First; Yes, Russia is safe from us, and we from them.
Under trump, who was Putin’s friend and tried to turn his back on NATO, the
three Baltic States could probably have been taken, but as it is now, we are
back to The Cold War and the M.A.D. situation. If we learned anything from that
it is that nukes, make you safe. No-one dares attack a nuclear power. Not until
we invent something that can ensure that all enemy nukes is taken out before
reaching their targets, and to my knowledge that has not been invented yet. Has
Russia always tried to expand west for its security and Germany/Poland/France
tried to expand east? Yes, that is the nature of The Great European Plain, but
nukes change everything. Nobody wants their cities vaporized. And yes, should
the war escalate to NATO involvement (which I do not believe it will as it
serves no-one’s interests, not even the Ukrainians), nukes would not be
deployed until one side has nothing to lose; so NATO tanks closing on Moscow or
Russian tanks on Berlin or Paris. And nobody is stupid enough in this game, to
back the other into a corner, where he has nothing to lose. Remember M.A.D.,
nobody wins, everybody dies.
Now, a country comparison.
First the state of democracy as of last year, from
Freedomindex and Democracyweb.
Freedomhouse sums up the state of democracy in Ukraine
before the Russian attack thus, “Ukraine
has enacted a number of positive reforms since the protest-driven ouster of
President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. However, corruption remains endemic, and
initiatives to combat it are only partially implemented. Attacks against
journalists, civil society activists, and members of minority groups are
frequent, and police responses are often inadequate. Russia occupies the
autonomous Ukrainian region of Crimea, which it invaded in the aftermath of
Yanukovych’s ouster, and its military supports armed separatists in the eastern
Donbas area.”
And if you read the 21 pages report on their page, you
will learn that Zelenskyy has had to change key political staff from reformers
to more conservative staffers due to pressure from inside his party and
widespread local resistance to reform from the local elites that control the
regions and towns and want to continue doing that. Despite this, open party
lists at elections has helped transparency and the structural democracy.
Ukrainian democracy suffered from the continued war with Russia in the Donbas
and Luhansk regions, but the abandonment of a “protection of disinformation”
law that would have impeded the freedom of the press, shows that Ukrainians
value a free and pluralistic press. A large problem for this is, again the
influence of local elites/oligarchs that control the various media and make it
provide only onesided coverage (so like Fox, et al in the US really). Ukraine
has attempted to create an independent TV station, but it is underfunded and
does not yet reach many viewers. Zelenskyy has pushed through many reforms in
2020, but the hasty way it was done has opened many of them to be challenged by
corrupt courts. And this is the crux, local democracy is corrupt, not working
well and elites/oligarchs resist change, as well as corrupting the judiciary
system. Zelenskyy has in fact tried to change this, but turning course on
something embedded in people’s minds for hundreds of years is not easy. He is
also not himself free of ties to oligarchs, and his lack of experience with
administration sometimes hinders sound policies. So he is no angel, but he is
also no Putin. You could say that he has that in common with Churchill; no
angel, but a very fitting head of state during war- and maybe in time a
transition to an even less corrupt President, it is obviously what Ukrainians
want.
Meanwhile laws have been enacted to protect minorities
(including Russians), despite Russia’s claim to the opposite. However, after
the capture of Crimea and rebellions in the Donbas and Luhansk Oblasts; there
has been a rise in mistrust and discrimination amongst the populace. Hardly
strange, but still not the world we want, where people are judged by the
contents of their character.
As for Nazis in Ukraine. Let us have a look.
It is hard to deny that Ukraine joined the Germans and
were anti-Semites in WWII, Holodomor and general antisemitism combined into
something not very pretty. But measuring a current nation by its predecessor’s
actions would not leave many nations looking good; the US would be a racist
slave state, the UK a racist imperialist state and my own Denmark with our kin
in Norway and Sweden would be raving pillagers attacking civilisation. So let
us stick to contemporary times.
There are Nazis and antisemitism in Ukraine, yes.
