Putin still has friends in the west - and they’re gaining ground | Jonathan Freedland

That picture of Vladimir Putin, alone at the end of a long Kremlin table, may prove one of the enduring images of this war - but it is deceiving. Because although every day brings fresh confirmation that the Russian dictator is drenched in blood, with the rocket attack on Kramatorsk only the latest evidence, he is not friendless. Naturally, he has allies among his fellow brutal world leaders, whether in Minsk, Damascus or Beijing, but he has chums in less expected places too. In a conflict cast by both sides as Putin v the west, the Russian leader has powerful friends behind enemy lines - and, even if his western admirers have had to engage in some deft footwork since the invasion of Ukraine, they are gaining ground.

Still, this weekend Putin will be eyeing an even bigger prize. Sunday sees the first round of voting in the French presidential election, and polls show a surge in support for the perennial candidate of the far right, Marine Le Pen. In a head-to-head contest against Emmanuel Macron, the likely second round in a fortnight, the gap between the two is tiny, well within the margin of error. After 2016, the year of Brexit and Donald Trump, no one should be reckless enough to rule out a shock in France.

All of which is perhaps small beer compared with the big one, the most powerful western friend Vladimir Putin ever had: Donald Trump. He's no longer in the White House, though he could well be back in 2024, while the legacy of his admiration for Putin - who he praised as a "genius" - lives on in his party. A January poll found that Republicans had a more favourable opinion of Putin than they did of Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. Fox News's top-rated anchor, Tucker Carlson, has been airing Kremlin talking points on his show, including the false claim that the US is funding biological weapons labs in Ukraine, and he's fond of suggesting that he has less beef with Putin than he does with US liberals. After all, asks Carlson: "Has Putin ever called me a racist?"

This gets close to the heart of the matter. For a certain stripe of rightist, Putin has long embodied an alternative to western cultural decline at the hands of the liberals: a nationalist, conservative, white, Christian ideal uncorrupted by feminism or gay rights. That picture has become confused since the 24 February invasion, now that it is Putin who is slaughtering white Christian Europeans. But plenty cling to it all the same.

It means the struggle against Putinism will not be fought with sanctions and arms alone. Nor will it be conducted solely in Russia or Ukraine. The threat is not so far away. The call is coming from inside the house.