NYT: U.K. Far Right, Lifted by Trump, Now Turns to Russia

[DBoon]

A former soccer hooligan and founder of the English Defence League, one of Britain’s most notorious nationalist groups, Mr. Robinson has largely been a pariah in his home country but Trump loyalists embraced him much the way they embraced many of the American extremist groups whose members would join the Capitol riot, including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

Mr. Robinson appeared on Fox News and Infowars. A right-wing U.S. research institute even bankrolled a 2018 rally in London that foreshadowed the violence at the Capitol: Mr. Robinson’s supporters attacked police officers in a street fight near Parliament. A month later, Representative Paul Gosar, Republican of Arizona, flew to London to speak at a second rally for Mr. Robinson.

...

Now that Mr. Trump is out of office and the American money is apparently drying up, Mr. Robinson and some other far-right figures are turning to Moscow. Mr. Robinson, who is fighting a potentially costly libel case in London this week, did a media tour of Russia last year but three associates told The New York Times that part of his agenda was kept secret — to seek accounts with Russian banks.

...

In many ways, Mr. Robinson is now useful to the Kremlin — which has often encouraged fringe political figures who might destabilize Western democracies — for the same reasons he was welcome in Mr. Trump’s Washington.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/23/world/europe/uk-far-right-tommy-robinson-russia.html

[dalton99a]

1. This POS is an opportunistic criminal

By his own admission, Mr. Robinson appreciates luxury. He once arrived in prison with Gucci flip flops.

“I wanted to go and see what Russia was like and try to understand the freedom aspect because our politicians and journalists go on about how Russians have no free speech, how Russians have no freedom,” he said.

“But I wanted just to let them know that we don’t over here, we have a facade.”

It is a message that the Kremlin’s propaganda networks dutifully conveyed.

Wiki has a good account of his activities:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Robinson_(activist)

In October 2012, Robinson was arrested and held on the charge of having entered the United States illegally. Robinson pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to using someone else's passport to travel to the United States in September 2012, and was sentenced in January 2013 to 10 months' imprisonment.[16][192][193]

Robinson had used a passport in the name of Andrew McMaster to board a Virgin Atlantic flight from Heathrow to New York.[16] He had been banned from entering the US due to his criminal record. When he arrived at New York's JFK Airport, customs officials who took his fingerprints realised he was not McMaster. He was asked to attend a second interview but left the airport, entering the US illegally. He stayed one night and returned to the UK the following day using his own legitimate passport – which bears the name Paul Harris.[194]

Judge Alistair McCreath told him: "What you did went absolutely to the heart of the immigration controls that the United States are entitled to have. It's not in any sense trivial."[16]

He was released on electronic tag on 22 February 2013.[195]

[blm]

2. Dangerous RIghtWingers want to replace Law and Order with THEIR

Version of Law and Order that aligns with Putin’s plan to destroy Western democracies.

[keithbvadu2]

3. Newer repub meme during Trump's administration::: Russia is our friend.

Newer repub meme during Trump's administration::: Russia is our friend.

[OnDoutside]

4. The truth is Russia has infiltrated the UK long before now, and i suspect it's going to be

very difficult to get rid of them.