Updated 2 years ago
From 2014 onwards, we looked at what celebrities have said publicly about Putin and Ukraine. This list only includes well-known non-Russian celebrities and politicians. With the exception of Oliver Stone, who has softened somewhat since his cringey ass-kissing series of interviews, celebrities who have renounced ties (which are legion) are not included here.
These people would likely have been Nazi sympathizers in WW2, along with Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh. “Adolf Hitler has traditional values. Just let him have Poland. Poland isn’t a country.”
What is particularly disturbing is that there seems to be MORE this time around. And the credit to that goes squarely to Donald J. Trump and his cult.
Academia
John Mearsheimer
Professor, University of Chicago
“Putin is not going to re-create the Soviet Union or try to build a greater Russia; he’s not interested in conquering and integrating Ukraine into Russia. It’s very important to understand that we invented this story that Putin is highly aggressive and he’s principally responsible for this crisis in Ukraine.”
Mearsheimer, to his credit, pushed for Ukraine to keep its nukes, but his hardcore “realism” has not served him well in the run-up to Putin’s invasion.
Why John Mearsheimer Blames the U.S. for the Crisis in Ukraine
It makes no sense to blame the west for the Ukraine war
Music
Roger Waters
Former singer for Pink Floyd
“I’m on a kill list that is supported by the Ukrainian government. I’m on the fucking list, and they’ve killed people recently.… But when they kill you, they write ‘liquidated’ across your picture. Well, I’m one of those fucking pictures… It’s an unnecessary war. And those people should not be dying. And Russia should not have been encouraged to invade the Ukraine after they tried for 20 years to avoid it by suggesting diplomatic measures to Western governments.”
Roger Waters has been on quite the tear recently, using antisemitic imagery in his concerts, lip synching, pretending to play bass live, and trying to erase the rest of Pink Floyd’s legacy.
Fred Durst
Lead singer of Limp Biskit
“Crimea is Russia.”
-At a show in the Russian city Voronezh in early November he held up this banner
Fred Durst added to his sins of inciting a riot at Woodstock ’99 by digging a deeper hole.
Ted Nugent
“I want my money back! I didn’t authorize any money to Ukraine to some homosexual weirdo!”
WATCH: Ted Nugent Attacks Ukraine’s Zelensky as ‘Homosexual Weirdo’ in Off the Rails Trump Rally Rant Before National Anthem
Hollywood
Putin’s Hollywood pals – the stars who snuggled up to the Russian dictator
Steven Segall
Action hero Steven Seagal, who considers Putin a personal friend, has labelled the former KGB lieutenant colonel “one of the greatest world leaders” and declared his actions in the Russian-majority Ukrainian province “very reasonable”.
Speaking to the state-run newspaper Rossiskaya Gazeta, in comments first noted by the Moscow Times, Seagal described western policy on Ukraine as “idiotic”. He said Putin’s desire “to protect the Russian-speaking people of Crimea, his assets, and the Russian Black Sea military base in Sevastopol … [was] very reasonable”.
Oliver Stone
“The United States and its allies in NATO have been provoking Russia for, since two years now—actually three years—over the Ukraine…
They have no proof that Russia intends to invade Ukraine; I doubt that they would. I think Russia is concerned only with the Donbass region.”
Oliver Stone has always had a tenuous grip on reality, and the bulk of his filmmaking has been misguided trash.
Oliver Stone’s Latest Piece of Pro-Putin Propaganda May Be His Most Shameless Move Yet
Television
Tucker Carlson
“I think we should probably take the side of Russia, if we have to choose between Russia and Ukraine.
Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?
No, Zelenskyy is not a hero. He is an instrument of total destruction.”
Tucker is the most cynical frat boy that has ever been given a soapbox.
Laura Ingraham
“We had kind of a really pathetic display from the Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.”
Laura is part Polish, and unlike her country of origin, and like Tucker has proven to be an opportunistic toady.
Politics
Bottom line, these right-wing politicians don’t want to help Ukraine out of spite because their heads are stuck so far up their asses because of Trump’s impeachment.
They also prefer dictatorships over democracies, and view NATO as irrelevant.
“[The GOP’s] isolationism in the 1930s consigned it to decades in the wilderness, and that naivete was on national display when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.”
