Putinism | |
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| Leader | Vladimir Putin |
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| Political position | Right-wing tofar-right |
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Legacy   | ||
Putinism (Russian:путинизм,romanized: putinizm) is thesocial,political, andeconomic system ofRussia formed during thepolitical leadership ofVladimir Putin. There are three stages of Putinism;Classical Putinism (1999–2008),Tandem-Phase (2008–2012) andDeveloped Putinism (2012–present). It is characterized by the concentration of political and financial powers in the hands of "siloviks", current and former "people withshoulder marks", coming from a total of 22 governmental enforcement agencies, the majority of them being theFederal Security Service (FSB),Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia,Armed Forces of Russia, andNational Guard of Russia.[3][4][5][6] According toArnold Beichman, "Putinism in the 21st century has become as significant a watchword asStalinism was in the 20th."[7]
The "Chekist takeover" of the Russian state and economic assets has been allegedly accomplished by aclique ofPutin's close associates and friends[8] who gradually became a leading group ofRussian oligarchs and who "seized control over the financial, media and administrative resources of the Russian state",[9] andrestricted democratic freedoms andhuman rights. According to Julie Anderson, Russia has been transformed to an "FSB state".[10][11] Mass de-politicization has been described as an important element of Putinism's social course. Mass social involvement being discouraged, politics are reduced to "pure management" left to those who are in power, free from interference by the masses.[12] In foreign affairs, Putinism has been described asnationalist andneo-imperialist.[13]
Putinism was first used in the article byAndrey Piontkovsky published on 11 January 2000 inSovetskaya Rossiya,[14] and placed on theYabloko website on the same day. He characterized Putinism as "the highest and final stage of bandit capitalism in Russia, the stage where, asone half-forgotten classic said, the bourgeoisie throws the flag of the democratic freedoms and the human rights overboard; and also as a war, 'consolidation' of the nation on the ground of hatred against some ethnic group, attack on freedom of speech and information brainwashing, isolation from the outside world and further economic degradation".[15][16]
Sociologists,economists, andpolitical scientists emphasize different features of the system. M. Urnov and V. Kasamara established among political scientists "direct signs of the departure of the current political system of Russia from the basic principles of competition policy".[17]
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A sociological investigation unveiling the phenomena was done in 2004 by Olga Kryshtanovskaya, who determined the proportion of siloviks in the Russian political elite to be 25%.[3] In Putin's "inner circle" which constitutes about 20 people, the amount of siloviks rises to 58%, and fades to 18–20% in Parliament and 34% in the Government.[3] According to Kryshtanovskaya, there was no capture of power as Kremlin bureaucracy has called siloviks in order to "restore order". The process of siloviks coming into power allegedly started in 1996,Boris Yeltsin's second term. "Not personally Yeltsin, but the whole elite wished to stop the revolutionary process and consolidate power."[3]
When silovik Vladimir Putin was appointed prime minister in 1999, the process was boosted. According to Kryshtanovskaya, "Yes, Putin has brought siloviks with him. But that's not enough to understand the situation. Here's also an objective aspect: the whole political class wished them to come. They were called for service... There was a need of a strong arm, capable from point of view of the elite to establish order in the country."[3]
Kryshtanovskaya has also noted that there were people who had worked in structures "affiliated" with theKGB/FSB. Structures usually considered as such are theSoviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Governmental Communications Commission,Ministry of Foreign Trade, Press AgencyNews and others. "The itself work in such agencies doesn't involve necessary contacts with special services, but makes you think about it."[45] Summing up numbers of official and "affiliated" siloviks she got an estimate of 77% of such in the power.[3]
Putin's chief national security adviser,Nikolai Patrushev,[46] who believed that the West has been in an undeclared war with Russia for years,[47] was a leading figure behind Russia's updatednational security strategy, published in May 2021. It stated that Russia may use "forceful methods" to "thwart or avert unfriendly actions that threaten the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Russian Federation".[48][49]
