Putinism

Sociologists, economists, and political scientists emphasize different features of the system. M. Urnov and V. Kasamara established among political scientists "direct signs of the departure of the current political system of Russia from the basic principles of competition policy".{{cite book |last1=Урнов |first1=Марк |last2=Касамара |first2=Валерия |date=2005 |title=Современная Россия: вызовы и ответы: Сборник материалов. |trans-title=Modern Russia: Challenges and Answers: Collection of materials. |url=https://publications.hse.ru/books/65732426 |language=ru |pages=26–27 |access-date=26 August 2019 |archive-date=26 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190826110912/https://publications.hse.ru/books/65732426 |url-status=live }}

• Authoritarianism;
• Personality cult of Putin as a "national hero", through glorification in the media;Gennady Zyuganov, The Communists – 21, Algorithm Publishing House, 2012, {{ISBN|5457273857}}, {{ISBN|9785457273856}}. "We are attacking, they are retreating."Rogozhina Evgenia Mikhailovna - Principles and technologies for modeling political leadership in modern Russia: Monograph, 2013 NGLU; {{ISBN|5858392717}}, {{ISBN|9785858392712}} p. 243/299.
• Strong presidential power,[http://www.carnegie.ru/ru/pubs/books Lonely Power] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120508174650/http://www.carnegie.ru/ru/pubs/books/ |date=8 May 2012 }}: Why Russia did not become the West and why it is difficult for Russia with the West / Shevtsova L .; Mosk. Carnegie Center. - M .: Russian Political Encyclopedia (ROSSPEN), 2010. - 272 p. strengthened even in comparison with the era of Boris Yeltsin;cf. N. A. Goreva calls the system of state power built by Yeltsin "anarchist authoritarianism". [http://www.dissercat.com/content/transformatsiya-politicheskogo-rezhima-v-postsovetskoi-rossii Abstract of the dissertation "Transformation of the political regime in post-Soviet Russia"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209123515/http://www.dissercat.com/content/transformatsiya-politicheskogo-rezhima-v-postsovetskoi-rossii |date=9 December 2018 }}
• Strong state control over property;
• "sovereign democracy", i.e. a system where Putin works with the "oligarchs created by chaotic, free-market, crony capitalism", who in turn show "absolute fealty";
• Elements of nepotism (cooperative Ozero);
• Reliance on siloviki (people from several dozen security agencies, many of whom worked with Putin before he came to power);
• Selective application of justice,[http://www.interfax.ru/news.asp?id=214380 Putin would be happy to help Russian business, but worries about consumers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131216091100/http://www.interfax.ru/news.asp?id=214380 |date=16 December 2013 }}. // Interfax, 28 October 2011. “I fully agree with this thesis. Believe me, many of those present in the hall know that I am trying to put it into practice. ”[http://top.rbc.ru/politics/25/04/2013/855789.shtml M. Prokhorov on a straight line with V. Putin: A directed show] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006081331/http://top.rbc.ru/politics/25/04/2013/855789.shtml |date=6 October 2014 }}. // RBC, 25 April 2013. arbitrary application of the law ("Everything is for the friends, the law is for the enemies");{{Cite web|url=https://echo.msk.ru/programs/personalno/948078-echo/|title=Леонид Радзиховский — Особое мнение — Эхо Москвы, 07.11.2012|first=Радзиховский|last=Леонид|website=Эхо Москвы|access-date=24 December 2021|archive-date=24 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211224212330/https://echo.msk.ru/programs/personalno/948078-echo/|url-status=live}}
• Relatively liberal but non-transparent financial and tax policies;
• "manual control" mode,[http://www.segodnia.ru/content/121777 Putin's manual control] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181230093752/http://www.segodnia.ru/content/121777 |date=30 December 2018 }}. // Segodnia.ru, 25 April 2013.[http://lenta.ru/articles/2011/12/09/baz/ Manual control session. Putin did not close another Deripaska plant to close.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105180942/https://lenta.ru/articles/2011/12/09/baz/ |date=5 January 2022 }} // Lenta.ru, 9 December 2011. a weak technical government that does not have any political weight, with real control of the country from the presidential administration;{{cite news|url=http://www.gazeta.ru/comments/2012/05/22_e_4597105.shtml|title=Closed government. Vladimir Putin preserves the manual control system|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180221225313/https://www.gazeta.ru/comments/2012/05/22_e_4597105.shtml |archive-date=21 February 2018 |url-status=live |language=ru|work=Gazeta.ru|date=22 May 2012}}
