Analysis. On one subject, at least, Jair Bolsonaro knows how to be consistent. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the President of Brazil has never ceased to display his benevolence towards Vladimir Putin. On February 16, received with honors at the Kremlin a few days before the conflict, the President of Brazil declared that he was “Solidarity with Russia” and extolled the merits of its leader, a ” friend “ who “seeking peace”. Words that the far-right leader has never denied, sticking to this burning issue with strict neutrality.
But Jair Bolsonaro is far from the only one in Brazil to cultivate a certain proximity, if not an acquaintance, with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. In Latin America’s largest country, few left-wing figures have taken a strong stance on the war in Ukraine. This causes disappointment, bitterness, and sometimes even consternation, among some Westerners, while the conflict continues against a backdrop of mass crimes, five months before a presidential election which could see the return to power of the Workers’ Party ( PT) and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
While everyone condemns the invasion, the leaders of the Brazilian left are most often content to dismiss the protagonists back to back, insisting on NATO’s responsibility, opposing any sanction, avoiding publicly criticizing Vladimir Putin or even to send messages of solidarity to the Ukrainian people. A supposed “ni-ni” or “in-between”, which some consider pusillanimous, but which has the merit of bringing together all tendencies and all generations, from the “old guard” of the PT to the “rising stars” of the alternative left.
Radical anti-Americanism
This is the case with Celso Amorim, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Sherpa of Lula, who strongly condemns the“unilateral use of force”, but rejects any retaliatory measure. A promising young socialist leader, Guilherme Boulos insists on the presence of “significant far-right political forces” in kyiv and torpedoed the “colonialism” from both sides. More extreme again, the journalist Breno Altman, close to the radical left, believes that it “It is not correct to speak of a ‘Russian invasion’ in Ukraine. Or even attack. This is a counter-attack, a defensive war”.
Could this be a sign of some confusion? In his speeches, Lula himself has alternated for two months between vague remarks and controversial outings. “Humanity does not need war but employment and education”first contented himself with tweeting the ex-metal worker, on February 24, before, a few days later, torpedoing the Russian invasion just as much as NATO, accused of “ arrogates[r] the right to set up military bases in the vicinity of another country”then to try a touch of humor: the war could be easily resolved in Brazil, “at the table having a beer”estimated a Lula perkyMarch 30.
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