Following a referendum, with Putin's signing an executive order on 3 July 2020 to officially insert the amendments into the Russian Constitution, they took effect on 4 July 2020.[50]Vladimir Pastukhov, a Russianpolitical scientist,advocate andhonorary seniorresearch associate of theUniversity College London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies, andAlexander Podrabinek, aSoviet dissident,journalist and Russianhuman rights defender, state thatRussia has been taking on the characteristics of atotalitarianism as a result of theconstitutional amendments. This is reflected in incremental but steady and aggressive process of the seizing of full control over public and private life, and de factocriminalization of any opposition and dissidence.[51][52]
According to formerSecuritate generalIon Mihai Pacepa, "In theSoviet Union, theKGB was a state within a state. Now former KGB officers are running the state. They have custody of the country's 6,000 nuclear weapons, entrusted to the KGB in the 1950s, and they now also manage thestrategic oil industry renationalized by Putin. The KGB successor, rechristenedFSB, still has the right to electronically monitor the population, control political groups, search homes and businesses, infiltrate the federal government, create its ownfront enterprises, investigate cases, and run its own prison system. The Soviet Union had one KGB officer for every 428 citizens. Putin's Russia has one FSB-ist for every 297 citizens."[53][54]
"UnderRussian Federation President and former career foreign intelligence officerVladimir Putin, an "FSB State" composed ofchekists has been established and is consolidating its hold on the country. Its closest partners areorganized criminals. In a world marked by aglobalized economy and information infrastructure, and withtransnational terrorism groups utilizing all available means to achieve their goals and further their interests,Russian intelligence collaboration with these elements is potentially disastrous", said politologist Julie Anderson.[10]
Former KGB officerKonstantin Preobrazhenskiy shares similar ideas. When asked "How many people in Russia work inFSB?", he replied: "Whole country. FSB owns everything, includingRussian Army and even own Church, theRussian Orthodox Church... Putin managed to create newsocial system in Russia".[55]
"Vladimir Putin's Russia is a new phenomenon in Europe: a state defined and dominated by former and active-duty security and intelligence officers. Not evenfascist Italy,Nazi Germany, or theSoviet Union – all undoubtedly much worse creations than Russia – were as top-heavy with intelligence talent", said intelligence expertReuel Marc Gerecht.[56]
Andrei Illarionov considers the political system in Russia as a variety ofcorporatism. According to Illarionov, a former advisor of Vladimir Putin, this is a new socio-political order, "distinct from any seen in our country before". He said that members of theCorporation ofIntelligence Service Collaborators took over the entire body of state power, follow anomerta-like behavior code, and "are given instruments conferring power over others – membership “perks”, such as the right to carry and use weapons".[57]
According to Illarionov, this "Corporation has seized key government agencies – the Tax Service,Ministry of Defense,Ministry of Foreign Affairs,Parliament, and thegovernment-controlled mass media – which are now used to advance the interests of [Corporation] members. Through these agencies, every significant resource of the country – security/intelligence, political, economic, informational and financial – is being monopolized in the hands of Corporation members".[57]
Members of the Corporation created an isolatedcaste. A former KGB general said that "a Chekist is a breed... A good KGB heritage—a father or grandfather, say, who worked for the service—is highly valued by today'ssiloviki. Marriages between siloviki clans are also encouraged."[58]
Russian politicianBoris Nemtsov and activistVladimir Kara-Murza defined Putinism in 2004 as "aone party system,censorship, apuppet parliament, ending of an independent judiciary, firm centralization of power and finances, and hypertrophied role ofspecial services andbureaucracy, in particular in relation to business".[59]
Political analystAndrei Piontkovsky considers Putinism as "the highest and culminating stage of bandit capitalism in Russia”.[60] He believes that "Russia is not corrupt.Corruption is what happens in all countries when businessmen offer officials large bribes for favors. Today's Russia is unique. The businessmen, the politicians, and the bureaucrats are the same people. They haveprivatized the country's wealth and taken control of its financial flows."[61] Russian-American journalistMasha Gessen has also described Russia as a "mafia state".[62]
