Russia's war on Ukraine: Liberal West must beware populists who would hand victory to Vladimir Putin – Scotsman comment

Hungary’s far-right leader Viktor Orban, who says liberalism is a ‘virus’, has blocked a much-needed package of EU aid for Ukraine

In 2019, Vladimir Putin declared “the liberal idea has become obsolete”, after having “come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population”. Earlier this year, Hungary’s far-right leader Viktor Orban went further, claiming liberalism was a “virus that will atomise and disintegrate our nations”, as he called for Donald Trump’s re-election as US president.

Such rhetoric by populists is sometimes dismissed but, in Putin’s case at least, his words should have been treated as a warning. That Orban thinks in a similar way is alarming enough. But the fact that he has now prevented the European Union from sending nearly £43 billion of financial aid to Ukraine is a deeply worrying sign that he is closer to the despot in Moscow than the democrats in Brussels.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, US Republican politician Liz Cheney despairingly attacked what she called “a growing Putin wing” within her own party – “the party of Reagan, the party that essentially won the Cold War”. This week that faction made their influence felt as the Republicans continued to block a $61bn package of US military aid for Ukraine to the delight of Russian propagandists, as President Joe Biden pointed out.

Recent polls mostly show Biden is behind or neck-and-neck with Trump, so there is a realistic chance that the latter will be returned to office, with potentially devastating consequences for Ukraine’s ability to defend itself. Just as he has praised Putin in the past, Trump is also an Orban fan, saying recently that the Hungarian Prime Minister was “probably, like, one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world”, although he also mistakenly called him “the leader of Turkey”.

On the battlefields of Ukraine and in the minds of many in the West, there is a struggle between the forces of liberalism and illiberalism. The first built the free world; the best example of the second is Putin’s Russia, where dissenters are murdered, poisoned and imprisoned – a regime he wants to impose on Ukraine. Support for helping Kyiv resist this is the key test of which side you are on. Slava Ukraini.