Short film: "Christian Orthodox Fascism in Russia"

Here's a short film on the curious trend within contemporary Russian fascism, namely the (Christian) Orthodox fascism. Unfortunately, the video is only available in Russian language.

 

Nazis and Stalinists thrive on May 1 in Moscow

I share the deep concern expressed by Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the Nazi/Stalinist orgy in Russian cities on the 1st of May:

"The glorification of Hitler along with the glorification of Stalin, slogans of revanchism, xenophobia, intolerance, anti-Semitism and great-power chauvinism - all these dangerous phenomena, which are developing in the Russian Federation against the background of persecution and repression of all manifestations of democracy in the Russian society, are a challenge to civilised humanity."

This is how some Russians celebrated the International Workers' Day on the 1st of May in Moscow:

  

Nazis

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

The Quest for an Ideal Youth in Putin’s Russia

My review of two books on the Kremlin-inspired youth movement called Nashi published in Slavonica, Vol. 19 No. 2, October 2013:

The Quest for an Ideal Youth in Putin’s Russia. Vol. 1. Back to Our Future! History, Modernity and Patriotism According to Nashi, 2005-2012. By Ivo MIJNSSEN. Pp. 256. Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag. 2012. €34.90. ISBN 978 3 8382 0368

The Quest for an Ideal Youth in Putin’s Russia. Vol. 2. The Search for Distinctive Conformism in the Political Communication of Nashi, 2005-2009. By JUSSI LASSILA. Pp. 236. Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag. 2012. €34.90. ISBN 978 3 8382 0415

Pro-Russian "National-Bolshevik" alliance in the European Parliament

On 17 April 2014, the European Parliament adopted the resolution "On Russian pressure on Eastern Partnership countries and in particular destabilisation of eastern Ukraine". 437 MEPs voted for, 49 - against, and 85 abstained. The analysis of the vote against the resolution (see below) reveals the formation of the far right/far left alliance in the European Parliament, and this "National Bolshevik" alliance is likely to grow stronger after the European elections in May 2014. The progressive forces of Europe should be worried about the rise of the far left as much as they are worried about the rise of the far right.

Russian and pro-Russian right-wing terrorists spreading fear and hate in Ukraine

Yesterday, I commented on the recent scandal involving the distribution of anti-Semitic flyers in Donetsk. As it often happens with comments to the media, not everything that I said to The Verge's journalist appeared in the final piece - which is fair enough by me - but I would like to briefly discuss one point which I found important but which was missed out in the above-mentioned article.

Amar Toor asked me whether I was surprised at the news about the anti-Semitic flyers in Donetsk. I replied that - although the authenticity of the flyers cannot be either proven or dismissed - I was not surprised, because anti-Semitic and racist incidents involving the (pro-)Russian insurgents and terrorists in South-Eastern Ukraine had happened before.

Laying the blame on the Nazis: the anniversary of the Katyn massacre

71 years ago, on 13 April 1943, Radio Berlin reported that the German military forces had discovered a mass grave in the Katyn forest near Soviet Smolensk. Quoting from David Engel's Facing a Holocaust, the Germans -

uncovered “a ditch... 28 metres long and 16 metres wide, in which the bodies of 3,000 Polish officers were piled up in twelve layers.” The German broadcast charged that these officers had been shot by the Soviets in March 1940 and announced that the German forces expected to find additional pits containing up to 10,000 bodies. Two days later the Soviet government had responded, claiming that the dead were “former Polish prisoners of war, who... fell into the hands of the German-Fascist hangmen in the summer of 1941”.

Poland's sons butchered by the Soviet allies of Nazi Germany