Such views are shared by politologist Julie Anderson who said the same person can be a Russian intelligence officer, an organized criminal, and a businessman.[10] She also cited formerCIA directorJames Woolsey who said: "I have been particularly concerned for some years, beginning during my tenure, with the interpenetration of Russian organized crime, Russian intelligence and law enforcement, and Russian business. I have often illustrated this point with the following hypothetical: If you should chance to strike up a conversation with an articulate, English-speaking Russian in, say, the restaurant of one of the luxury hotels along Lake Geneva, and he is wearing a $3,000 suit and a pair of Gucci loafers, and he tells you that he is an executive of a Russian trading company and wants to talk to you about a joint venture, then there are four possibilities. He may be what he says he is. He may be a Russian intelligence officer working under commercial cover. He may be part of a Russian organized crime group. But the really interesting possibility is that he may be all three and that none of those three institutions have any problem with the arrangement."[63]
According to political analyst Dmitri Glinski, "The idea of Russia, Inc.--or better, Russia, Ltd.--derives from the Russian brand oflibertariananarchism viewing the state as just another private armed gang claiming special rights on the basis of its unusual power." "This is a state conceived as a "stationary bandit" imposing stability by eliminating the roving bandits of the previous era."[8] In April 2006, the effective privatization of the customs sphere infuriated Putin himself, where businessmen and officials "merged in ecstasy".[64]
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Analysts have described Russia's state ideology under Putin asnationalist andneo-imperialist.[13]Andrey Kolesnikov describes Putin's regime since his third term as melding nationalist imperialism with conservativeOrthodoxy and authoritarian aspects ofStalinism.[66]
Politologist Irina Pavlova said thatChekists are not merely a corporation of people united to expropriate financial assets. They have long-standing political objectives of transformingMoscow into theThird Rome andanti-American ideology of containing the United States.[67] ColumnistGeorge Will emphasized thenationalistic nature of Putinism. He said that "Putinism is becoming a toxic brew of nationalism directed against neighboring nations, and populist envy, backed by assaults of state power, directed against private wealth. Putinism isnational socialism without the demonic element of its pioneer ...".[68] According to Illarionov, theideology ofchekists isNashism ("ours-ism"), the selective application of rights".[57]
In February 2021, Putin linked his own personal thought and ideology to that ofLev Gumilyov, stating that he too believed in 'passionarity', the rise and fall of societies as described by this theory and specifically that Russia was a nation 'has not yet attained its highest point', with an 'infinite genetic code'.[69][70][71]
According toMichael Hirsh, a senior correspondent atForeign Policy:
Graham and other Russia experts said it is a mistake to view Putin merely as an angry former KGB apparatchik upset at the fall of the Soviet Union and NATO’s encroachment after the Cold War, as he is often portrayed by Western commentators. Putin, himself, made this clear in his Feb. 21 speech, when he disavowed the Soviet legacy, inveighing against the mistakes made by former leaders Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin to grant Ukraine even partial autonomy. ... Putin is rather a messianicRussian nationalist andEurasianist whose constant invocation of history going back toKievan Rus, however specious, is the best explanation for his view that Ukraine must be part of Russia’s sphere of influence, experts say. In his essay last July, Putin even suggested that the formation of a separate, democratic Ukrainian nation “is comparable in its consequences to the use of weapons of mass destruction against us.”[34]
In response to the growing anti-Americanism after theRusso-Georgian War in the Russian intellectual-political class, the director of the Institute of Globalization and Social Movements,Boris Kagarlitsky, said, "Ironically, one of the dominant trends here is that we are anti-American because we want to be exactly like America. We are angry that Americans are allowed toinvade minor nations and we are not."[72] In recent Russian polls, the United States and its allies have consistently topped the list of Russia's greatest enemies.[73][74] However, survey results published by theLevada-Center indicate that, as of August 2018, Russians increasingly viewed the United States positively following theRussia–U.S. summit in Helsinki in July 2018.[75] According to thePew Research Center, "57% of Russians ages 18 to 29 see the U.S. favorably, compared with only 15% of Russians ages 50 and older."[76]
According to Moscow Carnegie Center DirectorDmitri Trenin, anti-Americanism in Russia is becoming the basis for official patriotism. Further researcher states that the Russian ruling elite have stopped pretending that it follows the West and cherishes its declared values. Now, Moscow openly states that its values are not completely common with modern Western values in such fields as democracy, human rights, national sovereignty, role of government, the church, and the nature of family.[77] Putin's Russia has formed alliances with anti-American regimes in non-Western countries such asChina andIran.[78][79][80] According to some Russian experts, anti-American sentiments are driven largely by domestic political climate and has little relationship to US foreign policy.[81]
