The Crimean blockade (in English and Russian)

My article on the Crimean blockade in English and Russian:

"The Crimean blockade: how Ukraine is losing Crimea for the third time" (openDemocracy)
"Догнать и перекрыть" (Грани.Ру)

Russian politicians building an international extreme right alliance

(This article originally appeared in Norwegian in Verdens Gang.)

Russia seems to be getting serious about building an international alliance of extreme right parties that would aim at undermining the liberal democratic consensus in the West. In addition to providing financial support for parties such as France’s Front National and using extreme right activists and politicians as tools of propaganda, Russia is now building what it calls the “World National-Conservative Movement” (WNCM). A number of the internal documents (passed to me by the Moscow-based "Sova Centre") provide an insight into the agenda and structure of the WNCM.

The logo of the World National Conservative Movement

My recent articles (spring 2015)

"The Russian Mass Media and the Western Far Right", Center for European Policy Analysis, 30 March 2015

"How the European Far Right Became Mainstream", Politico, 22 April 2015

"Who Killed Buzina and Kalashnikov?", Zeit Online, 23 April 2015

"The Challenge of Russia’s Anti-Western Information Warfare", Diplomaatia, April 2015

"It’s Getting Ugly in Hungary", Foreign Policy, 20 May 2015

Putin’s useful idiots and little ribbentrops in Europe

The Ukrainian revolution that started from pro-European protests (Euromaidan) in November 2013 and eventually ousted former president Viktor Yanukovych in March 2014 turned Russian president Vladimir Putin’s blood cold. There were two major – political and geopolitical – reasons for Putin to be terrified.

First of all, with his antagonism towards mass protests, which his regime systematically crushes in Russia itself, Putin feared that Maidan – which, after the “Orange revolution” in 2004, has become a name for a successful popular protest – could be somehow transferred to Russia and cause problems to his rule.

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.

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.

Extremism in South-Eastern Ukraine

Extremism in South-Eastern Ukraine

Extremists have hijacked the Anti-Maidan protests in South-Eastern Ukraine. and their extremism and ultranationalism is fomenting violence and hatred.

The Kremlin’s marriage of convenience with the European far right (in English and Russian)

The Kremlin’s marriage of convenience with the European far right

Putin’s strong-arm tactics in Eastern Ukraine and ‘moral, family-based’ policies have won him ardent support from far-right European groups. But they should not be under any illusions...

Брак по расчёту: Кремль и европейские ультраправые

Тактика применения силы в Восточной Украине и политика, ориентированная на «мораль и семейные ценности» обеспечили Путину ревностную поддержку европейских крайних правых. Но им не стоит обольщаться...

Marine Le Pen, Front National's leader, and Aleksey Pushkov, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Parliament, Moscow, 2013. Pushkov is now under sanctions by the US and Canada

Recent articles, interviews and comments

Українською:

• «Правий сектор»: Між політичними технологіями та (вуличною) політикою

• Чого ще чекати від «Правого сектора»

Розбійні напади Сашка Білого на представників влади, захоплення автомобілів з автопарку Віктора Януковича,  стрілянина активіста «Правого сектора» в представників «Самооборони Майдану» – неповний перелік вчинків, якими для багатьох запам’яталася діяльність «Правого сектора». «Слово і Діло» спробувало з'ясувати, чи слід вбачати в діях організації «руку Кремля» й чого чекати від представників «Правого сектора» далі.

• Шеховцов: У Росії, не в Україні, є ознаки фашизму

Фашисти – клеймо, яке кремлівська пропаганда чіпляла спочатку на учасників протестів проти Віктора Януковича, а тепер – на новий український уряд та мало не на весь український народ. Таким чином росіяни збурюються проти своїх сусідів та підтримують агресивну політику Володимира Путіна. Утім, говорить дослідник європейських праворадикальних партій та рухів Лондонського Університету-коледжу  Антон Шеховцов, в самій Росії ознак фашизму присутньо набагато більше, ніж в Україні.