There are in all countries. There has been a rise in attacks on Jews, but there
has everywhere (even in Denmark with our pride in October 1943). And Ukraine
has enacted laws to protect its Jewish minority, who has both freedom and
protection. There is no official discrimination against Jews. Which would also
surprise, as Zelenskyy is a Jew himself who lost family members (I believe
grandparents) to the Holocaust. Meanwhile statues of infamous Nazis such as
Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevych and Yaroslav Stetsko have been erected in
various places in Ukraine. I have been unable to verify if this is by private,
local or state actors. It is likely because the Ukrainians are so anti-Russian
that they turn a blind eye to the Nazism of these peoples, but the crimes of
Nazism must never be forgotten or excused. It is not an indication of a Nazi
state though. Svoboda polls just below the election threshold and currently
only has one member of the Ukrainian Parliament. Many people would argue that
the hard right has a larger influence in the USA, with Trump, MTG, Lauren
Boebert, Cawthorn, etc.
The Azov Regiment. This formation is hard to avoid
talking about when talking of Nazis in Ukraine. It is inescapably far right
wing with many Nazi members, including its leader. Other leaders of the
regiment have claimed that “only” 10- 20% of its members are Nazis and ascribe
it to “misguided youth”. This seems highly unlikely, the number is likely far
higher, even if there are also Jews in the regiment- “politics makes strange
bedfellows”. Just as with the statues; there is no excuse for accepting Neo
Nazis in your armed forces (or at all). But it is likely that the Ukrainian
National Guard has worked on the “beggars cannot be choosers” principle, and
have accepted anyone that would fight the Russian rebels, and the harder they
fight the better- and fanatics tend to fight hard (if not always smart). During
The War on Terror, the US targeted Nazis, white supremacists and gang members
for recruitment as well,[1]
and 36% of US servicemembers in a 2020 poll had witnessed signs of white
supremacy amongst their fellow servicemembers.[2] It
is important to note that 36% witnessing not being the same as 36%, if five
people in a squad of ten witness the same incident by one member, 50% of that
squad has witnessed it, but only 10% performed it. It is also worth noting that
people with obvious Nazi sympathies such as tattoos are kicked out of the US
armed forces when discovered. Not in Ukraine, which is fighting for its
survival.
In any case, the Azov Regiment does not represent the
majority of the Ukrainian armed forces or people, as seen in Svoboda’s low
support. However, there are Nazis in
Ukraine, there is widespread
corruption and there are problems
with especially local politics and the judiciary system especially. However,
from a historian’s point of view; Ukraine is on the way in the right direction,
if we compare with historic examples, most of us were hardly perfect
democracies 30 years after the change to this system. My own Denmark could by
many measures be labelled a dictatorship at that point as we were engaged in a
constitutional struggle that froze parliamentary power for 20 years 30 years
into our new democracy. Meanwhile countries like Poland and Hungary have their
own problems, and the far right grows everywhere from Russian propaganda and
general Ontologisation of the population.
Now, let us have a look at the state of democracy,
Nazism and Fascism in Russia.
Again, let us have a look at Freedomhouse’s information.
And again this is before the war, now Russia has gone full totalitarian, and
more so as the war fails.
They sum it up as such; “Power in Russia’s authoritarian political system is concentrated in the
hands of President Vladimir Putin. With loyalist security forces, a subservient
judiciary, a controlled media environment, and a legislature consisting of a
ruling party and pliable opposition factions, the Kremlin is able to manipulate
elections and suppress genuine dissent. Rampant corruption facilitates shifting
links among bureaucrats and organized crime groups.”
That looks fairly dire…
Looking at their report; Russia does not have free and
fair elections, the population has a minimal right to organize political
parties, but no chance of gaining influence through these at elections. Russians
also only have the bare minimum of freedom from forces outside the political
sphere and rights for minorities, prompting my favorite band to do this
on stage in Moscow 2019, and minority languages are forbidden from being taught
in school (in contrast to Ukraine, where Russian is taught in school in the eastern provinces, but where Ukrainian
has to be the first language).
Meanwhile Putin totally dominates the policies of the
Duma, and there is only the minimum protection against corruption (which is progressively
getting worse), and about as much transparency in politics as there is
protection from corruption.
Russia also has no free and independent media (though
until a week or so ago they did have some small outlets, but they were under
constant pressure from authorities and have now been closed with Dozhd
meaningfully playing Swan Lake on repeat as they had left the premises. Before
that, arrests on trumped-up charges, office raids, threats and outright murder
of journalists in Russia are common, as is general harassment. Arrests on
members of Jehovah’s Witnesses is also common, and the organization is illegal
as are many Islamic organisations, while freedom of religion is at the barest
minimum as well, as is academic freedom and freedom of expression- and this was
before the wa… “Special military Operation”. There is no freedom of NGOs,
especially those engaged with Human rights, etc. The only place Russia is not
at the barest minimum is labour Unions and freedom to move internally, which
are at 2 of 4, while the judiciary system has a minimum of freedom and
fairness, and there is no protections from threats of use of physical force and
laws do not guarantee equal treatment of everybody at all.
