Richard Spencer’s Wife, Nina Kouprianova, Does Not Support Alt-Right

Richard Spencer, one of the leaders of the alt-right movement, is once again grabbing the headlines after he returned to Charlottesville, Virginia, with his supporters Saturday to voice white supremacist slogans in front of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, less than two months after violence sparked following a white nationalist gathering left a protester dead in the city.

While Spencer is firm in his agenda of reviving white nationalism and the need for “ethnic cleansing,” his wife Nina Kouprianova does not seem to share his views. In an interview in September with the Observer, Kouprianova said she did not believe that people of the European descent enjoy a superiority of race over those having African-American origin.

“It is difficult to measure superiority or inferiority of a peoples [Sic]. What factors are we using and by whose standards?” she said. “I am not referring to complete relativism of comparing abstract expressionism to Leonardo da Vinci, but rather about accounting for contextual differences. For instance, a highly intelligent American armed with a Ph.D. would likely not survive deep in the Amazon for long the way its native tribes would."

Unlike her husband, she also holds conviction in some of the political ideologies of the “left-wing." “My support for “left-wing” economic issues, such as maternity leave, universal health care, or concern for the environment would have many a U.S. Republican cringing and calling me a “leftie!” At the same time, I am what some would call socially and culturally conservative.”

She has also made it clear that she opposes “institutional discrimination and, especially, ‘civilizing’ initiatives — whether historic colonialism or contemporary ‘humanitarian’ interventions by Washington and its allies to ‘export democracy’ outside the West.”

Kouprianova was born in Moscow, Russia, and she immigrated to Canada with her family in mid-1990s. She moved to the United States after getting married to Spencer. It was rumored the couple got separated in October 2016 after Spencer claimed his movement had taken a toll on their relationship, according to the Daily Beast. They have a daughter together.

However, at a press conference at the Auburn University in April, Spencer claimed he was not separated from his wife and they were still together. In an Instagram post, last month, Kouprianova is seen cradling a pregnant belly. She also confirmed to one curious commenter that she was, in fact, expecting a second child.

In spite of the rumors they were not staying together anymore, Kouprianova still gets trolled on the internet as well as in real life. While she shakes off the online hate gestures with a smile, physical trolling in the real world is harder to escape.

“This ranges from sexual harassment and death threats on social media to attempts to destroy my livelihood — and that of my extended family, far removed from anything political,” she said. “Sometimes this occurs in daily life: My young child and I have been denied service at restaurants on a number of occasions.”

Something that both Spencer and Kouprianova share is their love for Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I think that Putin and Trump in a way offer an alternative to what’s going on at the moment,” Spencer said last year on Russia Today (RT). “They offer an alternative what you call neo-conservative or neoliberal foreign policy.”

According to Raw Story, Kouprianova publishes articles praising Putin’s policies, under the pseudonym Nina Byzantina, where frequently berates western media and also appears on the Kremlin-funded news network, RT, to promote anti-Ukrainian propaganda.

“I support Putin for the same reason that over 80 percent of Russians do: He brought his country back from the brink of collapse of the 1990s,” Kouprianova told the Observer. “I am generally supportive of his foreign-policy trajectory and promoting Russian interests on the international arena in the last decade.”

Kouprianova has also supported “peaceful” ethnic cleansing, while carefully avoiding to show support toward her husband’s movement. “‘Ethnic cleansing’ is a very heavy, loaded term,” she said. “There are some recent examples of fairly peaceful separations, as was the case of post-Soviet Czechoslovakia split, as well as some violent ones, for instance, the ethnic cleansing of Russians from Central Asia and parts of the Caucasus after 1991.”

Even as his spouse’s stance on his movement remains murky, Spencer has claimed no government, federal or state, has the power to stop him from spreading his agenda. When Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer tweeted, “Another despicable visit by neo-Nazi cowards. You’re not welcome here! Go home! Meantime we’re looking at all our legal options. Stay tuned” on Saturday night, following Spencer’s protest, Spencer had an answer ready.

“It’s a joke,” Spencer told The Washington Post Sunday. “He has no authority to prevent lawful protests like what we did last night. … He currently thinks the city of Charlottesville is a sovereign nation or something.”