Putin’s fascism is openly on display in Russia

Russia’s relentless move toward some form of fascism has been especially in evidence in recent days. Such a development is not surprising. Extremism is a slippery slope, and once you step onto the right-wing variety, as Putin did many years ago, you will soon be entering the ideological and political terrain defined by the likes of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler.

One of the hallmarks of fascist and neo-Nazi regimes is the existence of radical youth organizations like the Hitler Jugend. An earlier version of this in Russia was the Nashi (Our People) movement, founded in 2005 but dissolved in 2019. At present, this role is filled by the Brotherhood of Academists, which has branches in at least 20 Russian universities.

According to an opposition website, “The group’s student members…meet with and attend lectures from politicians and right-wing figures, participate in various projects to support Russian troops in Ukraine, write denunciations against public figures who oppose the invasion, and sometimes even join the war themselves.”

But that’s not all. “The group’s ultimate goal is to help Russia fulfill its spiritual destiny of becoming a Christian Empire.” As a result, the Academists expect the 21st century to become a “golden age of Russian culture” and an “era of Russia’s ideological and cultural dominance in the world.”

Given Russia’s Lilliputian economy, incompetent military and absence of soft power, all one can say is, “Good luck with that!” Unfortunately, the Academists’ imperialist megalomania stands to cost Russians and their neighbors dearly.

Another hallmark of fascism is the demonization of “the other” and the intentional use of illogic. While addressing the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, Russian Deputy Justice Minister Oleg Sviridenko warned that gay and transgender individuals are “easily drawn into extremist activity” and are prone to becoming “carriers of gender extremism and gay nationalism.” Sviridenko didn’t specify just what sort of extremist activity this might be, probably because the charge is so absurd.

The most absurd part is his reference to “gay nationalism.” Nationalism may be interpreted in many ways, but whatever it is, it has something to do with nations. One may speak of Russian nationalism or Greek nationalism, but gay nationalism makes as much sense as blond nationalism or tall nationalism.

But that doesn’t matter, since illogic is the point. In Sviridenko’s parallel universe, everyone he detests must be a nationalist, and that includes gays. That way, they can be conveniently lumped together with Ukrainians, who are “neo-Nazi” nationalists by definition, and both can then be calmly exterminated as dangerous.

Speaking of extermination, consider the inimitable Vladimir Solovyov, a Russian television personality and Putinite Russia’s answer to Germany’s Joseph Goebbels. Here’s one of his recent genocidal pronouncements: “All the Nazi dirt bags must be eradicated. Do you understand why? [Ukraine] must be cleansed! Have you ever tried getting rid of bed bugs?”

Expecting Putin to negotiate with “bed bugs,” as some naive Western analysts still do, is about as realistic as expecting Adolf Hitler to negotiate with Untermenschen.

As students of genocide know, one of the key steps associated with it is the discursive transformation of the target population into subhumans, non-humans, vermin and the like. Jews, Roma and Slavs were Untermenschen in Goebbels’s twisted world; in Solovyov’s, Ukrainians are bed bugs. Consider Solovyov’s ravings in light of Sviridenko’s, and you can’t avoid concluding that gays are no less bed bugs than Ukrainians.

Austria’s former foreign minister, Karin Kneissl of the far-right Freedom Party, decamped to Russia last year. She is so enamored of Putin’s realm that she has said, “I like living in Russia…because there is freedom here. And freedom means living in safety. And in St. Petersburg or Moscow or Khabarovsk it is possible to walk in the park at night…This was possible in Austria 30 years ago. Now it’s impossible.”

Kneissl presumably fears all the violent gays, evil Ukrainians and disgusting bed bugs lurking in such dangerous places as Vienna, a city consistently rated as the most livable in the world. (Lest you think Kneissl is the only Westerner to take on this weird pro-Putin value system, consider that Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs has gone so far as to grace Solovyov’s rabid airwaves.)

In light of Russia having gone off the rails of rationality, it is almost heartening to read that Putin’s great friend and ally, the inimitable Kim Jong Un of North Korea, has launched balloons filled with manure and garbage over South Korea. It’s not clear what Pyongyang hopes to achieve with this symbolic gesture, but it’s surely preferable to missile tests and saber rattling.

Since Putin, Solovyov, Sviridenko and Kneissl are (to put it kindly) full of it, North Korea might want to consider using them in its next balloon stunt.

Alexander J. Motyl is a professor of political science at Rutgers University-Newark. A specialist on Ukraine, Russia and the USSR, and on nationalism, revolutions, empires and theory, he is the author of 10 books of nonfiction, as well as “Imperial Ends: The Decay, Collapse, and Revival of Empires” and “Why Empires Reemerge: Imperial Collapse and Imperial Revival in Comparative Perspective.”