“People disagree, often strongly, about what fascism is.

But today's Russia meets most of the criteria that scientists tend to apply.

There is a cult around the sole leader Vladimir Putin.

There is a cult of the dead organized around World War II.

It contains a myth about the last golden age of imperial greatness, which will be restored by a deadly war against Ukraine, "Yale University professor Timothy Snyder wrote in The New York Times.

Snyder recalls that the first time Ukraine was the object of the Nazi war in 1941:

“Hitler believed that the Soviet Union, which then ruled Ukraine, was a Jewish state: he planned to replace the Soviet government with his own and claim the fertile agricultural soil of Ukraine.

The Soviet Union would starve to death, and Germany would become an empire.

He thought it would be easy, because the Soviet Union, in his opinion, was an artificial entity, and the Ukrainians - a colonial people.

The resemblance to Putin's war is striking.

The Kremlin defines Ukraine as an artificial state, whose Jewish president proves that it cannot be real.

After the destruction of a small elite, it is believed that the uncertain masses would gladly accept Russian rule.

Today, it is Russia that is denying the world Ukrainian food, threatening famine in the global south. "

According to Snyder, "many are ashamed to see today's Russia fascist because the Stalinist Soviet Union defined itself as anti-fascist."

But Stalin's policy was twofold:

“In 1939, the Soviet Union joined Nazi Germany as a de facto ally, and the two states invaded Poland together.

Nazi speeches were reprinted in the Soviet press, and Nazi officers admired the Soviet effectiveness of mass deportations.

But today the Russians do not talk about this fact, because the laws of memory make it a crime.

World War II is part of Mr. Putin's historical myth of Russia's innocence and lost greatness - Russia must enjoy a monopoly on sacrifice and victory, "Snyder said.

The American historian sees the current political discourse on fascism in Russia as follows:

"In 21st century Russia," anti-fascism "has simply become the Russian leader's right to identify national enemies.

Real Russian fascists, such as Alexander Dugin and Alexander Prokhanov, were given time in the media.

And Mr. Putin himself relied on the work of interwar Russian fascist Ivan Ilyin.

For the president, a "fascist" or "Nazi" is simply someone who opposes him or his plan to destroy Ukraine.

Ukrainians are "Nazis" because they do not accept that they are Russians and resist. "

Snyder continues to characterize Russian political discourse:

“Since Mr. Putin speaks of the Nazis as an enemy, it may be difficult for us to understand that he may in fact be a fascist.

But in Russia's war with Ukraine, "Nazi" simply means "inhuman enemy" - someone whom the Russians can kill.

Hate speech against Ukrainians facilitates their killing, as we see in Bucha, Mariupol and all parts of Ukraine that were under Russian occupation.

Mass graves are not an accident during the fighting, but the expected consequence of the Nazi destructive war. "

Snyder emphasizes that it is possible to defeat Russian fascism now only if we demonstrate Russia's military weakness:

“Fascism is not a debatable position, but a cult of freedom that comes from fiction.

It is about the mysticism of the man who treats the world with violence, and it will be supported by propaganda to the end.

This can be reversed only by demonstrating the weakness of the leader.

The leader of the Nazis must be defeated, which means that those who are against fascism must do everything possible to defeat it.

Only then will the myths be destroyed. "

Timothy Snyder

According to Snyder, as in the 1930s, democracy around the world is giving way to fascism.

If Russia wins in Ukraine, it will be a demoralizer for democracies around the world:

“The victories of the Nazis on the battlefield will confirm that democracy must fail.

If Ukraine had not resisted, it would have been a dark spring for Democrats around the world.

If Ukraine does not win, we will have decades of darkness, ”concludes American historian Timothy Snyder in his article in The New York Times.

Russia's war against Ukraine

• At 5 am on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of a military operation against Ukraine in the Donbas at the request of the DNR and LNR groups.

  On February 21, during a televised address to the Russians, Putin called the so-called "DPR" and "LPR" independent states within the regions.

  On February 22, the Federation Council ratified the decision.

• All the days of the war are shelling Ukrainian cities with missiles, flying aircraft.

  Russian troops are attacking, including from the territory of Belarus, using airfields, bases and roads.

  Representatives of the Lukashenko regime justify the war, the opposition considers the territory of Belarus occupied and calls for resistance to Russian invaders.

• On February 27, the International Legion of Territorial Defense was established in Ukraine, and foreign volunteers were encouraged to join.

  Belarusians also entered there.

  During the two and a half months of the war, six Belarusian volunteers and soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were killed at the front: Alexei "Tour" Skobla, Ilya "Litvin" Hrenov, Dmitry "Terror" Apanasovich, Dmitry "Hans" Rubashevsky, Konstantin "Phoenix" Phoenix "Dubaila" .

• On March 30, the UN approved the composition of an independent commission to investigate Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

  It included people who worked in the conflict in Rwanda and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• Contrary to Putin's claims of attacks exclusively on military facilities, the Russians are bombing schools, kindergartens and residential areas of Ukrainian cities.

  The Russians are using banned weapons, including cluster bombs against civilians.

• The number of refugees from Ukraine exceeded 5.5 million people.

• On April 1, Lithuania became the first EU country to completely abandon Russian gas.

  Latvia and Estonia followed suit.

  Germany has promised to completely suspend the use of Russian oil by the end of 2022.

• On April 2, after the liberation of the city of Bucha near Kiev, photojournalists published dozens of photos showing hundreds of the dead, victims of massacres committed by Russian troops.

  Many are buried in natural mass graves.

  The Russian occupation and Borodyanka brought great destruction.

  A number of rapes, including infants, are also known.

• In April, the number of missile attacks on Ukraine and air strikes from Belarus decreased, and Russian troops began to leave Belarus.

• Since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 26 media representatives have been killed - 19 journalists and 7 other workers.

• In May, the Ukrainians launched a counteroffensive in the Slobozhanshchina region, pushing the invaders to their borders.

• On May 9, the President of the United States signed the Land League Act.

  This law restores the program of the Second World War, which will accelerate the supply of weapons to Ukraine and increase the amount of such assistance.

• On the night of May 17, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Anna Malyar confirmed the start of an operation to rescue Ukrainian servicemen trapped in the territory of "Azovstal".

  According to her, 53 seriously injured people were evacuated from there to the medical institution of occupied Novoazovsk.

  Another 211 people were taken to Alenivka along the humanitarian corridor.

  Russia's Defense Ministry says nearly 1,000 Ukrainian fighters at the plant "surrendered" as of May 18.

  The International Committee of the Red Cross has officially registered these fighters as prisoners of war.

• Independent verification of information about hostilities provided by officials of various parties is not yet possible.