Ziga and Antimaidan

The infamous leaders of far-right organizations Dmitry Demushkin, Vladimir Ermolaev (Russian association), Denis Tyukin (the branch of the "Russians" in Kirov) and Vladimir Tor (leader National Democratic Party) were searched. Even earlier, Alexander Belov (Potkin), who was arrested on suspicion of money laundering, was sent for a psychiatric examination. at the Serbsky Institute. Throughout the past year, the authorities active persecution of activists of the most odious nationalist organizations. It is possible that the state decided to eliminate from the scene the most prominent leaders of the nationalists - a dangerous force, unpredictable and oppositional.

This, in particular, is stated in the new report of the SOVA center on racism and xenophobia in 2014 . It's called The Calm Before the Storm?

The nationalists are now in a deep crisis: the number of rallies has decreased and actions against migrants, raids began to decline, during the year it was not possible unleash a single conflict on the "Kondopoga technology", and even the traditional "Russian March" failed. And what is especially encouraging the number of street attacks has decreased markedly. But there is a clear the feeling that the condition is temporary.

Confrontation on the Maidan, the annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbass led to an unexpected split in the already not very harmonious ranks radical Russian nationalists. They completely quarreled the question of who should be supported in Ukraine, who should not be supported and whether support someone. The battles went on many fronts - the attitude towards "Maidan", to Ukrainian nationalists, to the inclusion of Crimea in Russia, to the DPR and the LPR, to the prospects for a more active participation of Russia in this war. By different sides of the barricades turned out to be yesterday's allies, from many years associations, whole movements came out, organizations quarreled, collaborating for years. As a result, there are practically no nationalists now. heard. Supporters of "Novorossiya" broadcast the same as the central The media, and therefore are rapidly losing their potential audience. A the views of those who oppose are much more convincing and active expresses the hateful liberal opposition. Most of the ordinary nationalists rejects any kind of cooperation with the authorities and in generally focused on direct, that is, violent actions, and not on actually political. Further development of this disorder on far-right flank of Russian politics is still unclear.

The most determined (or frostbitten?) of the militant ultranationalists went to Ukraine to personally take part in the hostilities. Moreover, Russian nationalists are fighting both on one side and on the other front lines in Eastern Ukraine. Of course, among the Russians fighting Now in Ukraine, the share of the far right is small. In combat a wide variety of people take part, many of whom have not previously showed interest in politics. In the Donbass they will meet new themselves with ideas, new groups, which may affect their subsequent activity. In addition, sooner or later the war in Ukraine will end and most of the self-proclaimed republics fighting on the side will return to Russia - with the acquired combat experience and with weapons in hand. More likely of all, they will join some radical political currents.

Those who remained in Russia are also on the alert. By the middle of last year pro-government nationalist movements intensified. First in turn, these are groups like the National Liberation Movement (NOD) or Party "Great Fatherland" (PVO). In 2015, these groups entered the coalition "Anti-Maidan" or at least took part in the actions of this movement. Such associations support Novorossiya, are ardent opponents of the West in general and America in particular, determined to fight the “fifth column” and advocate traditionalist values. Ideologically, they are close to the traditional ultra-right organizations. True, unlike most of the ultra-right, they support the political regime existing in Russia, and in ideology they are not so pronounced (at least for now) xenophobic component. It is from these people that we see examples of violence against political opponents. So far, these attacks have not been up to typical racist attacks, people from Anti-Maidan and NOD participating in actions against the "fifth column" until they are killed. However, this process is just beginning.

The activities of the new "pro-government" associations take place practically with complete connivance by the police. No one is pursuing obvious hooliganism, others are clearly sanctioned from above by an unprecedented rally European far right in St. Petersburg.

Now the regime is changing - it is becoming ideological, and nationalism - this is a new course that the Russian authorities are guided by. Rhetoric about conservatism, traditional values ​​and spiritual bonds are already in full swing. Instead of the former ethnic nationalism on the streets, some kind of strange mixture of political nationalism and so-called "civilizational nationalism", which is based on the idea of a unique Russian civilization opposed to the West. Fully it is impossible to exclude the ethnic component from all this, which is obvious on the example of the current propaganda campaign: the struggle is either for "Russian world", or for the "Russians" in general. While it's impossible to say what will this new spectrum of Russian nationalism be like, but clearly it will be much more aggressive than what we knew before the Ukrainian events.

Sources

• Yudina N. Ziga and Anti-Maidan // Grani.ru. 2015. March 27.