• Utmost secrecy of power and backstage making of key decisions;
• "conservative resistance" to the Western "decadence" of irreligion, "same-sex marriage, radical feminism, homosexuality, mass immigration", that is being globalized "under the cover of democracy and human rights";
• Embrace of the values of orthodox Christianity against liberal cosmopolitanism but also support for other anti-liberal, hard right authoritarians outside of Russia;{{cite news |title=The Making of Vladimir Putin |agency=New York Times |date=26 March 2022 |author= Cohen, Roger }}
• Using the claim of protecting "our common Fatherland, Great Rus", as a "spiritual cover for ... kleptocracy";
• Authorities' dislike of freedom to express their opinion, censorship; Christopher Walker . [http://www.inopressa.ru/article/14Aug2009/wsj/putinism.html Ten Years of Putinism.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804181208/https://www.inopressa.ru/article/14Aug2009/wsj/putinism.html |date=4 August 2020 }} // InoSmi, translated from The Wall Street Journal, 14 August 2009 "However, the most striking feature of Putinism is its dislike of freedom to express one's opinion."File:Vladimir Putin 21 February 2001-2.jpg, 2001. Putin has promoted religious traditionalism and the rejection of some Western liberal principles, such as toleration of homosexuality.]]
• Strategic relations with The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, protecting the property interests of the church,{{Cite web|url=https://www.inopressa.ru/article/05Jan2015/bild/putin.html|title="Причуды" Путина|website=www.inopressa.ru|access-date=24 December 2021|archive-date=24 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211224212331/https://www.inopressa.ru/article/05Jan2015/bild/putin.html|url-status=live}} and a policy of promoting clericalization of society;Academicians' letter{{Cite web|url=http://www.aboutru.com/|title=Welcome aboutru.com - Hostmonster.com|website=www.aboutru.com|access-date=24 December 2021|archive-date=22 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220122163313/http://www.aboutru.com/|url-status=live}}File:Sergei Karaganov , Dean, Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, National Research University Higher School of Economics; Foreign policy adviser to the Presidential Administration, Russia (18452569479).jpg, who is considered close to Putin, formulated many of the core ideas that led to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.{{cite news |title=We are at war with the West. The European security order is illegitimate |url=https://russiancouncil.ru/en/analytics-and-comments/comments/we-are-at-war-with-the-west-the-european-security-order-is-illegitimate/ |work=Russian International Affairs Council |date=15 April 2022}}]]
• Eurasianism that posits that Russian civilization does not belong in the "European" or "Asian" categories but instead to the geopolitical concept of Eurasia, therefore making Russia a standalone civilization;{{cite news |title=The cocktail of ideologies behind Vladimir Putin |url=https://www.dw.com/en/the-cocktail-of-ideologies-behind-vladimir-putin/a-61242466 |work=Deutsche Welle |date=24 March 2022}}{{cite news |title=The Grand Theory Driving Putin to War |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/22/opinion/russia-ukraine-putin-eurasianism.html |work=The New York Times |date=22 March 2022}}
• All-Russian variant of ultranationalism;{{Cite book |last=Glinka |first=Lukasz Andrzej |title=Aryan Unconscious: Archetype of Discrimination, History & Politics |publisher=Cambridge International Science Publishing |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-907343-59-9 |location=Great Abington, UK |language=English}}
• In the international arena, Putinism is characterized by nostalgia for Soviet times and a desire to regain the situation before 1989 when the Soviet Union competed on a strong footing with United States in international affairs. Energy is used as an instrument of international politics (so-called "pipeline diplomacy");{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/node/11332313/print?story_id=11332313|title=Trouble in the pipeline|newspaper=The Economist|access-date=20 February 2020|archive-date=6 December 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206070639/http://www.economist.com/business/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=11332313|url-status=live}}
• In response to the Russo-Ukrainian war, Putinism has been characterised by Western politicians as "authoritarianism, ... imperialism, ... ethno-nationalism."{{Cite news|last=Lammy|first=David|date=23 February 2022|title=Countering Russian Aggression Debate, House of Commons|work=Statement by the Shadow Secretary of State for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of Her Majesty's Government}}