The experts generally agree that Putin's Russia is not fascist. Although noting some similarities, such asrevanchism and "hypermasculine authority", they argue that Putin's Russia lacksmass mobilization andrevolutionary nationalism which were fundamental characteristics of fascist movements.[12] Additionally, it doesn't seek "transcendence" to create a "new man" like fascist movements did.[82] Instead, Putin's Russia has been generally described asreactionary andauthoritarian conservative.[82][12] Oxford historianRoger Griffin compared Putin's Russia to World War II-eraJapan, saying that like Putin's Russia, it "emulated fascism in many ways, but was not fascist." American historianStanley G. Payne argued that Putin's political system is "more a revival of the creed of TsarNicholas I in the 19th century that emphasized 'Orthodoxy, autocracy, and nationality' than one resembling the revolutionary, modernizing regimes of Hitler and Mussolini."[12]
He argued that fascism, imbued with revolutionary ideas and seeking to implement changes which would push society into a new order, relied on mobilization of masses of the population and their active participation in politics in order to implement these changes. Putinism, on the other hand, is counter-revolutionary, strictly opposed to anysocial reforms andsocial mobilization and aims at the de-politicization of society, which it sees as a threat to its existence. The mass social involvement being discouraged, the politics are reduced to "pure management" left to those who are in power, free from the interference of the masses. In exchange to non-involvement in the politics, Putinism'ssocial contract offers economic development and an important amount of freedom in private life, "bread and entertainment". According toSheri Berman, both Hitler and Mussolini came to power through a "very large mass movement" and their image stuck in mind as mass leaders in front of people who felt "a sort of direct connection to the leader", while Putin's regime "is not a mass regime that came to power or operates on the basis of mass mobilization", on the contrary, Putin "came up as anapparatchik" and has not built "a dynamic and charismatic movement in the fascist style", preferring to see his people de-mobilized and usually best remembered "sitting alone at the end of the table".[12]
However, some have argued that Putin's Russia is fascist. The historianTimothy Snyder and other authors note that pro-Fascist ultranationalistwhite émigré Russian philosopherIvan Ilyin has been quoted by Vladimir Putin in his speeches on various occasions, and is considered by some observers to be a major ideological inspiration for him.[83][84]Aleksandr Dugin, a formerly marginal contemporary apologist forEurasianism andconservative revolution, whose views are close to Fascism, has become a semi-official philosopher of the Putin regime[85][86] and headed 2023 establishment the Ivan Ilyin Higher School of Politics at theRussian State University for the Humanities. Russian journalistAndrei Malgin compared Putin's desire to restore a "lost" empire and hissupport for the church and "traditional values" to the policies ofItalian fascist leaderBenito Mussolini.[87] Russian political scientistAndrey Piontkovsky argues that the ideology ofRashism is in many ways similar to German fascism (Nazism), while the speeches of PresidentVladimir Putin reflect similar ideas to those ofAdolf Hitler.[88][89] Van Herpen compares in detail what he considers as similarities between Putin's regime and that ofWeimar Germany andMussolini's Italy, indicating the presence of strong fascist elements in Putin's Russia. However, he argues that these elements are tempered by other elements that show a resemblance with theBonapartism fromNapoleon III's France and the post-modern populism ofSilvio Berlusconi, creating a hybrid system which he calls 'Fascism-lite'. According to Van Herpen, although 'Putinism' has a softer face than Mussolinian Fascism, it still contains a hard core of ultra-nationalism, militarism, and neo-imperialism.[40]
In 2010, Peter Sucia, an American historian andThe National Interest contributor, was one of the first publicists to explicitly describe Putin as a leader who is sincerely convinced in his fascist values as righteous. Sucia wrote: "Some historians and economists have noted that fascism is actually an anti-Marxist form of socialism, especially as it favorsclass collaboration and supports the concept of nationalism — the latter being something that Marxists could never support. A diehard Marxist leader wouldn't get on a plane and fly halfway around the world to try and win support forthe Olympics to be hosted in his country, even his hometown. But a tried and true Fascist might do so."[90]
