While appearing yesterday on Jim Bakker’s television program, right-wing preacher Lance Wallnau offered a rather stunning defense of Russian president Vladimir Putin by admitting that while he probably kills journalists and runs his country like a criminal enterprise, he’s been friendly to Christians and represents less of a danger to the world than American liberals.

“I’m suspicious when the establishment right and the entire left all hate one nation,” Wallnau said. “You know what? I’m beginning to wonder what’s right with Russia that they’re so vilified by the left.”

Wallnau said that “Putin is trying to be a friend to the West,” but LGBTQ activists will not allow that to happen because public policy in Russia “has been shaped by Christians.”

“Don’t ever underestimate the hostility that America’s system has toward anyone who won’t bow the knee to the orthodoxy of the homosexual agenda,” Wallnau said. “That is the unpardonable sin to the liberals.”

“I’m not saying that Putin is a good guy. He’s like a mafia chief over there,” Wallnau continued. “I will say that he is not nearly—as a Christian, if you are faithful to Russia and you are not a danger to his government, you are probably not going to find him an adversary in your own nation. I fear more liberals in America than I fear Putin in Russia.”

“Does he kill journalists? Probably. It is run like a mafia state with the oligarchs? Probably,” he admitted, dismissively.