• Centralization,Dutch sociologist Marcel Van Herpen [http://www.marcelhvanherpen.com/books/overview/putinism Putinism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190719110035/http://marcelhvanherpen.com/books/overview/putinism |date=19 July 2019 }}. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan; January 2013. {{ISBN|978-1-137-28281-1}}fDutch sociologist Marcel Van Herpen [http://www.marcelhvanherpen.com/books/overview/putinism Putinism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190719110035/http://marcelhvanherpen.com/books/overview/putinism |date=19 July 2019 }}. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan; January 2013. {{ISBN|978-1-137-28281-1}} strong presidential power, weakening of the political influence of regional elites and big business;
• Establishment of direct or indirect state control over the main television channels of the country, censorship;{{cite web |url=https://echo.msk.ru/blog/boris_vis/1905094-echo/ |title=Десять признаков путинизма |trans-title=Ten signs of Putinism |last=Вишневский |first=Борис Лазаревич |author-link=:ru:Вишневский, Борис Лазаревич |date=6 January 2017 |website=echo.msk.ru |access-date=14 June 2019 |archive-date=1 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401180219/https://echo.msk.ru/blog/boris_vis/1905094-echo/ |url-status=live }}
• The ever-increasing use of the "administrative resource" (fraud) in elections at the regional and federal levels;
• The actual elimination of the system of separation of powers, the establishment of control over the judicial system;
• Non-public style of political behavior;
• Monopolization of political power in the hands of the president;{{cite web |url=https://echo.msk.ru/blog/boris_vis/1905094-echo/ |title=Десять признаков путинизма |trans-title=Ten signs of Putinism |last=Вишневский |first=Борис Лазаревич |author-link=:ru:Вишневский, Борис Лазаревич |date=6 January 2017 |website=echo.msk.ru |access-date=14 June 2019 |archive-date=1 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401180219/https://echo.msk.ru/blog/boris_vis/1905094-echo/ |url-status=live }}
• Priority of state interests over the interests of the individual, restriction of the rights of citizens, reprisals against civil society;
• Creating an image of a "besieged fortress", equating opposition activities with hostility, and ousting it from the political field;Марлен Ларюэль — [http://inosmi.ru/politic/20170228/238796361.html Путинизм как голлизм] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401193717/https://inosmi.ru/politic/20170228/238796361.html |date=1 April 2019 }}
• {{ill|Vladimir Putin's cult of personality|ru|Культ личности Путина|lt=Putin's personality cult}}, the embodiment of state succession in it after a serious injury from the collapse of the Soviet Union;
• Bureaucratic authoritarianism,[http://eng.globalaffairs.ru/numbers/7/521.html What is 'Putinism'?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090205173344/http://eng.globalaffairs.ru/numbers/7/521.html |date=5 February 2009 }}, by Andranik Migranyan, Russia in Global affairs, 13 April 2004 ([http://www.fondedin.ru/sr/new/fullnews_arch_to.php?subaction=showfull&id=1078960092&archive=1078960200&start_from=&ucat=14& рус.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309215536/http://www.fondedin.ru/sr/new/fullnews_arch_to.php?subaction=showfull&id=1078960092&archive=1078960200&start_from=&ucat=14& |date=9 March 2016 }}) the presence of the ruling party merged with the bureaucratic apparatus;
• State corporativism;социолог и политический аналитик Леон Арон: {{cite web|first=Leon |last=Aron |title=Putinism |publisher=American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research |date=8 May 2008 |page=16 |url=http://www.aei.org/publication/putinism/ |format=online |access-date=31 January 2008 |archive-date=24 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150124070148/http://www.aei.org/publication/putinism/ |url-status=live }}
• Strong state control over property;
• Aggressive foreign policy (jingoism);
• Focus on order and conservative values;
• Ideology of national greatness;
• Anti-Western sentiment.