Professing its own vision of Russian nationalism, primarily based on a predominantly civil understanding of Russian national identity, Putinism has been challenged by the alternative form of Russian nationalism based on ethnic roots. Ethnic nationalists are critical of Putin's immigration policy, which allows migration of millions of people from post-Soviet Central Asia and Caucasus to Russia's traditionally Slavic heartland. Highlighting his stance on "Russia for Russians" slogan in a 2003 television broadcast, Putin said the people who act upon such slogan are "either idiots or provocateurs" who want to weaken the Russian Federation, which he framed as multi-ethnic and multi-cultural country. The law against "extremism" being adopted in 2002 has resulted in closures of many prominent nationalist organizations in Russia, including theMovement Against Illegal Immigration and theSlavic Union.[91]
According to Robert Horvath ofLa Trobe University, during the1990s, when Russia saw waves of racist violence and Putin became president in 2000, his regime exploited this threat to introduce anti-extremism legislation that was also used to target pro-democracy and left-wing activists. The Kremlin's "managed nationalism" would "co-opt and mobilise radical nationalist militants" to fight against the opposition. Afterward, the violent radical nationalists got jailed while others flourished to promote pro-Putin Russian nationalism.[92] On 25 December 2022, in a TV interview, Putin, apparently for the first time, openly declared that Russia's goal—territorially "to unite the Russian people" (the Russians as ethnic group).[93]
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A number offar-right politicians and parties in theEuropean Union have been linked with Putin, includingMarine Le Pen,[94][95]Matteo Salvini,[96] and parts of theAlternative for Germany. Putinism has also received support from a number ofAmerican far-right figures.[97][98] Some populists started to distance themselves from Putin after theRussian invasion of Ukraine.[99][100]
Richard Shorten of theUniversity of Birmingham has stated that Putin "has been appealing, not just for extreme 'manosphere' white supremacists, but also for more 'mainstream' western reactionaries attracted by an unapologeticsocial conservatism."[82]Jason Stanley ofYale University argued that Putin was "the leader of Russian Christian nationalism" and "has come to view himself as the global leader of Christian nationalism, and is increasingly regarded as such by Christian nationalists around the world."[101]
In December 2018, Putin said that "restoration of socialism in Russia is impossible", but stressed that "certain elements of socialization of economy and social sphere are possible". He stated that the restoration of socialism "is always related to expenditures and, eventually, an economic dead end".[102]
In October 2021, while criticizing the modern "Western agenda", he likened it to that of theBolsheviks for being based on the advocacy of the "so-called social progress". He criticized the Bolshevik efforts, based on "dogmas of Marx and Engels", to change not just political and economic customs, but also "the very notion of human morality and the foundations of a healthy society". He criticized the Bolsheviks for masquerading as "progress" the "destruction of age-old values, religion and relations between people, up to and including the total rejection of family, encouragement to inform on loved ones", and said that these patterns were repeated in the modernWest. He also said: "In a number of Western countries, the debate over men's and women's rights has turned into a perfect phantasmagoria. Look, beware of going where the Bolsheviks once planned to go – not only communalising chickens, but also communalising women. One more step and you will be there" (seeGlass of water theory).[103]
Putin's "on conducting a special military operation" speech has been seen asanti-Bolshevik, in particular for his denunciation ofLeninist principles regardingnational policy.[104] However, in his interview to theTV Rain, Russian political scientistVladimir Pastukhov argued that Putin's regime is based on what he called Russian understanding of communism, what he considered as clinging to Soviet tradition and eclectically unitingRussian nationalist andleft-wing ideas, saying that its "missionary ideology of world domination" draws on theMarxist concept ofworld revolution, even likening Putinism toTrotskyism in this regard.[105]
In May 2000,The Guardian wrote: "When a band of formerSoviet dissidents declared in February that Putinism was nothing short of modernisedStalinism, they were widely dismissed as hysterical prophets of doom. 'Authoritarianism is growing harsher, society is being militarised, the military budget is increasing,' they warned, before calling on the West to 're-examine its attitude towards the Kremlin leadership, to cease indulging it in its barbaric actions, its dismantlement of democracy and suppression of human rights.' In the light of Putin's actions during his first days in power, their warnings have gained an uneasy new resonance".[106]
In February 2007,Arnold Beichman, a conservative research fellow at theHoover Institution, wrote inThe Washington Times that "Putinism in the 21st century has become as significant a watchword as Stalinism was in the 20th".[107] Also in 2007, Lionel Beehner, formerly a senior writer for theCouncil on Foreign Relations, maintained that on Putin's watchnostalgia for Stalin had grown even among young Russians and Russians'neo-Stalinism manifesting itself in several ways.[108]
