
Farage has also in the past been a regular guest on Russia’s propaganda channel Russia Today.
Looking at the evidence I think it is fair to describe him, at the very least, as sympathetic to Russia and broadly opposed to the defence aims of NATO and the West.
Now it is certainly possible that Farage’s allegiance to Russia ends there.
However, other questions have also been raised over the years about his connections to Moscow.
In 2017 the Guardian reported that Farage had become a “person of interest” for the FBI in their investigation of the Trump campaign and its links to Russia, due to his “relationships with individuals connected to both the Trump campaign and Julian Assange.”
Some reports suggested the former Brexit Party leader had also acted as a go-between with Assange, who has previously been accused of working with the Russian government.
Farage has denied such connections. However, leaked emails I received in 2017 revealed his longstanding links to the Wikileaks founder.
Other allegations have also been raised over the years about links between his closest allies and Russia.
Despite all this, it is fair to say that none of these allegations have yet revealed a smoking gun directly linking Farage personally to Russian money or Putin.
It is also fair to say that the former Brexit leader has on occasion also directly criticised some of the Russian President’s actions, even if he has only done so in the context of largely blaming the West for them.
Taken together I do not believe there is sufficient evidence available to categorically say that Farage is a knowing “Russian asset”, even if Moscow may perceive him as one.
However, what the evidence does clearly expose is the hollowness of Farage’s claims to be a British patriot.
Farage’s real loyalty lies elsewhere
Farage has made a career out of professing patriotism to the UK, while accusing others of seeking to sell it out.
In reality the reverse is true. Farage has long shown little but contempt for modern Britain.
Whether it’s stories about him marching through a Sussex village singing Hitler Youth songs, or speaking about feeling “uncomfortable” hearing foreign voices on a train, Farage has never shown great allegiance to the country whose name he has sought to make a political career out of.
The hollowness of Farage’s patriotism was neatly exposed in the aftermath of the EU referendum result. Asked what he would do if Brexit turned out to be a disaster for the country, Farage replied that “If Brexit is a disaster, I’ll go and live abroad, I’ll go and live somewhere else.”
These are not the sentiments of a true patriot. Nor are his current excuses for Vladimir Putin, whose actions are posing the greatest security threat to Britain that we have faced for decades, sign of a genuine love for this country.
Indeed when it comes to patriotism, there is only one country that Farage has shown any real lasting loyalty to and it is the country whose army is currently slaughtering the innocent people of Ukraine.
Thank you for supporting Folded with Adam Bienkov. Please feel free to leave a comment below. You can also email me on adambienkov@gmail.com with any tips, or story suggestions for future editions.
He's a nasty little grifting shit whatever it is he's doing. He's been hand in glove with Trump, who was hand in glove with Putin. It's all connected.
The way I look at it is if we are upsetting Farage then we must be doing something right.
I believe that Farage may be an agent of Russia hiding in plane sight. Rather like Philby.