Lula da Silva's visit to Russia is hypocritical, undermining everything he allegedly stands for

Editor's note: This opinion first appeared in CNN Portugal.

In January 2023, Brazil rid itself of Jair Bolsonaro's government. Bolsonaro's rule saw dictatorship's torturers exalted, minorities being targeted, and democracy treated as an obstacle.

In this atmosphere, the 2022 elections allowed his political opponents to brand themselves as defenders of democracy, even if their own pasts were not without problems.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, despite his longstanding sympathy for authoritarian regimes such as those of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela or Fidel and Raul Castro's iron rule over Cuba, moderated his rhetoric during the 2022 election campaign and presented himself as the only viable alternative to Bolsonaro's nationalism and ultraconservatism.

With the active support of his new wife, Janja Lula da Silva, he built a campaign centered on defending democracy.

This rhetoric remains present in Lula's public projection, especially when he criticizes the nationalism of U.S. President Donald Trump, Bolsonaro's ally, for governing unilaterally and disregarding institutions, rules, and any appreciation of diversity.

But one thing stands out about Lula and Janja — their selectivity and hypocrisy.

On the morning of May 3, Janja landed in Moscow six days ahead of the president and posted on social media that, at the invitation of the Russian government, she had visited the Kremlin.

In her post, she tried to give the visit a reflective tone, stating that in such difficult times as we live in today, with conflicts spreading and intensifying and with the resurgence of extremist forces, it is necessary and important to preserve memory, learn from history, and together build a future of peace and fraternity among peoples.

The problem is that Janja speaks of peace and fraternity precisely alongside a regime that has carried out the gravest violation of peace in Europe since World War II. Russian President Vladimir Putin not only invaded a sovereign country but also bombarded hospitals and murdered opponents, all while rewriting history using both propaganda and tanks.

If Janja is concerned about extremism, she should look to her host, one of the darkest showings of modern authoritarianism, who faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children.

Lula and Janja have made themselves pawns in Vladimir Putin's theater. Lula arrived in Moscow on May 9 to participate, alongside other authoritarian leaders such as Belarus's Aleksandr Lukashenko, Venezuela's Maduro, and Cuba's Miguel Díaz-Canel, in the celebrations of the so-called Victory Day. Russia's state news agency TASS has already announced that a large number of world leaders will come to Moscow for the Victory Day celebrations.

The holiday, which marks the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany, has been transformed by Putin into a central propaganda tool, used to justify the invasion of Ukraine as if it were a new crusade against Nazism.

Will Trump help Putin escape punishment for his crimes in Ukraine?

Under former President Joe Biden, the U.S. took the unprecedented step of deepening cooperation with international courts of law. Washington has never been party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC), and U.S. policy towards the Hague-based international tribunal has varied widely under different administrations. Now, since President Donald Trump returned to office, that cooperation has stalled. Among his first actions after returning to the O

The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Hodunova

Brazilian leadership proudly shows its support for democracy at home, yet conveniently forgets that Putin destroyed Russian democracy and murdered those who had the courage to stand up to him.

Putin eliminated political rivals like Alexei Navalny, manipulated elections, and turned the media into propaganda networks. Putin has turned the country into a dictatorship where the constitution has been rewritten to suit the modern czar, and any critical voice is silenced through imprisonment, exile, or poisoning.

Putin has done in Russia everything that Lula had been against in Brazil under Bolsonaro's rule.

Lula and Janja, in contrast to Bolsonaro's machismo and misogyny, have rightly championed feminism, women's rights, and press freedom, all under fire by the previous administration.

Yet, when it comes to foreign policy, Lula and Janja tend to forget what they stand for.

So what does this visit really reveal? On the one hand, Lula has tried to distance himself from regimes like Maduro's, knowing they are unpopular in Brazil and cost him votes. On the other hand, he continues to offer ideological comfort to Putin, even in the face of Russian atrocities.

This reveals the persistence of the old logic of the Latin American left. If a country adopts an anti-Western stance, it is treated as a legitimate ally. It does not matter if this alignment contradicts the values Lula and Janja claim to defend, such as human rights, press freedom, or diversity. In the end, progressive discourse becomes a tool of convenience, used to confront internal opponents but discarded when it is time to denounce abuses by friendly regimes.

Some try to justify the Brazilian government's position by saying that Brazil is part of BRICS or that it depends on Russian fertilizers. But that is a flimsy excuse for those trying to deceive others or themselves.

Putin is in no position of strength to sever ties with the few democracies still willing to maintain dialogue with Moscow. Russia was expelled from the G8, and since then, BRICS has become one of its last international showcases. Putin knows this. He will not risk losing one of the few spaces of global prestige he still holds just because Brazil refuses to openly endorse the invasion of Ukraine. No one is asking to cut diplomatic ties. Maintaining dialogue is part of diplomacy. But posing next to a dictator wanted for war crimes as if nothing is happening is unacceptable.

Anyone who claims to be a defender of democracy cannot applaud a war criminal.

And for those clinging to economic arguments, the data is even more embarrassing.

In 2023, Brazil imported 4.5 billion dollars in diesel from Russia, along with fertilizers and other inputs. But Russia ranked only 41st among Brazil's top export markets, with 1.3 billion dollars. Meanwhile, the United States, which Lula has blamed for prolonging the war, purchased 37.4 billion dollars in Brazilian goods in the same year.

In other words, Lula treads carefully around authoritarian regimes even when the economic relationship is modest and attacks Western partners who support a significant share of Brazilian exports. This is not pragmatism. It is opportunism with an ideological veneer.

If this little trip to Russia reveals anything, it is who Lula and Janja truly are.

Behind the progressive rhetoric and postures in defense of diversity lies the same old musty, incoherent left, one that kneels before dictators as long as they claim to be anti-Western.

A left that loves to denounce conservatism but bows to a regime that criminalizes homosexuality, murders journalists, and deports children.

By posing with Putin, Lula and Janja not only undermine everything they claim to defend. They also expose their lack of political discernment and hand arguments, on a silver platter, to the grotesque conservatism they claim to oppose.