In February 2007, responding to a listener's assertion that "Putin had steered the country to Stalinism" and "all entrepreneurs" were being jailed in Russia, theRussian opposition radio hostYevgeniya Albats said: "Come on, this is not true; there is no Stalinism, no concentration camps—thankfully". She went on to say that if citizens of the country would not be critical of what was occurring around them, referring to the "orchestrated, or genuine" calls for the "tsar to stay on", that "could blaze the trail for very ugly things and a very tough regime in our country".[109]
Neo-Sovietism, sometimes known as neo-Bolshevism, is theSoviet Union-style of policy decisions in somepost-Soviet states, as well as apolitical movement of reviving the Soviet Union in the modern world or to reviving specific aspects of Soviet life based on thenostalgia for the Soviet Union.[110][111] Some commentators have said that currentRussian PresidentVladimir Putin holds many neo-Soviet views, especially concerning law and order and military strategic defense.[112] According toPamela Druckerman ofThe New York Times, an element of neo-Sovietism is that "the government manages civil society, political life and the media".[113]
The first politically controversial step made by Putin, then the FSB Director, was restoring in June 1999 a memorial plaque to former Soviet leader andKGB directorYuri Andropov on the facade of the building, where the KGB had been headquartered.[114]
In late 2000, Putin submitted a bill to the State Duma to use theSoviet national anthem as the newRussian national anthem. The Duma voted in favor. The music remained identical, but new lyrics were written by the same author who wrote the Soviet lyrics.[115]
In September 2003, Putin was quoted as saying: "The Soviet Union is a very complicated page in the history of our peoples. It was heroic and constructive, and it was also tragic. But it is a page that has been turned. It's over, the boat has sailed. Now we need to think about the present and the future of our peoples".[116]
In February 2004, Putin said: "It is my deep conviction that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was a national tragedy on a massive scale. I think the ordinary citizens of the former Soviet Union and the citizens in thepost-Soviet space, theCIS countries, have gained nothing from it. On the contrary, people have been faced with a host of problems." He went on to say, "Incidentally, at that period, too, opinions varied, including among the leaders of the Union republics. For example,Nursultan Nazarbayev was categorically opposed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and he said so openly proposing various formulas for preserving the state within the common borders. But, I repeat, all that is in the past. Today we should look at the situation in which we live. One cannot keep looking back and fretting about it: we should look forward".[117]
In April 2005, during his formal address to Russia'sParliament, President Putin said: "Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century. As for the Russian nation, it became a genuine drama. Tens of millions of our co-citizens and compatriots found themselves outside Russian territory. Moreover, the epidemic of disintegration infected Russia itself".[118]
In December 2007, Putin said in the interview to theTime magazine: "Russia is an ancient country with historical, profound traditions and a very powerful moral foundation. And this foundation is a love for the Motherland and patriotism. Patriotism in the best sense of that word. Incidentally, I think that to a certain extent, to a significant extent, this is also attributable to the American people".[119]
In August 2008,The Economist claimed: "Russia today is ruled by the KGB elite, has a Soviet anthem, servile media, corrupt courts and a rubber-stamping parliament. A new history textbook proclaims that the Soviet Union, although not a democracy, was 'an example for millions of people around the world of the best and fairest society'".[120]
In November 2008,International Herald Tribune stated:
The Kremlin in the Putin era has often sought to maintain as much sway over the portrayal of history as over the governance of the country. In seeking to restore Russia's standing, Putin and other officials have stoked a nationalism that glorifies Soviet triumphs while playing down or even whitewashing the system's horrors. As a result, throughout Russia, many archives detailing killings, persecution and other such acts committed by the Soviet authorities have become increasingly off-limits. The role of the security services seems especially delicate, perhaps because Putin is a former KGB agent who headed the agency's successor, the FSB, in the late 1990s.[121]
