16 July 2014

Article: "Ukraine’s Radical Right" published in Journal of Democracy

Journal of Democracy has recently published a new issue that features a special section "The Maidan and Beyond". Andreas Umland and I co-authored an article for this section:

Ukraine’s Radical Right

Abstract:
Thanks largely to the Kremlin’s information war, Ukraine’s ultranationalists have become global media stars of a sort, depicted in Western and other reports as key players in Ukraine’s third major political upheaval in less than a quarter-century. How do we explain the paradox of ultranationalist parties becoming involved in a protest movement whose thrust is toward greater integration between Ukraine and the European Union? And are the fears that swirl around these parties justified? The most obvious explanation for the Ukrainian far right’s ardent participation in the EuroMaidan may be found in the primary goal shared by all Ukrainian nationalists, radical and moderate alike: to liberate Kyiv from the Kremlin’s hegemony.

14 July 2014

Российский нео-нацист Роман Железнов просит политического убежища в Украине

9 июля в Украину прибыл российский нео-нацист - Роман "Зухель" Железнов. В киевском аэропорту "Борисполь" его встречали представители украинской нео-нацистской группировки "Социал-национальная ассамблея" (СНА), лидеры которой составляют руководство спецбатальона МВД Украины "Азов".

"Одна вера, один вождь и один народ. У нас есть вера. Наша вера - это национал-социализм". Выступление Романа Железнова на "Русском марше" в Москве 4 ноября 2012 года.
Игорь Криворучко (СНА), Анна Сенник (глава информационной службы "Азова") и Роман Железнов. Киев, 9 июля

13 July 2014

The Kremlin Builds an Unholy Alliance With America’s Christian Right

My guest op-ed for War is Boring:

The Kremlin Builds an Unholy Alliance With America’s Christian Right

Since the re-election of Pres. Vladimir Putin of Russia in 2012, the Kremlin has clamped down on independent media, established a draconian ban on “gay propaganda” and invaded the Ukrainian Republic of Crimea.

This new Russian government is aggressive, autocratic and moving further to the political right, argues Anton Shekhovtsov, a London-based expert on the Ukrainian and Russian far right—who originally hails from the Crimean city of Sevastopol.

The Kremlin is also reaching out to American conservative evangelicals as a means to find potential allies sympathetic to Russia’s rightward shift. In the following op-ed, Shekhovtsov explains why that’s dangerous.


11 July 2014

Look far right, and look right again

My new article for openDemocracy:

Look far right, and look right again

The Russian political establishment thinks that Ukrainians are 'traitors to Orthodox civilisation and Russian unity.’ But it is not only Putin’s Russia that is behind the challenge to democracy in Ukraine.