Australian anti-vaxxer groups are awash with conspiracy theories praising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an attack on the “deep state”, with some followers of the Covid-sceptic movement expressing admiration for Vladimir Putin.
Separately, just days after the United Australia party disendorsed a candidate in Melbourne for his pro-Putin views, the party is now facing questions about another candidate apparently defending the Russian president.
Sean Ambrose, a UAP Senate candidate for New South Wales, appeared to defend Putin in a tweet on Saturday, in response to another post critical of the Russian leader being a member of the World Economic Forum. The global organisation has been a key focus of online conspiracy theories, particularly those about a supposed “great reset” plot against humanity.
“I was initially of the same opinion but let us not forget that he [Putin] expelled the Rothschild Banking families from Russia and is now shutting down the child sex and human trafficking and the U.S. biological weapons facilities in the Ukraine,” Ambrose tweeted.
The Poynter Institute has debunked widespread claims on social media regarding US biological weapon facilities operating in Ukraine.
The cover image on Ambrose’s Twitter profile carries the slogans “No mandatory vaccinations” and “No vaccine passports”.
He tweeted on Sunday that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, “is a stooge for Klaus Schwab”, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum. He also wrote “Media telling lies again” when retweeting a post stating that an Australian news story on the invasion had used a fake photograph of an injured Ukrainian. But the woman, Olena Kurilo, was interviewed by the Daily Mail about the attack on her home, and an image of her was widely published.
Last week the UAP disendorsed its Macnamara candidate, Jefferson Earl, for his pro-Putin views, with the party leader, Craig Kelly, saying: “It is very important that the entire world is united in condemning Putin’s conduct to the Ukraine.”
Kelly and Ambrose were contacted for comment.
The UAP did not respond to Guardian Australia’s request for comment.
A global challenge
Separately, and speaking generally, academics researching conspiracy movements say the harnessing of the Russian cause by some anti-vaxxer groups is a sign these groups may continue to be active after the Covid pandemic has passed, warning that the malleable belief systems of the anti-lockdown crowds may attach to other anti-government causes in future.
“There’s an authoritarian undertone to the organising logic, vocabulary and actions of these protest movements,” said a senior research fellow at Deakin University, Dr Josh Roose. “That won’t go away just because conditions might change.”
The messaging app Telegram, which allows users to post content in the equivalent of chatrooms or message boards, is favoured by some far-right and conspiracy groups.
Telegram channels previously dedicated to anti-vaxx sentiment or organising anti-vaccine mandate protests have been flooded with content praising the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Video clips are being shared as well as comments from the former US president Donald Trump, who appeared to praise Putin’s actions. Many shared memes or claims from international anti-vaxx channels, spreading baseless claims that Russia’s invasion was variously about attacking US bioweapons facilities in Ukraine, that Putin was fighting the “deep state” or that the US government was secretly promoting the conflict as a “distraction” from domestic political issues.
“Is Putin really taking on the deep state to drain the swamp?” asked one Australian anti-lockdown voice on his channel with 67,000 subscribers.
Roose, who studies violent extremism and populist leaders, claimed some protesters viewed the issue through the same lens as Trump due to their correlating belief systems – a mistrust of authority, disdain for institutions and criticism of mainstream media.
“What struck me is the pivot of message boards into that emphasis on Ukraine, which broadly coincides with Trump calling Putin a genius,” Roose told Guardian Australia. “Also, the agenda that Trump had been laying out in painting the foreign policy community, the career bureaucrats and diplomats, as part of a deep state plot.
“They’re taking their lead directly from Trump and his supporters in the US … it’s not at the level of conspiracy, necessarily, because this is what mainstream politicians and news figures are talking about.”
Dr Kaz Ross, a researcher studying conspiracy movements, said a distrust of the media was driving the movements.
“The deep underlying belief structure of these movements is like Qanon, in that they believe there’s secret stuff going on that we don’t know about and the media is lying to you, so whenever you see a simple explanation for something, that’s not right,” she told Guardian Australia.
“So if it looks like Russia is invading because they’re evil bullies, these groups would say, ‘No, look for the counter narrative’… they’d say, ‘We can see through the lies of mainstream media, so whatever they say, we have to say the opposite.’”
Countless posts inside the groups poured scorn on media coverage. “It’s hard to know what is happening without an honest and fair media,” one supporter of a large anti-vaccine group posted.
Another said: “One way to find the truth is turn on the TV and whatever they report go with the opposite.”
That such conspiracy-minded groups transfer their ideology on to news events of the day is not new. But what Ross and Roose noted was the Ukraine invasion was one of the first times the anti-lockdown or Covid-sceptic movement – a broad church variously consisting of anti-vaxxers, sovereign citizens, evangelicals, civil libertarians, members of the far right and anti-government groups – had pivoted strongly to a topic outside of Covid.
Roose and Ross said it suggested the groups may have longevity beyond the pandemic.
“People think the groups will settle down when Covid returns to normal, but this Putin issue shows the movement still has life in it,” Ross said. “Who knows where it goes?
“Some people have made it their identity, they’ve made it their life to be a ‘freedom fighter’.”
Roose suggested the groups would be fertile ground for cultivation by far-right populist politicians or movements.
“I don’t think they’ll go away,” he said. “There’s a fluidity and diversity of the movement, common emotional and political strands of a deep sense of anxiety about the future.
“Some will go back to work after Covid, but there’s that sense of alienation and disenfranchisement. That deep distrust of government, science and politicians doesn’t go away.”