Putin has an amicable relationship withGennady Zyuganov, the leader ofCommunist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF). Roger Boyes considers Putin more of a latter-dayLeonid Brezhnev than a clone of Stalin.[122] In August 2014, he rejectedVladimir Zhirinovsky's proposal to return the Imperial flag andanthem.[123] On 30 October 2017, Putin opened theWall of Grief, the first Russian memorial dedicated to the victims ofStalinist repressions. It was seen as a gesture towards the Russianintelligentsia.[124]
Some hardline Western socialists have been seen as supporting Putin duringthe war in Ukraine. According to theNational Post, as after thecollapse of the Soviet Union no socialist state has managed to fully replace it as a socialist rallying point, many hardliners adopted a negative approach to politics defined by the opposition to the United States. Identifying America as the "imperialist core", they have supported theanti-American regimes around the globe under the slogan of "anti-imperialism", including Putin's regime in Russia. This support for Putin exacerbated in the 2010s as Russia regained the strength to challenge American hegemony and was seen as heir to the Soviet legacy, despite the fact that it had transformed into akleptocracy. It has been also noted that these segments of the international pro-Soviet left have distaste towards the post-Soviet Eastern Europeans states which Putin's Russia has engaged in conflicts with because these countries rejected the Soviet rule as "colonial". National Post identifiedCanadian Green Partyeco-socialistDimitri Lascaris as one of the representatives of this "pro-Russian socialism".[125]
Some magazine editors claimedJean-Luc Mélenchon "supported Russia" and was sympathetic towardsVladimir Putin.[126][127] Notably, the journalistNicolas Hénin said that Mélenchon is "on the left of the political spectrum, but is an advocate for the Kremlin leader", with Hénin quoting how Mélenchon is the "political victim number one" after the murder of the Russian opposition leaderBoris Nemtsov.[128] Cécile Vaissié, author ofThe Kremlin Networks, considers Jean-Luc Mélenchon as "one of those that approve of Putin",[129] andYannick Jadot ofEELV said that the "pro-Russia" stance is "contrary to any environment thinking".[130]
Mélenchon mocked accusations of support for Putin, saying that it is unlikely that an "eco-socialist" would support Putin,[131] and when attacked byBenoît Hamon on the topic of Putin, he stated: "I am not bound in any way to Mr. Putin. I am absolutely fighting his policy, and if I were Russian, I would not vote for his party, but for theRussian Left Front whose leader is in prison."[132] However, Mélenchon believes Putin was legitimately elected and thus deserves appropriate respect for his position. Mélenchon declared opposition to Putin's domestic policy and notes his friend of the Russian Left Front,Sergey Udaltsov, is imprisoned in Russia.[133][134][135]
BeforeRussia's invasion of Ukraine,Sahra Wagenknecht was a prominent defender of Russia and its PresidentVladimir Putin, arguing that while theUnited States were trying to "conjure up" an invasion of Ukraine, "Russia has in fact no interest in marching into Ukraine".[136][137][138] After Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Wagenknecht said that her judgment had been wrong.[139][140] Wagenknecht opposedsanctions against Russia over the 2022 invasion, and, in a speech in September 2022, accused the German government of "launching an unprecedented economic war against our most important energy supplier". Before the war, over half of Germany's gas was supplied by Russia. In May, The Left had voted in favor of economic sanctions against Russia. Her speech was applauded by The Left party leadership and by the far-rightAlternative for Germany. Her speech prompted the resignation of two high-profile party members.[141]
On 10 February 2023, Wagenknecht andAlice Schwarzer started collecting signatures for theirManifest für Frieden (lit. 'Manifesto for peace') on Change.org. It called for negotiations with Russia and a halt to arms deliveries to Ukraine. By the end of the month it had received 700,000 signatures. Arally for peace with Wagenknecht and Schwarzer on 25 February was also attended by far-right groups,[142] and was said to have appealed to theQuerfront.[143]
The Slovak political partySmer holdsRussophilic andEurosceptic stances on foreign policy; however, it claims to support Slovakia's membership in theEuropean Union andNATO. The party expresses stronganti-Western, especiallyanti-American sentiment, often spreadingRussian propaganda narratives.[144][145][146]
Regarding the Russo-Ukrainian War, Smer calls for an end tomilitary aid to Ukraine as well as tosanctions against Russia. It interprets the Russian invasion of Ukraine as aproxy war between theUS and Russia, with the latter "dealing with threats to its national interests". The party declares that the conflict was provoked in 2014 by "the extermination of citizens of Russian nationality by Ukrainian fascists".[147][148][149]
