Republican voters have never been pro-Putin or pro-Russia. The liberal-leaning media has just tended to misrepresent conservative GOP foreign policy for many years now.
At the onset of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, most GOP voters said they disapproved of Biden's Ukraine policy in that he had not done enough to push back against Russian aggression. While the number now saying the same has sharply declined, that can be attributed to the unprecedented $30B that the U.S. has spent on Ukraine's defense in the intervening 12 months. The grassroots Republican belief that we should be paying more attention to our problems at home is anything but new and resonates as much with independents and very many Democrats.
These partisan arguments around Biden's response to Russia obscure the objective reality that Republicans and Democrats are now more closely aligned than ever before on opposing Russia. The gap between the share of Republicans and Democrats who view Russia "very unfavorably" is only 5 points.
Ignorance of these facts suggests a broader problem with mainstream journalistic and academic takes on the GOP's foreign policy. Most commentators take for granted that there is only one valid U.S. foreign policy position, namely the liberal internationalist approach. Debate is permitted only between hawks and doves within this tradition, but there is no room for anyone from outside of it (which is how Republicans are now somehow both warmongers and isolationists, LOL.)
Given the stubborn conservative affection for the notion that ours is an independent country, regardless of cosmopolitan dreams of global government, your typical GOP voter is not going to be picking from the menu of internationalist policy proposals as defined by liberals. Our starting point just isn't a rules-based mulilateral world order. Our starting point is America First.
If you're interested in looking at one piece of anecdotal evidence in your favor anway, George Noory, the right wing host of Coast to Coast Am, the conspiratorial program started by Art Bell, has had a number of Pro Putin guests on since 2010 or so. There was a love in with Putin by a slice of the right in the U.S who saw him as an alpha male in contrast to the 'metro sexual' President Obama.
This was especially the case with so-called 'paleoconservatives' like Alex Jones.
Noory's main pro Putin guest for a number of years though was the left wing professor Stephen F. Cohen, but especially since Cohen died, he's been trying to find others to fill the gap.
It seems one of the best Noory can do is Major Ed Dames, who claims to be an expert in 'remote viewing' (and who not only hasn't made any correct predictions since he first appeared on the show with Art Bell about 30 years ago) but who even moved to Ukraine believing it was one of the safest nations in the world.
Anyway, if you look at the comments on the program with Ed Dames (and Eisenhower and the aliens) there are maybe 40 comments from about 10 commenters responding to Dames' pro Putin misinformation, but only two of the commenters support Dames.
https://www.facebook.com/coasttocoastam/In regards to knowing that it's disinformation. Dames claims that the Russians are only using bombs because the Ukrainians hide their tanks in buildings to use them against Russian soldiers. Except, there are no and never have been Russian soldiers in many of the Ukrainian cities bombed by Russia.
For what it's worth, I missed the Eisenhower and the aliens second half, but I know it's a common belief with many 'UFO researchers' that Eisenhower negotiated an agreement with alien civiliations that allowed for them to come here in secret (and abduct humans) while getting some technology in return.