“Beware the temptation of pride, the impulse to blithely declare yourselves above it all, to “ignore the facts of history and label the contest a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong.”
Ronald Reagan
Donald Trump
“So Putin is now saying it’s independent, a large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s the strongest peace force.
If Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset, not a liability, because we have a horrible relationship with Russia.
[Putin is] taking over a country for two dollars worth of sanctions. I’d say that’s pretty smart.”
Ron de Santis
“While the US has many vital national interests, becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them. We cannot prioritize intervention in an escalating foreign war over the defense of our own homeland, especially as tens of thousands of Americans are dying every year from narcotics smuggled across our open border and our weapons arsenals critical for our own security are rapidly being depleted.”
This has been called by the Wall Street Journal as de Santis’ “first big mistake.”
Yes, that’s right. Both of the top contenders for the GOP nomination want to hand Ukraine to Putin.
GOOD LUCK IN 2024 GUYS!
Update a week later: After getting roasted by Senate Republicans, he walked it back, saying he didn’t mean boots on the ground. Surrrrre
Marjorie Taylor Greene
“NATO has been supplying the neo-Nazis in Ukraine with powerful weapons and extensive training on how to use them. What the hell is going with these #NATONazis?
You see Ukraine just kept poking the bear, poking the bear, which is Russia, and Russia invaded. And the hard truth is … there is no win for Ukraine here. Russia is being very successful in their invasion.
Under Republicans, not another penny will go to Ukraine.”
Marge is the best gift to Democrats, ever.
Lauren Bohbert
“The majority of the Ukraine aid is a scam.”
Paul Gosar
“Ukraine is not our ally. Russia is not our enemy. We need to address our crippling debt, inflation and immigration problems. None of this is Putin’s fault.”
Matt Gaetz
“I’m more concerned with the US-Mexico border than the Russia-Ukraine border. Not sorry.”
When he’s not trafficking underage girls, Matt is sucking up daddy’s money to make a mockery of American politics.
Mike Flynn
“[Putin is] a very strong leader. He’s been in charge for a long time. And he’s not going to put up with the nonsense he’s seeing in Europe.”
Roger Stone
“There are in fact bio labs [in Ukraine] funded by our tax dollars…Putin is acting defensively.”
Rudolph Giuliani
A resurfaced video clip shows Rudy Giuliani praising Putin in 2014 following Russia’s invasion of Crimea
Rudy’s was objectively the most spectacular and humiliating career flameout in the history of mankind.
International
Silvio Berlusconi
“Putin was pushed by the Russian people, by his party, by his ministers to come up with this special operation”
Berlusconi draws a backlash for appearing to defend Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Web/Misc
Steve Bannon
“No Republican should vote for any money for Ukraine. $0 for Ukraine.
Every member of Conservative Inc. that backs this Ukraine war is a simp.”
Charlie Kirk
“It feels as if Putin is going into places that want him. They have voted overwhelmingly to be part of it. It is a family dispute that we shouldn’t get in the midst of, that’s for certain.”
Dinesh D’Souza
“Putin–unlike someone else we know–LOVES his country & FIGHTS for its interests”
Nick Fuentes
“I wish Putin was president of America.”
Candace Owens
“Every American who wants to know what’s *actually* going on in Russia and Ukraine, read this transcript of Putin’s address…WE are at fault.
President Zelensky is a very bad character who is working with globalists against the interests of his own people.”
Candace should get Kanye on the list soon.
Julian Assange
“Belarus is the Shangri-La of post-Soviet development.”
In 2016, when he was still in the Ecuadorian embassy, Assange himself attacked the leak of the Panama Papers (which revealed a hidden fortune of 2,000 million dollars of President Putin), claiming that it was an operation sponsored by the United States to harm the Russian president.
It is not a coincidence that the foreign policy goals of Russia and WikiLeaks are the same.
Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokno: Julian Assange Is ‘Connected with the Russian Government’
Assange Turned Down Dirt on Russia, Strongly Suggesting Ties to Being an Asshole
Edward Snowden (Эдвард Сноуден)
This last entry is tenuous, but many have alleged ties with Putin. The fact that Snowden has Russian citizenship now only supports this assertion.
How Snowden Is Helping Putin in Ukraine
Ukraine is a proxy war for humiliating MAGAs
Ukraine is a proxy war between Guidos and Nerds