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По-русски:

• Шеховцов: В России, а не в Украине, есть признаки фашизма

Фашисты – клеймо, которое кремлевская пропаганда цепляла сначала на участников протестов против Виктора Януковича, а теперь – на новое украинское правительство и чуть ли не на весь украинский народ. Таким образом, россияне возмущаются против своих соседей и поддерживают агрессивную политику Владимира Путина. Впрочем, говорит исследователь европейских праворадикальных партий и движений Лондонского Университета-колледжа Антон Шеховцов, в самой России признаков фашизма присутствует гораздо больше, чем в Украине.

• Эксперт: "Правый сектор" распадется

Чего хотят правые радикалы на Украине, в чем секрет "Правого сектора", какова роль России - об этом интервью DW с украинским исследователем праворадикальных партий Шеховцовым.

• Украинские радикалы: реальная угроза или маргинальная сила?

Корреспондент DW Никита Жолквер беседовал в Берлине с экспертами, изучающими проблемы правого радикализма, национализма и ксенофобии на Украине и в других европейских странах.

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Auf Deutsch:

• Experte: Der Rechte Sektor zerfällt

Was wollen die Rechtsradikalen in der Ukraine? Was ist das Geheimnis des Prawyj Sektor (Rechter Sektor)? Welche Rolle spielt Russland? – Der ukrainische Rechtsextremismus-Forscher Schechowzow im Interview mit der Deutschen Welle.

• Jüdische Experten entlarven Putins Propaganda

Nach Ansicht namhafter Forscher aus der Ukraine nimmt die Judenfeindlichkeit in ihrem Land ab – ganz im Gegensatz zu den Behauptungen Moskaus. Ein Problem seien vielmehr russische Provokateure.

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Po polsku:

• Kto tryzubem wojuje, od tryzuba ginie

Ukraińska prawica obwąchiwała się z Frontem Narodowym, z Jobbikiem, z polskimi narodowcami. Przestała, gdy zorientowała się, że europejscy radykałowie są prorosyjscy. Za to dziś nikt nie powie złego słowa o Polakach. Z politologiem Antonem Szechowcowem rozmawia Ludwika Włodek.

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В български:

• Залезът на десните екстремисти в Украйна

Те бяха в първите редици на революцията в Украйна и допринесоха в значителна степен за свалянето на режима. Но влиянието на националистическите партии и на дясноекстремистките групировки постепенно чезне.

Pavlo Lapshyn: The transnational lone-wolf terrorist (in English, Ukrainian and Russian)

My article on Pavlo Lapshyn's case of transnational lone-wolf right-wing terrorism is now published in three languages:

The transnational lone-wolf terrorist
Справа Павла Лапшина як приклад транснаціонального праворадикального тероризму (переклала Ірина Доброгорська)
Транс-национальный террорист-одиночка (перевел Дмитрий Колесник)

Articles in Ukrainian and Russian are extended versions of the original English article.
Thanks to the translators!

Online articles to be featured in the Special Issue of Patterns of Prejudice

In December this year, Patterns of Prejudice will publish the double Special Issue on music and the Other which I have guest-edited. In its Latest Articles section, the journal has already published three of the articles to be featured in the Special Issue:

Lawrence P. MacCurtain, "Rhapsody in red: Shostakovich and American wartime perceptions of the Soviet Union"

MacCurtain addresses the role of Russian classical music in brokering popular American perceptions of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. With the launch of Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, the United States entered into an unprecedented wartime alliance with the Soviet Union, a state that had long conjured up domestic American anxieties, and was only recognized by the FDR administration in 1933. Specifically, MacCurtain examines how the composition and transport of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 to the United States in 1942 bolstered domestic commitment towards the wartime alliance with Stalin. By examining and comparing the critical and popular reception of Shostakovich's work in the United States, he found that the music possessed a populist appeal to the domestic audience that was seemingly capable of transcending the rhetoric and fear that previously defined the American image of the Soviet Union.

