Mr. Snyder, you consider Russia to be a fascist state.

Why?

Konrad Schuller

Political correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper in Berlin.

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Is there anything about the Russian state that is not fascist today?

Here is a list of characteristics of fascism that apply to Russia: One: One-party rule.

Two: the cult of the leader.

Three: media control.

Four: Cult of the Empire, its dead and its historical innocence.

Five: The world is explained by conspiracy theories.

Six: a corporate state modeled on Mussolini's Italy, only more radical.

Seven: war of extermination and genocide.

Eight: a cult of will and deed.

Russia's hybrid warfare, this combination of propaganda and violence, can be seen as a triumph of will over reality.

And then, of course, the idea of ​​the enemy.

The starting point of fascism is the concept of the enemy, and the enemy of Russia in Putin's view is the West.

This is how Carl Schmitt defined it:

Schmitt was an ideologue of National Socialism.

And today his legacy is held in high esteem in Russia.

Alexander Dugin, Ivan Ilyin and other masterminds of Putinism refer to him.

Like Schmitt, Iljin says that politics begins with defining the enemy.

Putin often quoted him.

Schmitt's concept of “greater space” is also important here, i.e. the idea that only a few states are sovereign, namely the large empires.

All others are just dummies from this point of view.

This is how the ruling class in Moscow thinks: Russia is a real country, America too, most of the others are just vassals.

As a Russian emigrant, Ilyin celebrated National Socialism.

He espoused the idea that anyone who sees Ukraine as an independent state is dealing the deathblow to Russia.

Putin quoted Ilyin in this vein several times.

And he adds: Whoever wants to separate Ukraine from Russia will be destroyed.

Ilyin's belief was: Russia is a homogeneous mass under one leader.

For Ilyin, the establishment of Russia as a great power was the beginning of the healing of the world.

And that healing was to be the triumph of fascism across the globe.

Putin's government has recovered Ilyin's remains from exile, and the president himself has placed flowers on his grave.

Fascist thinkers believe that compromises are always mere respites, accepted in order to gather new strength for the annihilation of the enemy.

So is it possible to find a lasting negotiated peace with Putin?

The Western idea of ​​compromise is: I respect your interests and you respect mine.

That's hardly possible with Putin.

But you can still negotiate with him - if you have previously won a war.

As long as Putin thinks he can win, that's hard to imagine.

Fascist leaders constantly need new victories to justify their dictatorship.

So, after a possible victory in Ukraine, will Putin start the next war soon?

Russia works as a kind of war soap opera in sequels.

After Georgia came the first attack on Ukraine, after Syria now the second.

And the war is always framed by spectacular storytelling on television.

This is a proven tool of dominance, and that is why Putin may soon start a new war after winning the one in Ukraine.

But if he loses, he will use his media to simply claim the opposite.

If he can sell everything as a win, he's in no danger of "losing face," as some say, in defeat.

So are those wrong who say that concessions must be given as a face-saving way out?