{{Main|Silovik}}

File:Встреча с офицерами и прокурорами, назначенными на вышестоящие должности 2.jpg and Sergei Ivanov with Putin, 8 April 2015]]

A sociological investigation unveiling the phenomena was done in 2004 by Olga Kryshtanovskaya, who determined the proportion of siloviks in the Russian political elite to be 25%.[http://2004.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2004/63n/n63n-s43.shtml Mission "intrusion" is complete!] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060723095634/http://2004.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2004/63n/n63n-s43.shtml |date=23 July 2006 }} by Olga Kryshtanovskaya, 2004, Novaya Gazeta (in Russian) In Putin's "inner circle" which constitutes about 20 people, the amount of siloviks rises to 58%, and fades to 18–20% in Parliament and 34% in the Government. According to Kryshtanovskaya, there was no capture of power as Kremlin bureaucracy has called siloviks in order to "restore order". The process of siloviks coming into power allegedly started in 1996, Boris Yeltsin's second term. "Not personally Yeltsin, but the whole elite wished to stop the revolutionary process and consolidate power."

When silovik Vladimir Putin was appointed prime minister in 1999, the process was boosted. According to Kryshtanovskaya, "Yes, Putin has brought siloviks with him. But that's not enough to understand the situation. Here's also an objective aspect: the whole political class wished them to come. They were called for service... There was a need of a strong arm, capable from point of view of the elite to establish order in the country."

Kryshtanovskaya has also noted that there were people who had worked in structures "affiliated" with the KGB/FSB. Structures usually considered as such are the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Governmental Communications Commission, Ministry of Foreign Trade, Press Agency News and others. "The itself work in such agencies doesn't involve necessary contacts with special services, but makes you think about it."[http://www.cprf.info/projects/vlast/22071.shtml Fradkov: jacket over straps] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806193907/http://www.cprf.info/projects/vlast/22071.shtml |date=6 August 2020 }}, by Olga Kryshtanovskaya, 2004 (in Russian) Summing up numbers of official and "affiliated" siloviks she got an estimate of 77% of such in the power.

Putin's chief national security adviser, Nikolai Patrushev,{{cite news |title=The Hard-Line Russian Advisers Who Have Putin's Ear |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/30/world/europe/putin-top-advisers-ukraine.html |first=Anton |last=Troianovski |work=The New York Times |date=30 January 2022 |access-date=28 March 2022}} who believed that the West has been in an undeclared war with Russia for years,{{cite news |last=Galeotti |first=Mark |title=New National Security Strategy Is a Paranoid's Charter |url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/07/05/new-national-security-strategy-is-a-paranoids-charter-a74424 |work=The Moscow Times |date=5 July 2021 |access-date=28 March 2022}} was a leading figure behind Russia's updated national security strategy, published in May 2021. It stated that Russia may use "forceful methods" to "thwart or avert unfriendly actions that threaten the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Russian Federation".{{cite news |title=Russia's security strategy envisages 'forceful methods' |url=https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/russias-security-strategy-envisages-forceful-methods-78002786 |publisher=ABC News |date=31 May 2021 |access-date=28 March 2022}}{{cite news |title=Putin's inner circle: Who has the Russian president's ear on the war in Ukraine? |url=https://www.dw.com/en/putins-inner-circle-who-has-the-russian-presidents-ear-on-the-war-in-ukraine/a-61102576 |editor-first=Jane |editor-last=Paulick |publisher=Deutsche Welle |date=11 March 2022 |access-date=28 March 2022}}

