OPINION

Putin's actions prove Russia is a fascist state

Oped, Published on 10/06/2022

» A few years ago, during a panel discussion on the politics of memory at a university in a German-speaking country, I called Russian President Vladimir Putin "the most powerful fascist politician in the world". Afterwards, the organisers shyly told me that while the event had gone well, the label I applied to the Kremlin leader was "too much" -- even though Russia had by that time already occupied Crimea and started a war in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. I was surprised not so much by the organisers' comment as by the way they made it. They seemed genuinely embarrassed as if I had said something obscene.