To be fair, foreigners are often more supportive of the authoritarian leaders in their home countries. For example, In Germany there live more than 3 million Turks, 750,000 of them voted in 2023 and they mostly vote for AKP and Erdogan (67%), much more than in Turkey itself (50%).
It’s a bit more complex than this though. Left-leaning/progressive Turks are more likely to be integrated in German society, gain citizenship or even give up Turkish citizenship. Whereas conservative/nationalistic Turks are more likely to be interested in Turkish affairs and vote in Turkish elections.
So it’s not purely “expats are more rightwing”, it’s more that those expats who bother/are eligible to vote in their country of origin tend to be more nationalistic.
I’ve met Russians in America. They halfway joked that if they ever spoke out publicly against him that there was a good chance that they would end up “accidentally” shooting themselves a few times before falling out of a window.
They were parroting Putin’s dumb-ass talking points point-for-point.
NATO enlargement, Ukraine isn’t a real country, Donald would be a better president than Hillary, christian nationalism, the US somehow tricked Russian oligarchs into oligarchy, on and on.
With some bonus dumbassery like chem trails and antisemitism.
People who had been out of Russia for decades and should know better.
As you say, that’s your experience. All of the Russians I’ve met in the US hate Putin. There’s millions of Russians in the US, I think it’s fair to say there’s some diversity of opinion there.
I’ve met Russians in America, outside of Putin’s bubble.
They love Putin.
To be fair, foreigners are often more supportive of the authoritarian leaders in their home countries. For example, In Germany there live more than 3 million Turks, 750,000 of them voted in 2023 and they mostly vote for AKP and Erdogan (67%), much more than in Turkey itself (50%).
It’s a bit more complex than this though. Left-leaning/progressive Turks are more likely to be integrated in German society, gain citizenship or even give up Turkish citizenship. Whereas conservative/nationalistic Turks are more likely to be interested in Turkish affairs and vote in Turkish elections. So it’s not purely “expats are more rightwing”, it’s more that those expats who bother/are eligible to vote in their country of origin tend to be more nationalistic.
Thanks for the addition - yeah of course it is more complex, as it is often.
I’ve met Russians in America. They halfway joked that if they ever spoke out publicly against him that there was a good chance that they would end up “accidentally” shooting themselves a few times before falling out of a window.
Not my experience.
They were parroting Putin’s dumb-ass talking points point-for-point.
NATO enlargement, Ukraine isn’t a real country, Donald would be a better president than Hillary, christian nationalism, the US somehow tricked Russian oligarchs into oligarchy, on and on.
With some bonus dumbassery like chem trails and antisemitism.
People who had been out of Russia for decades and should know better.
As you say, that’s your experience. All of the Russians I’ve met in the US hate Putin. There’s millions of Russians in the US, I think it’s fair to say there’s some diversity of opinion there.
“I’ve been all over the world, and I’ve learned that there are two kinds of people: Good people…and Russians.” - Jim Gaffigan