Following a referendum, with Putin's signing an executive order on 3 July 2020 to officially insert the amendments into the Russian Constitution, they took effect on 4 July 2020.{{cite news|date=3 July 2020|title=Putin orders constitution changes allowing him to rule until 2036|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/7/3/putin-orders-constitution-changes-allowing-him-to-rule-until-2036/|publisher=Al Jazeera|access-date=22 October 2020|archive-date=26 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026074327/https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2020/07/03/putin-orders-constitution-changes-allowing-him-to-rule-until-2036/|url-status=live}} Vladimir Pastukhov, a Russian political scientist, advocate and honorary senior research associate of the University College London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies, and Alexander Podrabinek, a Soviet dissident, journalist and Russian human rights defender, state that Russia has been taking on the characteristics of a totalitarianism as a result of the constitutional amendments. This is reflected in incremental but steady and aggressive process of the seizing of full control over public and private life, and de facto criminalization of any opposition and dissidence.{{cite magazine|last=Pastukhov|first=Vladimir|date=9 June 2021|title=Deep Mind State. Борьба с инакомыслием как увертюра к массовому террору|language=ru|magazine=MBK-news|url=https://mbk-news.appspot.com/sences/deep-mind-state-borba/|access-date=30 September 2021|archive-date=12 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812003012/https://mbk-news.appspot.com/sences/deep-mind-state-borba/|url-status=live}}{{cite magazine|last=Podrabinek|first=Alexander|author-link=Alexander Podrabinek|date=24 September 2021|title=Рассвет тоталитаризма. Александр Подрабинек – о том, что нас ждёт|language=ru|magazine=Radio Liberty|url=https://www.svoboda.org/a/rassvet-totalitarizma-aleksandr-podrabinek-o-tom-chto-nas-zhdyot/31472911.html|access-date=30 September 2021|archive-date=30 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210930100248/https://www.svoboda.org/a/rassvet-totalitarizma-aleksandr-podrabinek-o-tom-chto-nas-zhdyot/31472911.html|url-status=live}}

{{main|Counterintelligence state}}

According to former Securitate general Ion Mihai Pacepa, "In the Soviet Union, the KGB was a state within a state. Now former KGB officers are running the state. They have custody of the country's 6,000 nuclear weapons, entrusted to the KGB in the 1950s, and they now also manage the strategic oil industry renationalized by Putin. The KGB successor, rechristened FSB, still has the right to electronically monitor the population, control political groups, search homes and businesses, infiltrate the federal government, create its own front enterprises, investigate cases, and run its own prison system. The Soviet Union had one KGB officer for every 428 citizens. Putin's Russia has one FSB-ist for every 297 citizens."Jamie Glazov (23 June 2006). [http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1654250/posts When an Evil Empire Returns — The Cold War: It's back.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615182909/http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1654250/posts |date=15 June 2020 }}, interview with Ion Mihai Pacepa, R. James Woolsey, Jr., Yuri Yarim-Agaev, and Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, FreeRepublic.com. Retrieved 2 October 2019.[http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MzY4NWU2ZjY3YWYxMDllNWQ5MjQ3ZGJmMzg3MmQyNjQ= The Kremlin's Killing Ways] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213083304/http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MzY4NWU2ZjY3YWYxMDllNWQ5MjQ3ZGJmMzg3MmQyNjQ= |date=13 December 2007 }} – by Ion Mihai Pacepa, National Review Online, 28 November 2006.

"Under Russian Federation President and former career foreign intelligence officer Vladimir Putin, an "FSB State" composed of chekists has been established and is consolidating its hold on the country. Its closest partners are organized criminals. In a world marked by a globalized economy and information infrastructure, and with transnational terrorism groups utilizing all available means to achieve their goals and further their interests, Russian intelligence collaboration with these elements is potentially disastrous", said politologist Julie Anderson.

