ArisKatsaris comments on Politics Discussion Thread December 2012 - All
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It's not as visible in Western Europe, but I think it's incorrect to call it negligible yes -- e.g. I understand that very recently there was some noise in the UK over the Conservative Friends of Russia who used an anti-gay attack on a Labour Party politician who was criticizing Russia's human rights record.
It isn't necessarily so. But hating the EU currently helps Moscow policy, so any anti-EU movement will tend to be supported from afar by Moscow, which will in turn tend to lead such movements to end up holding pro-Moscow positions.
e.g. The russian textbook Foundations of Geopolitics says "United Kingdom should be cut off from Europe."
Where I use 'universalism' to mean 'focus on equality, democracy, human rights'.
Liberal-Democrats -- very Universalist, very pro-EU, significantly anti-Russia
Labour Party - somewhat Universalist, somewhat pro-EU, somewhat anti-Russia (currently -- it used to be different)
Conservative Party - minimally Universalist, recently getting more anti-EU, and recently getting cozier with Russia
BNP - very anti-Universalist, extremely anti-EU, extremely pro-Russia.
So I think that the pattern I observe holds even in the UK. e.g. The Conservatives are the main anti-EU party in the UK, and they're also in the same parliamentary group in the Council of Europe as Putin's party...