So, all in all, not a very nice or secure place to
live.
Now, Nazis in Russia…
Ironically for a country that is the heir to the USSR
who was the main target of Nazis; consisting of Slavs, who were to be murdered
in their millions according to Generalplan Ost; Nazis are numerous in Russia. And
the country in general is following a sort of far-right autocracy not far from
Nazism, but more of that later.
The Neo-Nazi political party in Russia is RNE (Russian
National Unity) and seems to have a significant presence, but reliable hard
numbers of members are difficult to come by. They have ties to the “Russian
Orthodox Army” of around 4000 combatants and many members serve in the latter
organisation. At the same time in the Donetsk Rebel republic, Vladimir Zhoga
and his Sparta Battalion too are also Nazis, Zhoga was killed early in the war,
but his father now leads and continue the ideology. Another Nazi group, The
National Socialist Society North, were active ten years ago, and committed a
string of murders of Africans, etc., but were outlawed and the murders punished. Meanwhile "Wagner" (Dmitri Utkin) and his group of (in)famous Mercenaries with strong ties to the Regime too, are openly Nazis, and it seems that there is a murky border between the Neo-Nazis in Russia and the general
ideology. It is hard to distinguish Nazis, Fascists and general Far Right
Nationalism and xenophobia, which is widespread in Russia, and Putin is a
well-known follower of Russian Fascist thinker Ivan Ilyin. Nolte and Eco both
has checklists for an ideology to be labelled “Fascism”, let us check Russia
under Putin against these and see.
Nolte;
-
Anticommunism – Check
-
Antiliberalism – Check
-
Führer Principle – Check
-
Paramilitaries – Check
-
Totalitarion ideology – Check
-
Tendency to anticonservatism – No, Putin’s Russia is
very conservative.
So five out of six
Eco
- The cult of tradition. “One
has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major
traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist,
syncretistic, occult elements.” Check
- The rejection of modernism.
“The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern
depravity. In this sense, Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.” Check
- The cult of action for
action’s sale. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or
without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of
emasculation.” Check
- Disagreement is treason. “The
critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism.
In modern culture, the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to
improve knowledge.” Check
- Fear of difference. “The first
appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the
intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.” Check
- Appeal to social frustration.
“[…] one of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal
to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or
feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower
social groups. This I cannot say.
- The obsession with a plot.
“The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the
appeal to xenophobia.” Check
- The enemy is both weak and
strong. “[…] the followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the
enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at
the same time too strong and too weak.” Check (the West
is weak and decadent, but all powerful and try to surround and crush poor
Russia)
- Pacifism is trafficking with
the enemy. “For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is
lived for struggle.”
- Contempt for the weak.
“Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology.” Check
- Everybody is educated to
become a hero. “in Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of
heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.” Check
- Machismo and Weaponry. “This
is the origin of machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance
and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality).
Since even sex is a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero tends to play
with weapons—doing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise.” Check
- Selective Populism. “There is
in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a
selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the
People. Check
- Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak.
“All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary,
and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and
critical reasoning.” I am not so sure of this, I have
not read Russian schoolbooks.
Eco also warns;
“These features cannot be
organized into a system; many of them contradict each other and are also
typical of other kinds of despotism or fanaticism. But it is enough that one of
them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it.”
As we can see, quite a lot of the points are obviously
present, while two of them I simply cannot say.
So Russia, with the Ilyin-inspired Putin at the helm
seems obviously Fascist. We can add to this that Jews are persecuted in Russia
and that Antisemitism is widespread, but also that it is fortunately on the
decline according to Yablokov as well as PEW Research.
Apart from the summary above, it may be instructional
to see whose foreign policy and political rhetoric are most like the Nazis’ in
the thirties. This seems quite clear; dreams of recreating a larger realm and power,
justifying expansion with “protecting Russian minorities”, stirring these
Russian minorities to rebel against the nation they are in, and the “Anschluss”
of Crimea… It sort of answers itself.
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