It’s the richest man on Earth throwing his weight behind another Kremlin-backed far-right party, one that cheered Assad’s slaughter in Syria and still takes its cues from the Kremlin. That framing, steeped in racism, handed far-right parties across Europe and the world their biggest electoral gift in decades. This was such a successful strategy that Putin and his far-right allies gleefully repeated it elsewhere. And the Western pundits who once sneered that Syrians should accept Assad for “stability” and “political realism”? Putin is supporting the far-right because they help bring his ideal, silenced world closer.