A number of commentators have remarked on the importance of history in the views and actions of Vladimir Putin, with several stating themes ofRussian irredentism andhistorical revisionism.[150][151][152] Fredrik Logevall ofHarvard University has stated that "In a way, I think history is what drives him."[153]Oliver Bullough of theInstitute for War and Peace Reporting has argued that Putin's "two core aims" was to restore stability and put an end to revolutions in Russia and to return Russia to a status of a great power.[154]
In his speech in November 2023, Putin stated that theMongol-Tatar yoke resulting from theMongol invasion of Kievan Rus' was better for the Russian people than Western domination, saying: “Alexander Nevsky received ajarlyk [permission] from the khans of theGolden Horde to rule as a prince, primarily so that he could effectively resist the invasion of the West." According to Putin, the decision to submit to theTatar khans preserved "the Russian people - and later all the peoples living on the territory of our country."[155]
Some commentators have described Putin as wishing to restore theRussian Empire.[156][157][158] James Krapfl ofMcGill University has suggested that Putin may be in part inspired byCatherine the Great, stating that "parallels with Putin’s strategy are striking."[159] On 9 June 2022, on the 350th anniversary of the birth ofPeter the Great, Putin described the land that had been conquered by Peter in theGreat Northern War against Sweden as land being returned to Russia. He also compared the task facing Russia today to that of Peter's.[160]
Several commentators have also described Putinism as in part an attempt to revive the Russian Empire's doctrine of "Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality".[161][162] Faith Hillis of theUniversity of Chicago has argued that Putin "wants to reconstitute the Russian Empire and its guiding ideologies, which were orthodoxy, autocracy and nationality—except now, under the power of a very sophisticated police state."[163] A 2014 paper in theJournal of Eurasian Studies compares Putin toEmperor Nicholas I, under whose reign the doctrine was instituted, arguing that "Putin has emphasized patriotism, power, and statism to justify centralization of power and authoritarian policies. Putin's policies and rhetoric are strong analogs to those of Nicholas."[164]
Richard Shorten of theUniversity of Birmingham has stated that "what Putin retains from the Soviet era is not its utopianism but its late-period security obsession."[82] Tom Parfitt ofThe Guardian has said that, according toRichard Sakwa, Putin's Soviet patriotism "had little to do with promoting communist values and more to do with besting the enemies surrounding the motherland."[165]
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Putin has made a number of comments referring to thedissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, often blaming it on thecreation of federal republics for national minorities within the Soviet Union and on the reforms brought byMikhail Gorbachev in the late-1980s. In 2005, he referred to it as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century".[166] In a documentary released in 2021, he referred to it as "a disintegration of historical Russia under the name of the Soviet Union."[167] In his 2022 "Address concerning the events in Ukraine", he referred to it as the "collapse of the historical Russia".[168] He has also said: "Anyone who doesn't regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains."[169] On several occasions, Putin has blamed Communist leaderVladimir Lenin for the collapse of the Soviet Union, arguing that his favourable policies toward national minorities in the Soviet Union contributed to destabilize Russia;[170] in his 2022 speech about Ukraine, Putin went so far to state that "modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia or, to be more precise, by Bolshevik, Communist Russia."[171]
Some commentators have argued these statements show that he wishes to restore the Soviet Union. After theRussian invasion of Ukraine begun, U.S. PresidentJoe Biden stated that Putin "wants to, in fact, reestablish the former Soviet Union. That's what this is about."[172] That claim has been disputed by many commentators.[173][174] Mario Kessler of theCentre for Contemporary History has stated that Putin is rather "taking up the imperial desires of tsarist Russia" and that "Lenin's internationalism and Putin'sGreat Russian chauvinism are, indeed, incompatible".[175] Cihan Tugal of theUniversity of California, Berkeley has described Putin's view of history as one "where Ukraine and the other nations of the USSR are communist artefacts, and only Russia is real and natural".[176]Naomi Klein has argued that Putin has been motivated in part by "a desire to overcome the shame of punishing economic shock therapy imposed on Russia at the end of the Cold War".[177]
The proper interpretation of the 'judge not' passage was that every day was judgment day, and that men would be judged for not killing God's enemies when they had the chance. In God's absence, Ilyin determined who those enemies were
Some populists are rushing to distance themselves, branding Mr. Putin's aggression a setback of historic proportions.
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The dictionary definition ofPutinism at Wiktionary
