Russia is Taking a Side in Favour of Fascism in the United States

By Joshua Tartakovsky

September 14, 2020

In the cacophony of voices in the United States, it is easy to make the mistake, as some in the American Left have been doing for quite some time, that Russia is some kind of an ally in the anti-fascist struggle. The sad truth is quite different. Russia is not only actively pushing for Trump’s re-election with the favorable coverage of its state media[1], it is also seeking to create confusion in western countries and undermine western democracies by granting positive coverage to protesters who claim Covid-19 is an ”hoax” [2]. Interestingly enough, Russia seems to have a soft spot for anti-Covid-19 conspiracy theorists while at the same time, if and when it has a credible vaccine, it would presumbly want to sell it to somebody. While Russia rightly marks May 9 as a day of liberation from the Nazi occupation, although it did not do so on time this year, it has no qualms supporting Trump, although Trump is a clear fascist who praised Ford Company workers for their ”good bloodlines” [3]. Ford was awarded by the Nazi state in 1938 and was in favour of eugenics. When it comes to the uprising of African Americans in the United States against police brutality and killing of black people due to the color of their skin, Russia’s state coverage took a strongly anti-BLM protests line [4], possibly since they seemed to undermine their buddy, Trump. While traditionally Russia has supported both sides, the far-left and the far-right [5], de facto in line with the ideology of the anti-liberal neo-fascist Russian thinker Alexander Dugin, it in fact has recently been taking an active side and siding more with fascists than with the far-left. Knowing full well that this can result in bloodshed of African Americans, Russia has nevertheless chosen a side [6]. It now runs stories claiming the shooter in Kenosha acted in self defense [7].

Following the collapse of the USSR, the Russian Federation under President Yeltsin went under a US-dictated shock therapy that resulted in the massive privatization of assets and in the rise of oligarchs. Vladimir Putin seemingly reined in the oligarchs, but in fact, a leading Jewish-Ukrainian oligarch Semion Mogilevich is still free in the streets of Moscow although he is wanted by the FBI in the United States. Moreover, under Putin, the youth has been suffering and forced to relocate due to a decline in the standard of living, rampant corruption, and very low salaries.

For Putin and his current circle, the lesson of the humiliation, which has to do not only with the 90’s massive privatizations, but with the defeat of the Soviet Union itself, due to Reagan outspending the Soviets, seems to be the need for vengeance. Nowadays, Russia as a deeply reactionary state has no positive ideology. It strongly supports the Russian Orthodox Church much like Turkish President Erdogan has been supporting the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque when faced with an economic decline following the lockdown. The new constitution has faith in God as a cornerstone, as if putting this in a constitution will change people’s hearts. What Russia’s leading governing circle seems to have in common is the desire to see the US suffer the same fate as the Soviet Union did. To this end, for example, US observer who lives in the US, Dimitry Orlov, constantly predicts the downfall of the United States [8]. He is correct that the US is unraveling. But he offers no positive solution or remedy. This is of no interest to him, since similar to a sociopath, he seems not to care about the unraveling of the society in which he lives. Orlov is too cynical to care or to offer a way out. Indeed, he said that even if socialism is enacted eventually in the US, it will be too late since by then there will be no money left.

What is to explain Russia’s nihlistic policy? There seems to be an external and internal layers to the answer to this question. On the one hand, it seems that many Russians have lost their faith in socialism as well as in capitalism, and therefore seem to want, in a perverted kind of way, have western citizens experience the same kind of disillusionment, confusion, despair and agony that Russians experienced in the late ’80s and early ’90s. But Russia is not content with making citizens distrust the statements of their politicans. It seems to want its citizens to distrust the government itself even when it does the right thing, by issuing warnings regarding the spread of coronavirus and suggesting ways to eliminate it. Russia has been keen to give a stage and seems to support, in various ways, those who have been spreading rumors and unfounded conspiracy theories, and those who oppose a lockdown and the wearing of masks, although wearing masks has proven to be an effective way in preventing the spread of a virus [9]. If Russia truly believed in traditional values and sought to go back to Christian morality as it sometimes claims, it would not seek to put the lives of others in danger by making them doubt their own medical personnel. Yet, on the other hand, a deeper layer seems to be at play.

