In a new
documentary, aired by state channel Россия 1, Putin admitted that he ordered the invasion of Crimea in 2014. At the same
time, a video called “Russian
occupant” emerges. The video warns about the decadent west and its ‘rotten
democracy’ and calls western values of democracy as ‘alien’ to Russian society.
The clip finishes with the cynical remarks “I build peace, I love peace…yours
dearly, the Russian occupant.” While Moscow
repeatedly accuses the West of supporting a right-wing regime in Ukraine,
the Kremlin has however it seems been courting some rather strange bedfellows
of the far right. Last week the Kremlin invited the crème de la crème of European
fascists to St. Petersburg. Russia advocates a double standard when it
comes to Fascism. Apparently there are bad Nazis – the radicals of Pravyi
Sektor – and there are those good Nazis – ultranationalists which support Putin’s
expansionism. In a country which lost more than 24 million lives to Fascism,
this appears to be rather hypocritical.
So is
Russia treading down a path towards becoming a fascist regime? In order to shed
more light into this discussion, I want to look at some of the principles developed
by Lawrence Britt. He analyzed all the major fascist regimes and found they all
shared some core features
Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
“The
biggest nationalist in Russia; that’s me.” -Vladimir Putin
Fascist states emphasize national
slogans, mottos, songs, symbols and the overtly
use of flags. This is accompanied by a strong chauvinistic undertone. Chauvinism
is the belief of national superiority and glory – an exaggerated form of
patriotism.
Russia’s
relationship with the rest of the world is diametrical. Society has seen a
drastic rise of ultra-nationalism and chauvinism. Criticism is “demonized” as treacherous,
opposition obliterated. Anti-western sentiments, thanks to a relentless
propaganda campaign, are on an all time high. Russia is being portrayed as the
victim. The cornered
‘Bear’ – surrounded by NATO countries.
The
framework of which Russian nationalism operates is called “Russkij
Mir”. A revisionist view of history and imperialism are key elements to how
the Russkij Mir operates. The retelling
of Soviet history is the first main element. There is hesitation and
unwillingness to cope with the crimes of the Soviet regime. The Tsar and the
Soviet Union become mythologized. This is part of Russia’s glorification of its
past. Atrocities turn into victories. The Holodomor
in 1932, the deportation
of Estonians and Tartars,
the purges and the murder of millions of
kulaks are all being relativized.
The last remaining
Gulag – Perm 36 has now been closed, while at the same time the opening of
a museum dedicated to honouring Stalin is announced. Stalin is hailed as a hero
who didn’t murder millions, but who won the war and modernized the country. Putin’s
remarks during a conference
2007 embody this distorted sense of nationalism. In the conference he said:
“All states and peoples have had their ups and downs through history. We must
not allow others to impose a feeling of guilt on us.” Labelling the Soviet
purges as a ‘downer’ in history is an incredible affront to all the victims of
communism.
The second principle
in the Russkij Mir is imperialism. Russia’s Versailles is the collapse of the
Soviet Union. Russians view the collapse of the Soviet empire as a result of
Western intervention rather than the failure of economic policies. Vladimir
Putin himself once remarked that the “The demise of the Soviet Union was the
greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” The fact that the Soviets
invaded East-Germany, Hungary and Prague and brutally crushed people’s uprising
is being down-played. For Russia this is part of the campaign to re-establish
the glory of the olden days when the Soviet Union extended from Asia to
Central-Europe. Vladimir Putin finished his New
Years address with the words “Love for one’s Motherland is one of the most
powerful and enlightening feelings” justifying the invasion of a sovereign country
with the patriotic love of the Russian motherland.
The all time
high of Russia’s ultra-nationalism is alarming. Europe would be well advised
not to tread the footsteps of Chamberlain’s appeasement. When Adolf Hitler
during the Nuremberg
Reichsparteitag in 1938 announced that he would protect ethnic Germans
around the world no matter what – he was talking war and he meant it.
Disdain for the recognition of Human Rights
“Russia will not soon become, if it
ever becomes, a second copy of the United States or England – where liberal value have deep historic roots.” –
Vladimir Putin
Fascism aims at unifying the crowd
through vilifying a common enemy. In order to fight the enemy torture,
intimidation, judicial arbitrariness, police brutality and human rights
violations become accepted means.
Xenophobia
is at an all time high in Russia. There are strong anti-immigrant
resentments towards workers from the Caucasus region. According to a recent
Levada Poll, 69 per cent of Russians view the presence
of immigrants as too “excessive.”