Catherine Baker, "Music as a weapon of ethnopolitical violence and conflict: processes of ethnic separation during and after the break-up of Yugoslavia"

Using illustrations from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and their aftermath, Baker argues that understanding popular music and public discourses about it can help to understand the dynamics of ethnopolitical conflict. Studies of war and conflict have approached music as political communication, as an object of securitization, as a means of violence and as a symbol of ethnic difference, while international law in the context of another case of collective violence, Rwanda, has even begun to question whether performing or broadcasting certain music could constitute incitement to genocide. Drawing on poststructuralist perspectives on the media and ethnicization in conflicts, Baker explores and interrogates the discourse of popular music as a weapon of war that was in use during and after the violent break-up of Yugoslavia. Music during the Yugoslav wars was used as a tool of humiliation and violence in prison camps, and to provoke fear of the ethnic Other in line with a strategy of ethnic cleansing; it was also conceptualized as a morale-booster for the troops of one's own side. A discourse of music as a weapon of war was also in use and persisted after the war, when its referent was shifted to associate music-as-a-weapon not to the brave and defiant ingroup so much as the aggressive Other. This was then turned against a wider range of signifiers than those who had directly supported the Other's troops and had the effect of perpetuating ethnic separation and obstructing the reformation of a (post-)Yugoslav cultural space. Despite evidence that music did serve as an instrument of violence in the Yugoslav wars (and the precedent of the Bikindi indictment in Rwanda), Baker concludes that music should be integrated into understandings of ethnopolitical conflict not through a framework of incitement and complicity but with respect for the significance of music in the everyday.

Ryan Shaffer, "The soundtrack of neo-fascism: youth and music in the National Front"


Shaffer examines youth involvement in the National Front and the development of neo-fascist music as a conduit for its ideas. Using rare publications and interviews with National Front members, he argues that youth had a profound impact on post-war British fascism by influencing fascist ideology and tactics. Following challenges from the Anti-Nazi League and Rock Against Racism, the National Front started its own youth outreach programmes that reshaped neo-fascism and how neo-fascists distributed their message. In adopting skinhead style and music, the organization spread ‘nativist’ culture not only to gain supporters, but to counter multiculturalism in popular music and politics. Shaffer's article explains how neo-fascist youth created their own publications, clubs, concerts and even a record company to provide entertainment, spread ideas, raise money, recruit and build associations with like-minded neo-fascists in other countries. With these new tactics, the young National Front members redefined British fascism, which had lasting impact on radical groups in Europe and North America.

The old and new European friends of Ukraine’s far-right Svoboda party

In English: The old and new European friends of Ukraine’s far-right Svoboda party
Українською: Старі та нові друзі української ультраправої партії «Свобода»
По-русски: Старые и новые европейские друзья «Свободы»

Articles for Searchlight in 2012/2013

Here are the articles I wrote for the Searchlight magazine in the 2012/2013 academic year:

• "Poland: Huge rise in nationalist marchers", Searchlight (December 2012), pp. 16-17.
• "Germany: After scandals and delays, the National Socialist Underground trial finally starts in Munich", Searchlight (May 2013), pp. 26-29.
• "Germany: Lessons learned?", Searchlight (August-September 2013), pp. 31-33.
• "The old and new European friends of Ukraine’s far-right Svoboda party", Searchlight (August-September 2013), pp. 5-7.

Aleksandr Dugin and the West European New Right, 1989-1994

I've recently written a new article which inquires into the relations and contacts between Russian fascist intellectual Aleksandr Dugin and West European far right groups, first and foremost, the European New Right.

Alain de Benoist, Aleksandr Dugin, Robert Steuckers. Moscow, 1992

From the beginning to the mid-1990s, there was a mutual interest between Dugin and particular West European far right activists. The latter were originally interested in Dugin because he was apparently the first representative of the Russian New Right, who spoke the same language with them – both literally and intellectually – and could not only enlighten them on Russian phenomena from a native’s point of view, but also disseminate their own ideas in Russia. Furthermore, in 1992-1993, the West European far right – especially the “philo-Soviet” groups – supported the Russian “red-brown” alliance, as they were increasingly interested in political developments in Russia that could – rather feasibly – lead to a much-hoped right-wing revolution. Dugin, in his turn, originally established contacts with the West European far right in order to satisfy his interest in the contemporary interpretations of René Guénon and Julius Evola, but then he used his West European contacts to consolidate and strengthen his position in Russian ultranationalist and mainstream circles.

The article will, hopefully, be published in 2014.

Far-right Populism and Lone Wolf Terrorism in Contemporary Europe

Democracy and Security, has just published an important special issue, titled "Far-right Populism and Lone Wolf Terrorism in Contemporary Europe", which is based on the papers presented at the conference "Populist Racism in Britain and Europe since 1945" which I co-organised at the University of Northampton.