Former KGB officer Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy shares similar ideas. When asked "How many people in Russia work in FSB?", he replied: "Whole country. FSB owns everything, including Russian Army and even own Church, the Russian Orthodox Church... Putin managed to create new social system in Russia".{{Cite web|url=http://www.voanews.com/russian/archive/2007-02/2007-02-02-voa3.cfm|title=Голос Америки|access-date=16 February 2019|archive-date=9 April 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090409004253/http://www.voanews.com/russian/archive/2007-02/2007-02-02-voa3.cfm|url-status=dead}}

"Vladimir Putin's Russia is a new phenomenon in Europe: a state defined and dominated by former and active-duty security and intelligence officers. Not even fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, or the Soviet Union – all undoubtedly much worse creations than Russia – were as top-heavy with intelligence talent", said intelligence expert Reuel Marc Gerecht.[http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.25917/pub_detail.asp A Rogue Intelligence State? Why Europe and America Cannot Ignore Russia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070914154832/http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.25917/pub_detail.asp |date=14 September 2007 }} By Reuel Marc Gerecht.

{{See also|Corporatism}}

Andrei Illarionov considers the political system in Russia as a variety of corporatism. According to Illarionov, a former advisor of Vladimir Putin, this is a new socio-political order, "distinct from any seen in our country before". He said that members of the Corporation of Intelligence Service Collaborators took over the entire body of state power, follow an omerta-like behavior code, and "are given instruments conferring power over others – membership “perks”, such as the right to carry and use weapons".

According to Illarionov, this "Corporation has seized key government agencies – the Tax Service, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Parliament, and the government-controlled mass media – which are now used to advance the interests of [Corporation] members. Through these agencies, every significant resource of the country – security/intelligence, political, economic, informational and financial – is being monopolized in the hands of Corporation members".{{Cite web|title=Partial English translation|url=http://www.robertamsterdam.com/2007/04/andrei_illarionov_approaching.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070705011725/http://www.robertamsterdam.com/2007/04/andrei_illarionov_approaching.htm|archive-date=5 July 2007|access-date=}}

Members of the Corporation created an isolated caste. A former KGB general said that "a Chekist is a breed... A good KGB heritage—a father or grandfather, say, who worked for the service—is highly valued by today's siloviki. Marriages between siloviki clans are also encouraged."[https://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9682621 Russia under Putin. The making of a neo-KGB state.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160412215032/http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9682621 |date=12 April 2016 }}, The Economist, 23 August 2007.

Russian politician Boris Nemtsov and activist Vladimir Kara-Murza defined Putinism in 2004 as "a one party system, censorship, a puppet parliament, ending of an independent judiciary, firm centralization of power and finances, and hypertrophied role of special services and bureaucracy, in particular in relation to business".[http://www.defac.ac.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/russian/04(01)-MAS.pdf Russia After The Presidential Election] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926231555/http://www.defac.ac.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/russian/04(01)-MAS.pdf |date=26 September 2007 }} by Mark A. Smith Conflict Studies Research Centre

{{See also |Mafia state}}

Political analyst Andrei Piontkovsky considers Putinism as "the highest and culminating stage of bandit capitalism in Russia”.[http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/4094.html#1 Putinism: highest stage of robber capitalism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010630110319/http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/4094.html#1 |date=30 June 2001 }}, by Andrei Piontkovsky, The Russia Journal, 7–13 February 2000. The title is an allusion to the work Imperialism as the last and culminating stage of capitalism by Vladimir Lenin. He believes that "Russia is not corrupt. Corruption is what happens in all countries when businessmen offer officials large bribes for favors. Today's Russia is unique. The businessmen, the politicians, and the bureaucrats are the same people. They have privatized the country's wealth and taken control of its financial flows."[http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=4852 Review of Andrei's Pionkovsky's Another Look Into Putin's Soul by the Honorable Rodric Braithwaite] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927230557/http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=4852 |date=27 September 2007 }}, Hoover Institute. Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen has also described Russia as a "mafia state".{{Cite web |last=Gessen |first=Masha |title=Putin: The Rule of the Family {{!}} Masha Gessen |url=https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/03/14/putin-mafia-state-lesin-killing/ |access-date=14 April 2022 |website=The New York Review of Books |date=14 March 2016 |language=en}}

