The war continues to develop and we continue to be horrified. The big question most of us right now is what can we do as individuals and collectively to stand with Ukraine against Putin’s War Machine.
My answer is six little words:
The Neovlasovite Regime of Vladimir Putin
To understand, we need to keep in mind that much of this is an informational war, and in keeping with its regime’s presentation of its mythic past, Russia is trying to portray itself as the heroes of the Soviet Union and casting the Ukrainians as its traditional villains. Thus, Putin’s stated goals “Demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine.
However, it’s fairly simple to take a few steps back to determine which nation is acting in the more fascistic fashion, and the good news is that for us that there is a historical figure who exemplifies Russia in its current form. Because much like Andrei Vlasov, whom can best be described as the Russian Benedict Arnold, if Arnold happened to be a Nazi Collaborator rather than a British one, what we’re seeing now is fascism dressed up in the uniform of Russian patriotism.
If we adopt this simple phrase, we demonstrate that we understand the racist and fascist policies that underpin Putin’s war. We understand the links between Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Marine LePen, and so many other right-wing neo-fascists and aspiring dictators. We understand the links in Russia between Putin and other far-right Neovlasovite movements, such as Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s Liberal Democrats and Alexandr Dugin’s National Bolsheviks. (If you want to be scared, take a look at where they got the word National from by checking out the flag under which the National Bolsheviks march. If you want to be really scared, think about what kind of person would willingly associate himself with something that reminiscent of the Third Reich in Russia, of all places. If you want to be really really scared, consider the fact that many experts consider Dugin to be “Putin’s Brain.”)
It allows us to strike back. Since Putin has chosen to deploy the images of “The Great Patriotic War” at the heart of his disinformation campaign, it seems only fair that those that oppose him can use them in turn. And it is not as if he can complain about the situation — he started the rhetoric in the first place. And in this case, he can’t really escalate
Most of all it strikes back at the story that Putin most desperately wants to believe — that Russia is defending the victims of a fascist regime by asserting the truth — Putin is the fascist regime. Putin can dress his war up in Zhukov’s uniform all he wants. We know who is really hiding underneath all those medals.