The Soviets cultivated intellectuals and artists, from Picasso to Bernard Shaw. All the Kremlin can muster now are Z-list influencers
This week, a motley crew of Westerners, including Andrew Tate, appeared at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum Credit: Alexandru Dobre/AP Photo
By Owen Matthews
Owen Matthews is a writer, historian and journalist and a former Moscow and Istanbul Bureau Chief for Newsweek. He speaks Russian as a native speaker and his books have been translated into 28 languages.
Published 05 June 2026
What is the difference between a useful idiot and a fellow traveller? For the record, “useful idiots” (a term coined not by Vladimir Leninbut first used mockingly in Britain against Russian nihilists of the 1860s) are unaware that they are being used for propaganda purposes by sinister regimes. Fellow travellers, on the other hand, are well aware but don’t care.
In Soviet times, world-class celebrities such as Pablo Picasso, George Bernard Shaw, John Steinbeck, André Gide, Jean-Paul Sartre and John Dos Passos all made carefully orchestrated trips to admire the achievements of the mighty USSR.
Most of these Commie-curious pilgrims were deeply impressed. “Tomorrow I leave this land of hope,” wrote Shaw in 1931 after a luxury river cruise and a visit to Stalin in the Kremlin, “and return to our Western countries – the countries of despair.” Others later became disillusioned. But for 70 years Kremlin propagandists were able to enlist a sizeable chunk of the West’s intellectuals to their cause.
In Soviet times, world-class celebrities such as George Bernard Shaw made carefully orchestrated trips to admire the achievements of the mighty USSR Credit: Popperfoto
Compare and contrast to the kind of fellow travellers that Russia attracts today. Like a failing music hall in a blighted British seaside town, the Kremlin is reduced to desperately booking its panto acts exclusively from a Z-list of malcontents, grifters, provocateurs and convicted sex criminals.
This week, a motley crew of Westerners, all self-professed Putin fanboys and girls, appeared at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) to express their solidarity with Holy Russia. Among them weremanosphere influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who face charges in Romania and Britain for alleged rape, actual bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain.
Andrew and Tristan Tate appeared at the SPIEF to express their solidarity with Holy Russia Credit: Vadim Ghirda/AP
The brothers, who deny any wrongdoing, were welcomed at the airport by a posse of beautiful young girls in traditional Russian dress bearing bread and salt while a patriotic anthem played, suggesting that the Kremlin’s PR managers are not only boomers stuck in the 1980s but are also deaf to irony.
American Right-wing influencer Candace Owens was at the forum too, as was the Kremlin’s favourite action hero Steven Seagal, beloved among pensioners as the star of history’s cheesiest karate movies. Scott Ritter, the former UN weapons inspector and convicted paedophile, attended in his capacity as a prominent pro-Kremlin voice.
American Right-wing influencer Candace Owens was also at the forum Credit: ANATOLY MALTSEV/EPA
Former German chancellor and Gazprom board member Gerhard Schröder was the most senior European while the top American was Rodney Mims Cook Jr, Trump’s Chairman of the US Commission of Fine Arts, best known as the impresario of the new White House ballroom. Cook attended, insisted the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, in an unofficial capacity.
Sadly for Putin, the grand opening of the forum was disrupted by a squadron of Ukrainian long-range bomber drones which buzzed low over the city before slamming into an oil and gas export terminal. Vast plumes of black smoke billowed into the skies, clearly visible from the conference venue – though the usual air raid sirens were switched off so as not to alarm the guests. An official delegation from the Taliban, all in traditional robes, must have been disconcerted to find St Petersburg more dangerous than Kabul.
Once, Putin’s pet forum attracted Wall Street banks and European leaders hoping to integrate Russia into the global economic order. This year the heads of state to attend were the presidents of Uzbekistan, Tanzania and Abkhazia – a breakaway region of Georgia recognised as a state only by Russia, Venezuela, Syria, Nauru, and Nicaragua (Tuvalu and Vanuatu withdrew their support).
Before his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Putin had many prominent international admirers and allies.
In Italy, former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and current deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini were firm fans. In France, Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour expressed support for Putin’s traditional values. In Germany, former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, populist Left-wing leader Sahra Wagenknecht and Alternative for Germany’s Alice Weidel maintained warm relations with Moscow. Mainstream British politicians appeared on Kremlin-controlled propaganda channel Russia Today – including a memorable appearance from Nigel Farage where a child dressed as a queen pretended to knight him.
Europe’s impotence and irresponsibility over Russia is on full display
Today, Putin cuts a lonely and increasingly ridiculous figure. The Kremlin’s attempts to demonstrate that it still has friends and supporters in the West look pathetic, ham-handed and deeply cringe. It’s a sad indication of Russia’s inferiority complex that they still crave validation by Westerners – even if they’re Q-Anon Tik-Tokers, steroidal weirdos and convicted perverts. And it’s a powerful indication of how far Russia’s soft power has fallen that they can’t recruit even half-decent idiots any more.
