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The right-wing radical candidate from the libertarian coalition "Freedom is Coming" (La Libertad Avanza), Javier Milei, won the presidential elections in Argentina. He received more than 56% of votes and beat the opponent nominated by the center-left coalition (not the leftist) Sergio Massa, the Associated Press reports. It is the highest percentage received by a candidate for the Argentine presidency in the last 40 years. Milei's election campaign symbol was a chainsaw, symbolizing the intention to cut budget expenditures and defeat the political establishment. Javier Milei advocates for abandoning the national currency (peso), switching to the American dollar, liquidating the Central Bank, and privatizing education and health care. Milei described his foreign policy proposals as a global "struggle against socialists and statists", characterized Beijing as a "murderer", and promised to abandon cooperation with Buenos Aires' most significant trading partners — China, Brazil, and Russia — in favor of the United States and Israel. He supports the right-wing extremist former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, and the former president of the United States, Donald Trump, primarily in their anti-communist stances. In the media, Milei has been called a mini-Trump for his eccentricity, stance on climate issues, and abortion. He is also against Argentina joining the BRICS geopolitical coalition. Milei called one of the most popular Argentines in the world, Pope Francis, "a fool", "the number one evil on earth", and "a son of a bitch who preaches communism". At the same time, the politician supports Ukraine — with the beginning of a full-scale invasion, he entered the Palace of the National Congress of Argentina with the Ukrainian flag. President Zelenskyy thanked Milei "for a clear stance on supporting Ukraine." He also added that the parties will contribute to developing Ukraine-Argentina cooperation and restoring the world legal order based on international law. Read more on how Russian agitational propaganda reacted to the election of a new president in Argentina, which was traditionally friendly to Moscow, and what can be expected from the right turn in this Latin American country.
Javier Milei, photo by Getty Images
Argentina and the war against Ukraine
In 2014, when Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula and started a war in the East of Ukraine, many states of the Global South, including Argentina, took a neutral position. In particular, during the vote at the UN General Assembly for the Resolution on the territorial integrity of Ukraine dated March 27, 2014, Argentine leadership abstained. However, after February 24, 2022, Argentina became more active in supporting Ukrainian initiatives. In particular, it voted for the Resolution of the General Assembly UN ES ‑11/1, which demands the cancellation of Russia's decision regarding the status of certain districts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine, Resolution UN ES ‑11/2 with a call to withdraw from the territory of Ukraine, as well as Resolution UN ES-11/3, which suspended Russia's membership in the UN Security Council on Human Rights due to concerns over the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. Moreover, Argentina became a co-author of the Resolution of the UN General Assembly dated February 23, 2023, "The Principles of the Charter of the United Nations underlying a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine", which established the key provisions of President Zelenskyy's Peace Formula.
DM discussed in detail how Russian propaganda manipulates the end of the war in Ukraine and devalues the Ukrainian "peace formula". A Buenos Aires Times story marking the anniversary of the full-scale invasion suggested that Argentina's criticism of the war had become more strident in the past 12 months.
In an interview with the "Glavkom" publication, the Ambassador of Ukraine to Argentina, Yuriy Klymenko, said that Argentina is the leader in Latin America regarding the amount of humanitarian aid provided to Ukraine. In the first year of the full-scale invasion, more than 105 tons of cargo were shipped [to Ukraine]. There are relatively few Ukrainian refugees in Argentina, but the local government has simplified the processing of a temporary residence permit and is quite friendly towards Ukrainian refugees.