Such views are shared by politologist Julie Anderson who said the same person can be a Russian intelligence officer, an organized criminal, and a businessman. She also cited former CIA director James Woolsey who said: "I have been particularly concerned for some years, beginning during my tenure, with the interpenetration of Russian organized crime, Russian intelligence and law enforcement, and Russian business. I have often illustrated this point with the following hypothetical: If you should chance to strike up a conversation with an articulate, English-speaking Russian in, say, the restaurant of one of the luxury hotels along Lake Geneva, and he is wearing a $3,000 suit and a pair of Gucci loafers, and he tells you that he is an executive of a Russian trading company and wants to talk to you about a joint venture, then there are four possibilities. He may be what he says he is. He may be a Russian intelligence officer working under commercial cover. He may be part of a Russian organized crime group. But the really interesting possibility is that he may be all three and that none of those three institutions have any problem with the arrangement."(Congressional Statement of R. James Woolsey, Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, 21 September 1999, Hearing on the Bank of New York and Russian Money Laundering).

According to political analyst Dmitri Glinski, "The idea of Russia, Inc.--or better, Russia, Ltd.--derives from the Russian brand of libertarian anarchism viewing the state as just another private armed gang claiming special rights on the basis of its unusual power." "This is a state conceived as a "stationary bandit" imposing stability by eliminating the roving bandits of the previous era." In April 2006, the effective privatization of the customs sphere infuriated Putin himself, where businessmen and officials "merged in ecstasy".{{cite news |last1=Baev |first1=Pavel K. |title=Putin's fight against corruption resembles matryoshka doll |url=https://jamestown.org/program/putins-fight-against-corruption-resembles-matryoshka-doll/ |access-date=10 June 2020 |work=Eurasia Daily Monitor |volume=3|issue=99 |publisher=The Jamestown Foundation |date=22 May 2006 |archive-date=10 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610231832/https://jamestown.org/program/putins-fight-against-corruption-resembles-matryoshka-doll/ |url-status=live }}

{{Conservatism in Russia|Ideologies}}

File:Путин и Володин.jpg, stated in 2014, "If there is Putin, there is Russia. If there is no Putin, there is no Russia!"{{cite news |last1=Motyl |first1=Alexander |title=Putin Isn't Just an Autocrat. He's Something Worse |url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/14/lets-call-putin-fascist-autocrat-00016982 |work=Politico |date=14 March 2022}}]]

Analysts have described Russia's state ideology under Putin as nationalist and neo-imperialist. Andrey Kolesnikov describes Putin's regime since his third term as melding nationalist imperialism with conservative Orthodoxy and authoritarian aspects of Stalinism.{{cite journal |last1=Kolesnikov |first1=Andrei |title=The End of the Russian Idea |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/russian-federation/vladimir-putin-end-russian-idea |journal=Foreign Affairs |date=August 2023|volume=102 |issue=5 }}

Politologist Irina Pavlova said that Chekists are not merely a corporation of people united to expropriate financial assets. They have long-standing political objectives of transforming Moscow into the Third Rome and anti-American ideology of containing the United States.[http://www.grani.ru/Politics/Russia/President/m.128359.html Badly informed optimists] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303182740/http://grani.ru/Politics/Russia/President/m.128359.html |date=3 March 2016 }}, by Irina Pavlova, grani.ru. Columnist George Will emphasized the nationalistic nature of Putinism. He said that "Putinism is becoming a toxic brew of nationalism directed against neighboring nations, and populist envy, backed by assaults of state power, directed against private wealth. Putinism is national socialism without the demonic element of its pioneer ...".{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/will121503.asp|title=George Will|website=www.jewishworldreview.com|access-date=6 July 2019|archive-date=15 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190615050009/http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/will121503.asp|url-status=live}} According to Illarionov, the ideology of chekists is Nashism ("ours-ism"), the selective application of rights".

