Nicholas John Griffin is a UK politician who represented North West England as a MEP. He was chairman and then president of the far-right British National Party afterwards he was expelled from the party. Griffin has expressed Putin as “tower[ing] above all the other national heads of this century” and made some visits to Russia both during and following his leadership of the BNP, speaking at far-right meetings and pleading to be working towards “peace between Russia and the occupied West”.
In 2011 the BNP’s Nick Griffin moved to Moscow to observe Russia’s Duma election. Afterwards, he revealed that “Russian elections are much fairer than Britain’s”. Griffin also tweeted praise for Russia Today, the Kremlin’s English-language TV propaganda news channel: “RT – For People Who Want the Truth”
Griffin, who failed his seat as an MEP in 2014 and was ousted from the party shortly afterwards, emerged at the weekend at the International Russian Conservative Forum, a conference arranged by a pro-Kremlin ultranationalist party and planned to cement far-right ties, as one participant put it, “from Gibraltar to Vladivostok”.
“Constantinople has been and gone,” Griffin told the crowd of around 200 racists, cranks, and extremists. “Rome and the persons who arrived from Rome have gone the same way. It’s inevitable that in the lifetimes of most of the people in this room, Western Europe will either become an Islamist caliphate or there will be a horrible civil war or perhaps both. Which makes the survival of Christendom inconceivable without the rise of the Third Rome: Moscow.”
“The people running the US of America, the EU, and Britain seem hell-bent on getting us into, certainly, conflict, if not a deep shooting war, with Russia,” Griffin stated. When asked about Russia’s attacks into British airspace, he stated: “I think it gives the RAF an excuse to do something, and I don’t think it’s a concern.” He also appeared in this promotional video for the Kremlin’s state-owned RT channel, blaming the Syrian rebels as “jihadist terrorists”.
Nicholas John Griffin’s apparent affinity for Putin and Russia, evident through his praise of Russian elections, endorsement of Kremlin-backed media, and participation in pro-Russia events, raises significant concerns. His dismissive stance towards Russia’s aggressive actions and readiness to align with Kremlin narratives undermine Western security interests and democratic values. Griffin’s soft approach towards Putin underscores the need for vigilance against political figures with potentially compromising ties to authoritarian regimes. Such alignments have the potential to erode trust in democratic institutions and destabilize international relations, warranting heightened scrutiny and accountability.