Table of contents

Introduction
Matthew Feldman & Paul Jackson

A Distant Mirror: Nineteenth-Century Populism, Nativism, and Contemporary Right-Wing Radical Politics
Hans-Georg Betz

Far-Right “Contagion” or a Failing “Mainstream”? How Dangerous Ideas Cross Borders and Blur Boundaries
Aristotle Kallis

The License to Hate: Peder Jensen's Fascist Rhetoric in Anders Breivik's Manifesto 2083: A European Declaration of Independence
Paul Jackson

Comparative Lone Wolf Terrorism: Toward a Heuristic Definition
Matthew Feldman

Au Revoir to “Sacred Cows”? Assessing the Impact of the Nouvelle Droite in Britain
Nigel Copsey

The Think Project: An Approach to Addressing Racism and Far-Right Extremism in Swansea, South Wales
Rocio Cifuentes, Geraint Rhys Whittaker & Laura Lake

Free e-prints of some of my articles

I have a number of free e-prints of my articles published with Routledge. Here they are:

"The Palingenetic Thrust of Russian Neo-Eurasianism: Ideas of Rebirth in Aleksandr Dugin's Worldview", Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, Vol. 9, No. 4 (2008), pp. 491-506. E-print link.

Applying Roger Griffin’s methodological approach to generic fascism, the article analyses individual – socio‐political, cultural and esoteric – themes within Dugin’s doctrine, treating them as elements of a larger integral concept of rebirth that constitutes the core of Neo‐Eurasianism. The article highlights the highly syncretic nature of this ideological core, a direct result of the ‘mazeway resynthesis’ that has conditioned Dugin’s worldview. It argues that this process has been necessitated by his self‐appointed task of envisioning a new stage of history beyond Russia’s present decadent and ‘liminoid’ situation, one that he sees only coming about as the result of a ‘geopolitical revolution’. The variant of Eurasionism that results has the function of a political religion containing a powerful palingenetic thrust towards a new Russia and new West. In conclusion, it is suggested that the new order aspired to by Dugin could only be realised by establishing a totalitarian regime.

Radykalna prawica na Ukrainie

My short comment on the Ukrainian extreme right for the Polish political and cultural weekly Kultura Liberalna:

„Okiełznać wszystkie obce grupy etniczno-rasowe”? Radykalna prawica na Ukrainie
Anton Shekhovtsov

Od początku istnienia nowego parlamentu w końcu 2012 roku posłowie „Swobody” dowiedli, że są najmniej aktywni w przygotowywaniu projektów ustaw, za to najchętniej biorą udział w asystowaniu Janukowiczowi i obecnemu rządowi w procesie oddalania społeczeństwa ukraińskiego od fundamentalnych wartości, jakimi kieruje się Unia Europejska.

Security threats and the Ukrainian far right

Here's my short article on the Ukrainian far right for Prof Ruth Wodak's feature on openDemcracy -

Security threats and the Ukrainian far right

My previous article for openDemocracy dealt with the representation of Ukraine in British media in the wake of Euro-2012 -

The West on Ukraine: when ‘anti-racism’ becomes xenophobia

State of the Far Right in Ukraine

State of the Far Right in Ukraine

Ethnic Ukrainian ultranationalists
• Ukrainian National Alliance - Ukrainian National Self-Defence
• All-Ukrainian Union “Freedom”
• Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists
• All-Ukrainian Party “New Force”
• All-Ukrainian Organisation “Stepan Bandera Trident”
• Patriot of Ukraine
• Nationalist Youth Congress
• Social National Assembly
• Autonomous Resistance

Pro-Russian/pan-Slavic parties, organisations and movements
• Pro-Russian Cossacks
• Slavic Unity
• Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine
• Social-Patriotic Assembly of Slavs
• Motherland

Vladimir Zhirinovsky and the LDPR

A new short article for the special issue Russian Analytical Digest that considers Russian political parties ahead of December’s parliamentary elections -

Anton Shekhovtsov, Andreas Umland, “Vladimir Zhirinovsky and the LDPR”, Russian Analytical Digest, No. 102 (September 2011), pp. 14-16.

The article is available for download here.