‘President Vladimir Putin Has Tacitly Supported Racist Groups Throughout His 16 Years in Power’
From the News Vault
This commentary was originally published on December 16, 2016. From The G-Man decided to republish it after President Putin claimed that he invaded Ukraine for the sole purpose of “denazification.”
By Askold Krushelnycky
Murderous racist attacks have been happening in Russia for many years. Anyone that doesn’t have slavic features like people from the Caucuses or Central Asia is contemptuously called “chernej” – Black – by these violent thugs.
Although a few of these guys have ended up in jail because they’ve carried out their attacks so openly, most get away with, literally, murder, because they have been tacitly supported by Putin throughout his 16 years in power.
Journeyman Pictures: “Russia’s Racists” (2004): A disturbing insight into how the Chechen conflict has shaped Russian public opinion and resulted in an explosion of neo-Nazism in Russia.
His method to cultivate support and distract attention from his own massive kleptocracy (and the theft and corruption of his cronies) has been the classic tactic of blaming everything on foreign enemies – the US, the EU, and Ukraine. He has mocked or whipped up hatred for foreign values – respect for other peoples and their cultures, democracy, human rights, and independent and truthful journalism.
Putin – although he regularly extols the Soviet Union’s fight against Hitler – has always exploited deep-rooted neo-fascist/Russian nationalist sentiments that they are a master race in the region with a sacred mission. When you live in a system where your leaders steal billions (Putin’s wealth estimated at $40-120 BILLION) while you live in relative poverty and you can be killed, imprisoned or otherwise persecuted for political opposition, it’s perhaps comforting to delude yourself that you are not helpless and insignificant, but part of a great Russian “mission” to cure a sick world of its liberal and democratic ills.
Like the Soviet leaders before him, Putin tries to avoid the awkward historic fact that it was a treaty between Hitler and Stalin in 1939, where they agreed to invade Poland and carve up other parts of eastern and central Europe between them, that led to World War II. Soviet and German armies held a joint victory parade after dismembering Poland. As Britain fought against Hitler, Stalin, for nearly two years, was sending essential wartime supplies to the Nazis until the minute they invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941.
In 1988/9, even before the USSR fell apart, western publications (including the UK Sunday Times, where I worked) were reporting in amazement about neo-fascist groups operating under the guise of sports and bodybuilding clubs. Putin latched onto those sinister groups and encouraged them because he recognized that he could nurture and control their nastiness. They grew into a huge, government-supported youth movement called “Nashi,” which means “Ours” (as in Our folk, Our kind). I don’t know if the name “Nashi” was intended to resemble “Nazi,” but the organization has taken a lot from the style book of the Nazi-era youth organization, the “Hitlerjugend.” Its members are proud ultra-nationalists who have frequently been involved in racist attacks.
Putin has also, more generally, but diligently applied Hitler’s methods to how he rules Russia and conducts aggression. For anyone who has read any serious history books about World War II, the similarities between Hitler and Putin are breathtaking. At the same time, he accuses anyone who opposes him of being fascist.