This tactic brings Putin multiple Western supporters and empathizers
from both the left and right. The latter are attracted by the way he exposes Western “immorality” as represented, for instance, by gay rights
(interpreted as “propaganda” for homosexuality). The left, meanwhile,
likes anything that threatens to stick a wrench into the gears of Western
military, political, and economic dominance.7
But ultimately, both are
resisting liberal democracy’s status as the “hegemonic discourse” of our
times. In the world dominated by democracies, “autocracy promotion”
masquerades as defense of the underdog.
postmodernist language to present Russia as a champion of multiculturalism and multipolarity against Western attempts to achieve singlehanded predominance.