Homosexuals
are widely being discriminated in Russia. The situation of LGBTs
(lesbians, gays, bi- and transsexuals) is horrific. Beside banning ‘homosexual
propaganda’ the government has recently issued a law forbidding
transsexuals or dual-sexes from obtaining a drivers license claiming public
security would improve. There is active state sponsoring of discrimination
through tolerating groups who ‘actively hunt’ homosexuals. Groups
come together to lure men or women over social networks and then beat,
publicly humiliate, urinate on and even kill them. These people actively hunt
homosexuals and the Russian government is not a mere accomplice, but a sponsor
of these activities through tacit consent. Life in Russia for LGBTs is a dystopian
nightmare.
Officially
human rights are not suspended in Russia. The legal protection by courts
however is arbitrary. Due to corrupt judges, human rights can easily be suspended.
This does not pertain to minorities but also regular Russian citizens. Because
he wanted to flee, a Russian
soldier was stripped bare naked. The European Court of Human Rights last
week found Russia guilty for the use of torture. In the lead-up of the Sochi
Olympic Winter games, there were reports of wide-spread forced evictions.
Amnesty International reported numerous cases in which regular Russian families
were forced out of their homes.
Individual
rights are regularly violated in Russia. The refusal to actively engage discrimination
and the toleration of certain radical groups, the state actively denying civil
liberties to LGBTs and ethnic groups of the Caucasus.
Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause
“They are constantly trying to drive
us into a corner […] because we tell it like it is and don’t engage in hypocrisy. But there is a
limit to everything.” – Vladimir Putin
Scapegoats eliminate the need for
political responsibility. Scapegoats unify the masses and create a second,
virtual and far more dangerous reality of “us versus them.” If you are not with
us, you are against us.
Since the
annexation of Crimea, the Kremlin has pursued an aggressive and belligerent
anti-western campaign. Anything West is portrayed as hostile, naturally anti-Russian,
decadent,
homosexual (a term employed is ‘Gayrope’ or Gay-Europe). International politics
is simplified and reduced to a conflict between Russia and the West. Democratic
countries such as Poland or the Baltic’s are demeaned to ‘American puppet
states’. The President himself labels the West as the root of all Russia’s
problems. Non-governmental organisations are being targeted. Since 2012 any NGO
that receives funding from outside the Russian Federation are vilified by the
Ministry of Justice as ‘foreign
agents’.
Vladimir Putin
regularly plays the ‘Western Card’. Only days after the assassination of Boris
Nemtsov, Kremlin
friendly media (LifeNews) claimed that he was murdered because he forced
his partner to have an abortion in Switzerland. A week later Alexander
Zaldostanov, leader of a notoriously violent motor bike gang, held a joint
press conference saying that American
curators had killed him. No mention of his role as Vladimir Putin’s ardent
critic.
Russia’s
economy is in a meltdown. Rampant corruption and economic mismanagement has
left the country’s economy in a deep crisis. Inflation
has skyrocketed to 15 percent and foreign investors have pulled out a
staunching 125
billion dollars. The government is under pressure. Here again Putin blames
the West in claiming that it would seek to sabotage his country. In his State of the Union
he called for unity among the Russian people to withstand western aggression.
Putin uses the West as a scapegoat to distract from his economic incompetence
Controlled mass media
“After all, Goebbels had said, The
more improbable the lie, the faster people believe it. And it worked out; he was a talented man.” -Vladimir
Putin
Direct and indirect control over the
media, limited freedom of speech, state-sponsored propaganda, misinformation
and misrepresentation of facts, the persecution of journalists and censorship
are common in a fascist state.
In Russia
the largest TV channels ORT, NTV, Russia 1 and Russia 2 are owned by the
government. Around 60 percent of the media is thus directly owned by the Kremlin or
indirectly controlled such as NTV, due to ownership of Gazprom.
There is
growing pressure on independent media as several legislation has been passed in
order to limit, sideline and intimidate
journalists. Violence against journalists is not sufficiently investigated
by police. Lawyers and investigators who speak publicly about human rights
abuses face
open threats. Reporters even face intimidation by public officials, as was
the case with the deputy speaker of the Duma, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who on live
TV advocated that a female journalist should be ‘violently
raped’. He still remains deputy speaker.
