Reggie Yates is clearly fearless. The black British reporter traveled to Russia for the BBC to understand the recent rise of fascism. In addition to discovering a mini Comic-Con glorifying Putin, he was also harassed for being black at a nationalist march founded by the president and was calmly informed in one interview that the mixing of races is impure and leads to mutations. (Yates is mixed race.) The charming and buoyant reporter at first smiles through the absurdity, but the bigotry gets to be too much for him. His emotions begin to show on his face. Twice we see Yates abruptly end an interview and rush for the exit.
Xenophobia has been an upward trend in Russia even before recent tensions with the West. Yates gives us a stomach-turning glimpse of a montage of YouTube videos celebrating vicious attacks on immigrants, including a man sitting on a bench who is suddenly kicked in the face. He also interviews an immigrant who was randomly stabbed on the street only to have the doctor refuse to treat him because he was an immigrant.
A 2013 poll by the independent Levada Center found that 69% of Russians believe the country has too many immigrants. The discrimination even targets citizens of post-Soviet countries and regions, like the Caucasus. Ironically, Putin and his supporters call for the return of the Soviet Union yet don’t want to live alongside the very same people Russia once colonized.
A vile pride has taken over the country. It is the design of a dictator who severely restricts press and internet freedoms, legislates homophobia, and exalts the invasion of much smaller neighbors. Journalists and opposition leaders have been arrested and murdered under Putin’s watch. Soviet history is even being rewritten to glorify Joseph Stalin.Russia invests in right-wing parties in Europe to purchase influence and divide the EU. It has become a paradise to famous white supremacist leader Preston Wigington who spends part of the year there. He recently organized the Texas A&M University lecture by Alexander Dugin, an influential Russian political scientist who called for the genocide of Ukrainians and world war to usher in “the end of times.”
Putin may have created a hate machine, but he has become the face of a monster that will outlive him. Once Putin is gone, another autocrat will take his place. Fascism in Russia is not going away anytime soon.
Russians will tell you that they need a strong leader. As one Russian-Ukrainian woman explained to me, it’s because they fear a return to the volatility of the Yeltsin years, when the collapse of communism plunged everything into chaos. They also fear, she says, ethnic minorities rising up against them, the “real Russians,” and creating a civil war. Fascism has become a sort of gravity holding Russia together. This of course creates a very awkward situation for world leaders as we honor the 70th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazism. State pageantry is an important tool for fascist regimes, and Moscow’s May 9 Victory Day parade, which Putin calls Russia’s “biggest holiday,” promises not to disappoint. Around 30 world leaders will be in attendance, including presidents of China, India, Cuba, Venezuela, Cyprus and South Africa. America will be represented by Ambassador John Tefft, and German chancellor Angela Merkel will stop by the next day to contribute a wreath to a war memorial. All the pomp and circumstance will be eclipsed by the unfinished business of World War II.
In WWII, we used one monster to get rid of another monster. Germany as well as Japan both paid dearly for their aggression and were also rehabilitated with Allied support. Germany has made confronting its Nazi past national policy. Meanwhile, our great WWII ally Russia, despite the millions of people murdered behind the Iron Curtain, was allowed to join the U.S. and Britain in carving up Europe and given other perks, like a permanent seat on the UN Security Council with its veto power. Today, the economies of Germany and Japan are booming, while Russia, clinging to its totalitarian past, is on the verge of economic collapse.
The Soviet Union didn’t work the first time; it won’t work again. A closed society has only led to a massive brain drain. In 2014 alone, over 200,000 Russians left. An economy abandoned by Western investors means that Russia will be dependent on its remaining partners and stuck in a weaker negotiating position, which China has already taken advantage of.
In WWII, we used one monster to get rid of another monster. Germany as well as Japan both paid dearly for their aggression and were also rehabilitated with Allied support. Germany has made confronting its Nazi past national policy. Meanwhile, our great WWII ally Russia, despite the millions of people murdered behind the Iron Curtain, was allowed to join the U.S. and Britain in carving up Europe and given other perks, like a permanent seat on the UN Security Council with its veto power. Today, the economies of Germany and Japan are booming, while Russia, clinging to its totalitarian past, is on the verge of economic collapse.
The Soviet Union didn’t work the first time; it won’t work again. A closed society has only led to a massive brain drain. In 2014 alone, over 200,000 Russians left. An economy abandoned by Western investors means that Russia will be dependent on its remaining partners and stuck in a weaker negotiating position, which China has already taken advantage of.
It’s not enough that Russia punishes itself by pursuing a losing path. May 9 begs us to remember: Fascism doesn’t care who it kills. Nowhere is the clearer than in east Ukraine. Russian-backed separatist fighters shoot at each other, steal from the locals—and have been accused of torturing Ukrainian POWs. A Russian businessman who went there to volunteer, believing the Russian state media that he would be doing his patriotic duty by killing “Ukrainian fascists,” was shocked by the terror he witnessed. Now he wants to fight for the Ukrainian army. In his disillusionment, he says he’s not alone. As Ukraine’s revolution showed us, disillusionment can be a very powerful force, even against fascist machinery.