[FORUM] Is fascism rising in Russia? If so, what can we do about it?

[rfmcdonald]

On Facebook I linked to an English-language article in Spiegel by Jan Fleischhauer, "Putin's Not Post-Communist, He's Post-Fascist". In it, the author makes the argument that Putin's talking points are drawn directly from the ideology of fascism.

[W]hat is it that drives Putin? The central theme of all his speeches is the fear of encirclement -- the threat represented by powers that want to keep the Russian people down because they fear its inner strength. "They are constantly trying to sweep us into a corner because we have an independent position, because we maintain it and because we call things like they are and do not engage in hypocrisy," he said in a March 18 speech before the Duma. In a television interview in April, he said: "There are enough forces in the world that are afraid of our strength, 'our hugeness,' as one of our sovereigns said. So they seek to divide us into parts."

[. . .]

Even today, many are having trouble recognizing the true nature of a man who is currently in the process of turning the European peace order on its head. Perhaps we don't have the courage to make the right comparisons because they remind us of an era that we thought we had put behind us. Within Germany's Left Party and parts of the center-left Social Democrats, Putin is still viewed as a man molded in the tradition of the Soviet party leader, who stood for an idealized version of Socialism. The old knee-jerk sense of solidarity is still there. It is based on a misunderstanding, though, because Putin isn't post-communist. He's post-fascist.

A search for the right historical analogy should focus on the events of Rome in 1919 rather than Sarajevo in 1914. It won't take long for those who step inside the world of echo chambers and metaphors that color Putin's thinking to identify traits that were also present at the birth of fascism. There's Putin's cult of the body, the lofty rhetoric of self-assertion, the denigration of his opponents as degenerates, his contempt for democracy and Western parliamentarianism, his exaggerated nationalism.

Enemies of freedom on the far right in Europe sensed the changing political climate early on. They immediately understood that, in Putin, someone is speaking who shares their obsessions and aversions. Putin reciprocates by acknowledging these like-minded individuals. "As for the rethinking of values in European countries, yes, I agree that we are witnessing this process," he told his television interviewer last Thursday, pointing to Victor Orban's victory in Hungary and the success of Marine Le Pen in France. It was the only positive thing he had to say in the entirety of a four-hour interview.

[. . .]

"Death is horrible, isn't it?" Putin asked viewers at the end of his television appearance. "But no, it appears it may be beautiful if it serves the people: Death for one's friends, one's people or for the homeland, to use the modern word." That's as fascist as it gets.

That last quote worries me.

I've touched upon this before, exploring the Russian rhetoric of Western cultural degeneracy when I linked to Oleg Riabov and Tatiana Riabova’s Eurozine article "The decline of Gayropa?". Their article explores how gay rights are taken as emblematic of a West incapable of evolving dynamically, needing the assistance of a Russia more than happy to sponsor anti-gay and other right-wing movements. And how else can we make Russia a stronger base for this than by restoring it to its natural boundaries?

I hope I'm wrong, though I don't think I am. I'd especially like to be wrong since the outside world--the West specifically--doesn't necessarily have that much influence over Russia directly.

What say you all?