Under
Putin’s presidency over 125
journalists have been murdered, while only 36 trials have been held. Among
these was Anna
Politkovskaya, who was shot at point-blank range inside her house. The masterminds
behind her murder were
never found.
Since 2000 the
repressive environment for independent media has increased dramatically. The
Duma has passed a bill which limits foreign
ownership to a 20% stake in media outlets. Draconian laws restricting
the use of social media, enacted July 2014, force internet bloggers with more
than 3,000 daily readers to register with the mass media regulator Roskomnadzor
and conform to its regulations.
There are
numerous cases in which the countries major news outlets published
photo-shopped pictures and false interviews without ever verifying the content.
Stories of a boy
who was crucified, German
tanks travelling to Lviv or a German
doctor who was paid to travel to Ukraine have all been later revealed as
false. In this ‘struggle for truth’ Moscow has discovered the power of social
media and pays ‘Trolls’
in order to write, post and re-post misinformation or pro-Russian comments online.
Investigative
and objective news in Russia’s main media landscape is non-existent. Main media
discredits opposition parties as the ‘fifth column’, traitors or criminals. The
Kremlins campaign of misinformation and misrepresentation has reached a global stage.
With the global television network Russia
Today, the propaganda
machinery has far surpassed that of the Nazis. Directly owned by the
Russian government through ownership of (ANO) TV-Novosti, the network is highly
criticized as it airs crude conspiracy theories. Former RT
employees report that criticism of Putin and Medvedev was completely off
limits. Questioning Mr. Putin is something short of treason.
Russia therefore
has in general no free press and media. There are independent and critical outlets,
such as the Novaja Gazeta or the Moscow Times, however these play in the
overall media landscape a very marginal role.
Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
As fascist regimes are often ruled
by an unchallenged leader who surrounds himself with sympathizers, these states
tend to develop into a kleptocracy. Croynism, corruption, bribery and
embezzlement becomes widespread.
Corruption
in Russia is rampant and widespread. From the local clinic to the inner circle
of the Kremlin – corruption is a vivid and integral part of the Russian economy
from top to bottom. Under Vladimir Putin, corruption has skyrocketed. There are
reports
that the entire education system, from bottom to top is corrupt. Starting from
elementary school where parents bribe teachers for ‘good referrals’ all the way
to university. The well-known practice is called ‘Blat’. Because education can
be bought, the Russian parliament is (supposedly) the most academic in the
world. Out of 450 delegates 143 hold a doctorate and 71 are professors. The
systematics of corruption is shocking
The
Politsija is so notoriously
corrupt, that citizens fear their own law enforcement more than the actual
criminals. Back in 2009 a
video of Major Aleksej Dymowski, Novorossiysk police officer surfaced. Dymowski
criticized the corruption and blamed Putin personally. When he was denied
treatment for a numb arm, for not filling his arrest-quote, he uploaded the
video. According to the Novaja Wremja, the Moscow Police earns an estimated 1.7 billion euros every year through bribery.
Expropriation is also common.
Private property, the cornerstones of democracy, is non-existent in Russia. Anything
can be seized. Illegal corporate raids are used to overtake, seize property and
official stamps. There are attacks by high-level officials such as was the case
with Khodorkovskiy’s
oil company Yukos or Mikhail
Gutseriyev, Igor
Linshits, Aleksandr
Lebedev – anyone who falls out of Vladimir Putin’s good grace.
A few last words
At this
point I would like to quote Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who made an interesting
point: “There is no such thing as Russian fascism. You won’t find a single
Russian who considers Russians to be a superior race and who advocate expulsion
of aliens.” He is right and wrong at the same time. Zhirinovsky is right when
he says that Russians would never advocate Darwinian theory in order to justify
the superiority of the Slavic race. His conclusion however, that hence there
can be no Russian fascism is utterly wrong and a misconception as he equates fascism with nazism.
Russia is presently
not a full fledged fascist state. Not yet. However it is on a good-way towards
becoming one step-by-step. The extent that Vladimir Putin has transformed
society is worrisome. Authoritarian government and rampant corruption coupled
with inflation, economic downturn and lost-expectations is a breeding ground
for radicalisation. They are symptoms of a society that has become disillusioned
by democracy. Political radicalisation is a piece-meal process. Just as fascist
in the Weimar Republic slowly eroded the fundaments of freedom and liberty
step-by-step, are the radicals in the Kremlin now smothering the lasts gasps of
democratic voices in Russia.
Chris Berger is a freelance journalist living in Germany.
