Has Russia Become Fascist?

If you know me at all, you must realize that I’m not a hysteric who screams “Fascists! Nazis! The Holocaust! The Apocalypse!” whenever anybody displeases me. I don’t take these terms lightly. But I read more and more articles suggesting that the regime in power in Russia right now is a fascist one, and I’m failing to find arguments against this point of view. Putin’s government is accusing everybody it dislikes or finds inconvenient of fascism, and we all know what such an obsessive use of a single term betrays.

Here is a list of 14 defining characteristics of fascism, applied to Russia:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism – Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

 Putin has inundated every public space and every means of mass communication with jingoist slogans, flags, and intense exhibitions of nationalistic pride.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights – Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

 Thank God, there has been no torture, executions or assassinations yet. However, people are being arrested and held for lengthy periods of time in Russia on trumped up charges all the time. The concept of human rights is quite alien to people in the FSU countries, and a lot of time will be needed for it to gain currency.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause – The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

 The enemies that are used to whip up everybody into a frenzy of patriotic sentiment are the evil Americans, the fascists, and, at this particular point in time, Ukrainians.

4. Supremacy of the Military – Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

Yes, Putin has made enormous efforts and invested ridiculous amounts of money into restoring some of the prestige of the Russian Army.

5. Rampant Sexism – The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

 Oh yes. The rights of women, the rights of everybody to organize their own personal and sexual lives, the rights of sexual minorities are all under a vicious assault from the state in Russia.

6. Controlled Mass Media – Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

As I told you recently, in Russia there was one TV channel that kind of didn’t completely belong to the government and allowed itself to put on air some mildly rebellious commentary. Now it has been shut down. The journalists who didn’t want to write pro-Putin articles were all fired from their newspapers.

7. Obsession with National Security – Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

 Yes, the feelings of being a beleaguered, constantly unappreciated, wronged nation in constant danger of assault from evil foreigners are being tirelessly cultivated. In case you didn’t know, the official Russian explanation of the popular revolution in Ukraine that removed the corrupt Ukrainian president from power is that there wasn’t any revolution. All of the people who protested in the streets were hired by the American secret services to damage Russia. Today, the Russian Parliament discussed the need to invade Ukraine in order to resist Americans. If this isn’t an absolutely insane paranoid fantasy, then I don’t know what is.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined – Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.

 So true. Even though less than 2% of Russians actually practice Orthodox Christianity, Putin has long forgotten that the Constitution of the Russian Federation defines it as a secular state. The Russian Orthodox has enormous privileges from the state and is, to be honest, completely out of control. Church leaders are mired in a veritable orgy of drunken, cynical debauchery and consumerism.

9. Corporate Power is Protected – The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

 Well, this is the definition of Putin’s regime. The oligarchs and the administration are indissolubly linked in one bloody knot of criminality.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed – Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

 After the tragic Soviet history, the very words “a labor union” make an FSU person shudder. So there is no power of labor in Russia.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts – Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

 There was one academic who tried to defend science and oppose the introduction of the Christian dogma into his physics classes. The last I heard, he had to leave his job. The problem is that there aren’t any professors, academics, arts or letters in Russia right now. There are a few bloggers who are criticizing the regime. One is on house arrest. One left the country. A few more are facing charges for extremism, which means they wrote something Putin didn’t appreciate on their blogs.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment – Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

 Absolutely true. Many people in Moscow are on trial right now for “resisting police” during street protests. Even in cases where video footage clearly shows that these “terrorists and extremists” did exactly what the police told them and never resisted, they are still charged and sentenced to jail.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption – Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

 Oh God, so true. That is exactly what Putin’s regime is. A group of cronies who are robbing the country and using jingoistic slogans to ensure that citizens don’t protest.

14. Fraudulent Elections – Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

If you were following the news in 2011-12, you must already know that the elections in Russia were falsified in the most blatant and shameless manner and in spite of the mountains of proof of electoral fraud, nothing ever came of the attempts of some people in Russia to protest.

The Russian Federation is an enormous country with huge resources and an immense nuclear arsenal. Of course, we all know that countries that have oil and gas can afford to do absolutely anything they want. But a fascist Russia is a terrifying thing to contemplate.