A leading political theorist in Russia, Alexander Dugin, has been an inspiration for many far-right and fascist circles, who may also be enjoying direct support from the Kremlin, or pro-Russian groups in Russia, behind which the Kremlin can hide while enjoying plausible deniability. Dugin relies heavily on esotericism and on a single concept of Martin Heidegger [dasein, which can be interpreted as simply being, as in a meditative sense, from which he extrapolates his entire bizzare political philosophy]. Dugin seems to take a particular pleasure in destroying things, and is most likely a crypto-fascist. He claims that he believes every society and country should be free to pursue its own path, and that the far-right and the far-left are better alternatives to liberals who wish to bomb countries to introduce human rights by force. Fair enough. But Dugin is also well respected by Stephen Bannon[10], and Bannon believes, as a pagan, that life moves in cycles and that a great war must happen soon, preferrably with China [11]. Dugin’s pagan leanings masquarding themselves as Christian, give him flexibility. While Christianity and Marxism both espouse a redemptive point in time, paganism believes life is cyclical, and there is no evolutionary process. Indeed, what is the Q-Anon conspiracy theory if not an attempt to rob people of their agency and make them trust in an invisible actor that will save them while they sit and ”enjoy the show”? Russia, then, may be cultivating fascism worldwide to secure its own position. If the American sword comes too close to Russia’s throat, Russia can work with fascists to turn their wrath onto non-white people, be they Asian or Black.

I met Joaquin Flores in a Cafe in Belgrade. Joaquin is the man behind the Fort-Russ blog, told me that he believed the Bannon circles were working on a neo-nationalist front including the UK and Israel for a future war against China. Joaquin himself flirts with fascism quite intimately, it seems. His posts and articles include support for conspiracy theories regarding Covid-19, and support for the radical right and radical left against the existing order. At the same time, he was well-read in Marxism. Joaquin admitted to me that his publication receives funding from the Russian Academy of Sciences. This admission may mean that the Russian government supports, via a circutious route, Fort Russ.

In his Fort Russ publication [13], Joaquin added the #nolivesmatter hashtag, a neo-Nazi favorite to some of his articles. The slogan seems to attract those who are nihlistic and like to wallow in their nihilism. Some fascists seem to accept the axiom, overlooking the contradiction in terms, that no lives matter but that white lives mattered eabove everyone else’. Or, that no lives matter, period, and that therefore engaging in killing for its own sake is a blessed pursuit.

Joaquin seemed to like Dugin though admitted that Dugin is far from humble. He told me that he spent 8 hours being held in an airport in New York as part off the Mueller investigation on the Russian collusion in the US 2016 elections. Be it as it may, Flores has been actively supporting Donald Trump as an anti-establishment figure. In his Instagram account, he has been broadcasting videos from an anti-lockdown protest in Ireland, posting about the rights of children, thereby lending support to the alt-right conspiracy theory that the Western elite is engaged in pedophilia, and posting images that seem to go along the same agenda of spreading confusion an disarray in the west [13]. Of course, he also posted against the use of masks.

The Russian turn to the right on the US battlefield did not escape those working for the Russian state media. Ekaterina Chekushkina, a RT employee, seemed to take issue with a CNN headline that suggested that white doctors neglect blacks in their medical treatment. She viewed it as ”incitement” [14]. However, neo-liberal Bloomberg said that blacks are often misdiagnosed or not given the proper medication in the United States [15]. Ekaterina is a citizen of Russia so she does not need to put the US interests above her own. But Max Parry, a US journalist frequently interviewed on the Russian state media, sees the uprising against police brutality in the United States as a ”color revolution” whose ultimate goal is to unseat Trump [16]. That the US mainstream media has suddenly taken an interest in violence against people of color for its own narrow interests of removing Trump is quite probable, but this does not mean that the grievances that are pushing people to protest are not valid, that state violence against black people does not exist, that African American or white protesters have no agency of their own and are manipulated by George Soros, or that there is any point in time where an uprising against the existing unjust order is not called for. If the police can be held accountable while Trump is in power, so be it. Let the police be held accountable when it can be.

