Intertwined: The Regime and the Far-Right in Russia (Origins) #5

In this fifth episode of This Authoritarian Life we continue to investigate the impact of war on contemporary politics. We look at the case of Russia where our guest Arkadij Lomonosov has until recently worked as a journalist and anti-fascist activist. Reflecting on his own upbringing and personal infatuation with the young Putin in his teens, knowledge derived from long years of monitoring ultranationalist and neo-fascist groups, Arkadij illuminates Putin's appeal and the narrower attraction exercised by the neo-fascist street scene, the mutually beneficial and constantly evolving relationship between the regime and different factions of the far-right, and the way in which the war in Ukraine has re-energized the latter, while unexpectedly also leading some of its most prominent members to join the Ukrainian side.    

What is the ribbon of Saint George and how did it help Putin rebuild Russian national identity? What ideas and interests is the uneasy symbiosis between Russia’s increasingly imperial regime and neo-fascist and neo-Nazi groups based on? How did leading far-right activists end up in Ukraine after 2010? And what do the US under Trump and Russia under Putin have in common?

🎧 To find out, tune into this fifth episode of This Authoritarian Life “Intertwined: The Regime and the Far-Right in Russia’’ with Kristóf Szombati and Erdem Evren!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Episode Teaser & Jingle
• 1:08 Introduction to the Episode & Guest
• 4:29 Growing up in the "Nightmarish 90s"
• 9:38 Infatuation with Putin
• 13:37 The Nation of Soliders: Rebuilding National Identity
• 23:00 The Birth of the Far-Right Street Scene
• 29:24 Footsoldiers of the State
• 36:59 "Nazis Fighting under Soviet Flags": How the War in Ukraine Split the Russian Far-Right
• 49:10 Back in Full Force: The Resurgence of the Far-Right
• 1:10:06 Acknowledgements