To Russia With Love: Pat Buchanan Continues Bromance with Putin

While world leaders are decrying Russian President Vladmir Putin for his country's crackdown on gay rights and recent annexation of Crimea, conservative pundit and former GOP presidential hopeful Pat Buchanan seems to have nothing but praise for the Russian despot.

In his column this week titled "Is God Now On Russia's Side?," Buchanan defends Putin's decision to annex Crimea. Citing a speech given by the Russian president in 2013 where he said that the former Ukrainian region "is the location of ancient Khersones, where Prince Vladimir was baptized," Buchanan concludes that "Russia is a Christian country."

Buchanan further lauds Putin by continuing with another quote from his 2013 speech where the Russian leader blasted Western leaders for LGBT tolerance.

"Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values. Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God and a belief in Satan. This is the path to degradation."

Buchanan adds, "Heard any Western leader, say, Barack Obama, talk like that lately?"

In his continued praise of Putin, Buchanan goes on to say, "In the culture war for the future of mankind, Putin is planting Russia's flag firmly on the side of traditional Christianity. [..]The West's capitulation to a sexual revolution of easy divorce, rampant promiscuity, pornography, homosexuality, feminism, abortion, same-sex marriage, euthanasia, assisted suicide - the displacement of Christian values by Hollywood values."

Buchanan ends his column :"In the new ideological Cold War, whose side is God on now?"

Today's column isn't the first time Buchanan has taken to print to applaud the Russian president. In a December 2013 column titled "Is Putin One of Us?," Buchanan said, "While privacy and freedom of thought, religion and speech are cherished rights, to equate traditional marriage and same-sex marriage is to equate good with evil."

A former commentator for MSNBC, Buchanan was fired by the left-leaning cable news channel in 2012 shortly after the publication of his book "Suicide of a Superpower." The work, which was roundly condemned included a chapter titled "The End of White America." Buchanan blamed the ouster on pressure from gay and civil rights organization.