Asked by a supporter about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin was “people’s people”, Jair Bolsonaro (PL) called his counterpart “conservative” this Thursday (27th).
The Brazilian leader, who will visit Moscow at the end of February at the invitation of the Russian, was speaking with supporters in the playpen at Palácio da Alvorada, in Brasília. The Brazilian Chief Executive also said that, on the trip, he will seek “better understandings” and “trade relations”. According to him, “the whole world is kind to us.”
While the president has yet to make official trips to Putin’s country since he took office, the Russian leader was in Brazil in 2019, for a meeting of the BRICS, a bloc formed by the two countries, plus India, China and South Africa.
According to information from the state agency Tass, Putin invited Bolsonaro in early December for a visit and said that Brazil is one of Moscow’s “most important strategic partners”. At the time, the Brazilian president confirmed the invitation and said he was “happy and honored”.
For more than 20 years at the helm of the Kremlin, the leader has adopted positions considered increasingly conservative. He is against same-sex marriage, which is banned in the country, and LGBTQIA+ marches happen less and less, since since 2012 they have been repressed in several Russian cities.
In 2013, Putin supported laws that criminalize what he calls “gay underage propaganda,” something widely criticized in the West. While there are more or less disguised LGBT+ clubs in major centers like Moscow, in regions like Chechnya the repression is brutal.
In Brazil, with the election approaching, Bolsonaro has reinforced criticism of what he calls “gender ideology”. On Wednesday (26), he said that the majority of the population “LGBT is against [à ideologia de gênero]”.
In November 2020, Bolsonaro published a video in which Putin praises the “masculine qualities”, the “courage” and the “determination” of the Brazilian. “Thank you very much, Mr. President Bolsonaro. It was not easy for all of us to work this year [em referência à pandemia], but you also personally faced this infection and went through the trials with great courage. I wish you all the best, first of all health,” Putin said, referring to Bolsonaro’s contamination by the coronavirus.
Russia is now at the center of international news due to accusations by Western powers that it intends to invade Ukraine – more than 100,000 Moscow troops have been deployed to the border region. The military threat seeks to rule out the possibility of the neighboring country joining NATO, the Western military alliance.
The crisis mainly opposes Russia and the USA, whose president, Joe Biden, is a disaffected by Bolsonaro. During the American election campaign in 2020, the Brazilian publicly said he was rooting for the defeated Donald Trump to win. The democrat also criticized the Brazilian due to the Planalto’s environmental policy. Since Biden was elected, the leaders of Brazil and the US have not spoken directly.