However, cooperation in the military-technical sphere and supplying weapons to Ukraine are more complicated. "Argentina and Latin America do not consider sending weapons either to Ukraine or to any other conflict zone", Reuters reports, said the former president of Argentina, Alberto Fernandez, in January 2023, when Ukraine was doing everything possible to get as many weapons as possible. As "Dzerkalo Tyzhnya" reported concerning the Washington Center for Strategic and International Studies, the countries of Latin America, including Argentina, formerly purchased Russian and Soviet weapons. Ukraine needs to obtain Soviet-style ammunition, so Latin American stocks could be useful. Besides, according to Defense News, Argentina plans to replace the helicopters purchased in Russia with American counterparts (due to sanctions, maintenance of Russian equipment is impossible). Publication experts assume these helicopters can be transferred to Ukraine, which has the technical capabilities to repair and use them in a counteroffensive campaign.
Russia's reaction to Milei's victory
Kremlin spokesman Dmitriy Peskov said the Kremlin has taken note of Milei's statements regarding Russia but wants to maintain strong ties with Buenos Aires: "We paid attention to Mr. Milei's numerous statements during the election campaign, but mostly we will be guided and judge by what he says after the inauguration. In particular, we are waiting for clarifications on many issues affecting our bilateral relations", TASS reports.
Even during the election campaign, propagandists favorably described Milei as an eccentric, anti-system, and pro-Trump politician whose behavior resembles a concert by the "King and Jester" band (Король и Шут), disregarding his statements in support of Ukraine. Some cautiously expressed the hope that his pro-American position and intention to freeze Argentina’s entry into BRICS (a bloc Russia is trying to turn into an antipode to the Western alliance) will weaken. At the same time, the track to rapprochement with Moscow will strengthen. After the election results announcement, agitational propaganda began to take an extremely critical position on Milei’s victory, who seemed to have sold himself to America: "The vector of his policy indicates that Argentina's economy will be sold to the United States of America", "Argentina will now be in the camp of Russophobic states, it will lose Ukraine's support, sanctions against Russia are possible, and will be refused to join BRICS " (from the propagandist publication "Izvestia"). Some of the Kremlin's spokespeople did not hide their disappointment: "Another country is held hostage by a clown. Knowing well what it's like to have a populist clown in power, I express my sincere condolences to the people of Argentina", as per one of the propagandіst Telegram channels.
What Milei's victory means for Ukraine
Denys Pilash, political science and international relations expert and lecturer at the Department of International Regional Studies at the Institute of International Relations of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University, stated that Milei's victory is another issue for Argentine populism. "The domestic media are often pleased, saying that Milei has a pro-Ukrainian position — but, in fact, all three leading candidates in the elections, Massa, Milei, and Patricia Bulrich from the more moderate right, expressed their support for Ukraine and took pictures with the Ukrainian flag.
"Even for those Latin American right-wing populists who are not Putinists, but on the contrary, boast of being pro-Ukrainian, like Milei and Kast, the Ukrainian issue is of secondary importance, in contrast to their admiration for Trump, whose course they are ready to copy in detail (…) Another matter is the obsession with the "fight against the damned socialists" (whether it's the PRC, the Brazilian Lula or the Chilean ultra-democrat Gabriel Borich, who is also a friend of Ukraine), which Milei puts at the center of his foreign policy strategy and which can hurt regional integration", — as per Denys Pilash.
In an exclusive comment for Detector Media, Oleksandr Slyvchuk, coordinator of the program of cooperation with Spain and Latin America in the Center for Transatlantic Dialogue, stated: "Milei very often said in interviews that he does not plan to maintain political contacts such as hold meetings with the leaders of Russia and China because he views them as autocrats. Such a stance will probably be in favor of Ukraine. I believe that Milei will not flirt with Russia (at least publicly), as his predecessor Alberto Fernandez did." The expert added that Milei has repeatedly stated that there is a struggle between democracy and autocracy in Ukraine, so supporting Ukraine is part of his position against authoritarian regimes.
"Milei is a libertarian for whom the economy is the business of private individuals. Argentine business people will not be hindered if they want to trade with Russia. At the political level, we might see a fight against Russian propaganda’s influence in Argentina, putting pressure on RT (propaganda television company financed from the Russian state budget — DM)", predicts Oleksandr Slyvchuk.
Image collage credits: Detector Media