Finally, there is the strange case of Professor Vladimir Golstein of Slavic Studies at Brown University. Golstein, a former Russian emigrant, who enjoys the freedom of speech provided to him both at Brown University and in the US environment more generally, takes on an entirely pro-Russia line on a regular basis and presents Trump as some kind of resistance to the liberal order, that he despises. Golstein clearly seems to care more about Russia than the US, for the fate of African Americans in the US seems to be of no interest to him. He actively supports Trump and does not believe he is a fascist. In fact, he seems oblivious to the fact that Trump has been fanning the flames of fascism and protects the US president quite vehemently [17]. One does not need to support a certain line, and freedom of speech is what makes the US a unique place. Golstein can protect Russia if he wants to. That is his right. But for him to go out of his way to claim Trump is not a racist and is not fanning the flames of hatred takes a particularly acute kind of shortedness of vision.

As the United States faces a crucial election in which Americans will decide whether to vote for Donald Trump, a man whose irresponsible policies are anti-scientific and have resulted in the deaths of many Americans, a man who undoubtedly has been engaging in hateful rhetoric and pushing for a race war, a man who is seeking to privatize evrything good and solid left in the country including the US Post Service, Americans will need choose between Trump, or Biden – a supporter of the war in Iraq, who may suffer from a slight dementia, and someone who in the past did not seem to care much about racial justice. Kamala Harris may save Biden from his mistakes or may make him worse. But, at the very least, the two are not anti-science and are not fanning the flames of hate and encouraging white supremacy. The US still has some good institutions left [18] but these may disappear if Trump is reelected. Moreover, the US will probably step into full-fledged fascism. Still, as Trump is leading the US safely along the fascist track with Russian tacit support, Americans will have to decide which direction they want to go in. On my side, I will vote for the lesser evil.

Footnotes:

[1] Note for example, this article in Sputnik, where Trump is presented as a victim who cannot accept the Russian vaccine due to pressure from the Democratic Party, while he borp a vaccine from the US side prematurely, while the heavy death toll in the United States of coronavirus patients, is being conveniently ignored, as well as his changes of mind regarding the virus itself and its existence. While it is not to be expected that Russia will or should take an anti-Trump line, the article is by and large positive of Trump and therefore it cannot be viewed as impartial or as somewhat balanced: https://sputniknews.com/us/202008301080315089-why-cant-trump-consider-russias-sputnik-v-covid-vaccine-as-us-remains-worst-hit-country/

[2] https://www.rt.com/uk/499430-unite-for-freedom-london-coronavirus/

[3]https://theintercept.com/2020/05/22/trump-hails-good-bloodlines-henry-ford-whose-anti-semitism-inspired-hitler/

[4] https://www.russiamatters.org/analysis/do-black-lives-matter-russia

[5] https://www.newsweek.com/leaders-charlottesvilles-alt-right-protest-all-have-ties-russian-fascist-651384

[6] https://www.rt.com/usa/499037-blm-dc-restaurants-raise-fists/
https://www.rt.com/usa/498937-kenosha-riots-vandalism-fire-shooting/
[7] https://www.rt.com/usa/499204-kyle-rittenhouse-shooting-self-defense-kenosha/

[8]http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2020/07/charting-collapse-of-american-empire.html

[9] https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/13319/face-masks-considerably-reduce-covid-19-cases-in-germany-a-synthetic-control-method-approach

[10] https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/04/16/why-far-right-nationalists-like-steve-bannon-have-embraced-russian-ideologue/

[11]https://m.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR1vgyn6_8jz9UX93RR0Sk9svwcqfAiQFRgthDgiRopdTGWgHRJAoiARk2Y&feature=youtu.be&v=AisOQ4Kv76I

[12]https://fort-russ.com/

[13]https://www.instagram.com/joaquinflores45/

[14]https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3455759421121854&id=100000634895615

[15] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-08-25/white-doctors-still-treat-black-patients-differently

[16] https://dissidentvoice.org/2020/06/beware-the-hijacking-of-u-s-protests-into-a-color-revolution/

[17]https://sputniknews.com/us/202006211079681590-covid-racism–boltons-book-how-pelosis-anti-trump-rant-may-backfire-on-dems-on-election-day/?fbclid=IwAR1gItvFlfjYh94PDexuh2EeZBd8g4CGUJHcPb_wkIoa1E5B8nNwEpYXuMk

[18]https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/08/26/voting-biden-without-lying-yourself?fbclid=IwAR1MIkrRaHNA3vHpj7kSK6YL_UefM3B8Z2nFii95c3hLJMbB_oE94ohG9aM

Joshua Tartakovsky

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