Some very pertinent and well-informed comments here :
John Polenski
Beneath all the pretence of being ridiculous, things are perhaps a bit more sinister. At the forum tomorrow, a Russian delegation led by Kirill Dmitriev will sign an agreement with the US to advance preparation for a tunnel connecting Alaska to Russia. The fact it’s with an engineering firm allows the Americans to claim it’s all “unofficial”. Don be so sure. The US is slowly restoring relations with Russia.
Trevor Smallwood
Reply to John Polenski
Dmitriev is Vlad’s sovereign wealth buddy. A friend to the Trump family via Kushner and is known to hang about in the Saudi court.
He’s the guy Witkoff talked to when deciding how to disrupt Trump’s consideration on Tomahawks for Ukraine. He’s a purveyor of ‘deals’ to the morally compromised.
Just an all-round sleaze.
Hilary Deighton
Reply to John Polenski
I don’t think it’s the U.S., it’s one deeply corrupt and intellectually-challenged man.
Bad Looking Rooster
Reply to Hilary Deighton
And the real useful idiots being GOP reps and senators unwilling to check the corrupt and intellectually challenged man
Booker Croker
Garry Kasparov is one of the few Russians who can rightfully hold their head high. He’s right about almost everything. He said this yesterday :
“Ukraine is capable of targeting Russian civilians the way Russia does. In fact, Russia can reserve more of its air defenses for military and energy targets because Ukraine doesn’t do so. Murdering innocents is a choice Russia makes every day.”
GRAHAM REEVE
Reply to Booker Croker – view message
Indeed. We really should listen to him– like a fortune-teller, this is a quote from him from back in 2015:
“Ukraine is just one battle the free world would like to ignore in a larger war it refuses to acknowledge even exists. But pretending you don’t have enemies does not make it true. The Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union are gone, but the enemies of freedom who built them are not. History does not end; it runs in cycles. The failure to defend Ukraine today is the failure of the Allies to defend Czechoslovakia in 1938. The world must act now so that Poland in 2015 will not be called on to play the role of Poland in 1939.”
Paul Neczypir
You seem to have overlooked Russia Today regular Jeremy Corbyn – the man Keir Starmer referred to at the time as “a colleague and a friend”.
Booker Croker
Reply to Paul Neczypir
Apart from his RaT appearances, JeremIRA CorbLenin actually had his own show on Press TV! (Russia’s client Iran).
It was every bit as execrable as one can imagine.
Michael Rawnsley
Reply to Booker Croker
The most useful idiot they ever had! And that’s saying something….
Trevor Smallwood
Excellent article Owen. You nailed it and them.
Hilary Deighton
I know Ukraine is far above such an act, and absolutely rightly so, I do not recommend it, but one could idly dream of one missile landing on that gathering and instantly making the world a much better place …
Bronislaw Kowal
It’s baffling that pseudo-intellectuals such as George Bernard Shaw fawned over the Soviet system yet decided to return to the ‘countries of despair’ following their visits. They obviously thought we needed their genius.
Matthew Matic
Delegates often pay to go to these events.
I wonder how much this rent-a-crowd cost.
Poor Putin. He so much wants to appear in the guise of Peter the Great, but Vladimir the Flop is the nearest he gets.
Ruth Nares
Good one Owen. I was despairing over your articles on Ukraine last year.
Scenting change, at last.
Given that you were once very denigrating about Zelensky and the state of the war – not only the DT but in the Spectator.
Steve McClellan
I’m surprised Farage didn’t rock up and meet his old buddy. Just two years ago he described Andrew Tate as an “important voice for young men”. He really does pick ‘em!
Donald Pump
Luckily, our Nige no longer needs the money so declined the invitation.
Commenter John Polenski said :
“Beneath all the pretence of being ridiculous, things are perhaps a bit more sinister. At the forum tomorrow, a Russian delegation led by Kirill Dmitriev will sign an agreement with the US to advance preparation for a tunnel connecting Alaska to Russia. The fact it’s with an engineering firm allows the Americans to claim it’s all “unofficial”. Don be so sure. The US is slowly restoring relations with Russia.”
Absolutely disgusting.
We are about to see the sinister outcome of this.
The putler fan boys at this shit show are also maga fans. There’s the nexus.
The Tate bros : Ivan Muskovy loves these cokksukkaz.
If someone where to make a joke about a hugely expensive project that is massively useless, filling the pockets of the most corrupt people on both sides, this planned tunnel would hit the bullseye. I cannot think of anything useful this thing could have. The route would connect some of the remotest places on this planet with harsh weather conditions most of the year.
OwenZ. : Maga with added Ukraine hate and Jew hate.
This economic forum is a farce like so many other absurd things in the mafia state. From Ukraine, it recieved a fitting salutation for its beginning and a cheerio for its conclusion.