File:Z_symbol_on_a_billboard.jpg on a billboard in Ryazan with the hashtag {{Langx|ru|#заПутина|label=none}} ({{Lit|#forPutin}})]]

In February 2021, Putin linked his own personal thought and ideology to that of Lev Gumilyov, stating that he too believed in 'passionarity', the rise and fall of societies as described by this theory and specifically that Russia was a nation 'has not yet attained its highest point', with an 'infinite genetic code'.{{cite web |title=What's going on inside Putin's mind? His own words give us a disturbing clue| url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/25/putin-mind-words-russia-victimhood|website=The Guardian |access-date=10 March 2022 |date=25 February 2022}}{{cite web|title=Putin made important statements at a meeting with media leaders. the main thing|url=https://tekdeeps.com/putin-made-important-statements-at-a-meeting-with-media-leaders-the-main-thing/|website=tekdeeps.com/|access-date=10 March 2022|date=15 February 2021|archive-date=20 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220320031206/https://tekdeeps.com/putin-made-important-statements-at-a-meeting-with-media-leaders-the-main-thing/|url-status=usurped}}{{cite web |title=Путин сделал важные заявления на встрече с главными редакторами. Главное| url=https://rg.ru/2021/02/14/putin-sdelal-vazhnye-zaiavleniia-na-vstreche-s-glavnymi-redaktorami-glavnoe.html/|website=rg.ru |access-date=10 March 2022 |date=14 February 2021 |archive-date=13 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213232120/https://rg.ru/2021/02/14/putin-sdelal-vazhnye-zaiavleniia-na-vstreche-s-glavnymi-redaktorami-glavnoe.html |url-status=live }}

According to Michael Hirsh, a senior correspondent at Foreign Policy:

{{blockquote|Graham and other Russia experts said it is a mistake to view Putin merely as an angry former KGB apparatchik upset at the fall of the Soviet Union and NATO’s encroachment after the Cold War, as he is often portrayed by Western commentators. Putin, himself, made this clear in his Feb. 21 speech, when he disavowed the Soviet legacy, inveighing against the mistakes made by former leaders Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin to grant Ukraine even partial autonomy. ... Putin is rather a messianic Russian nationalist and Eurasianist whose constant invocation of history going back to Kievan Rus, however specious, is the best explanation for his view that Ukraine must be part of Russia’s sphere of influence, experts say. In his essay last July, Putin even suggested that the formation of a separate, democratic Ukrainian nation “is comparable in its consequences to the use of weapons of mass destruction against us.”{{cite news |title=Putin's Thousand-Year War |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/12/putins-thousand-year-war/ |work=Foreign Policy |date=12 March 2022}}}}

{{See also|Anti-American sentiment in Russia}}

File:Концерт в честь 70-летия Великой Победы 6.jpg during a state visit to Moscow, May 2015]]

In response to the growing anti-Americanism after the Russo-Georgian War in the Russian intellectual-political class, the director of the Institute of Globalization and Social Movements, Boris Kagarlitsky, said, "Ironically, one of the dominant trends here is that we are anti-American because we want to be exactly like America. We are angry that Americans are allowed to invade minor nations and we are not."Neave Barker, 26 October 2008, Al Jazeera [http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2008/10/20081021175053778801.html Little love from Russia for US], In recent Russian polls, the United States and its allies have consistently topped the list of Russia's greatest enemies.[http://fom.ru/globe/10096 ФОМ: Старый враг лучше новых двух], FOM: An old enemy is better than two new[http://www.levada.ru/press/2009061001.html Левада-центр: Друзья и враги России] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130620213458/http://www.levada.ru/press/2009061001.html |date=20 June 2013 }}, Levada-center: Friends and Foes of Russia However, survey results published by the Levada-Center indicate that, as of August 2018, Russians increasingly viewed the United States positively following the Russia–U.S. summit in Helsinki in July 2018.{{cite news |title=Anti-Americanism Wanes in Russia After Putin-Trump Summit, Survey Says |url=https://themoscowtimes.com/news/anti-americanism-wanes-russia-after-putin-trump-summit-survey-says-62425 |work=The Moscow Times |date=2 August 2018}} According to the Pew Research Center, "57% of Russians ages 18 to 29 see the U.S. favorably, compared with only 15% of Russians ages 50 and older."{{cite news |title=How people around the world see the U.S. and Donald Trump in 10 charts |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/01/08/how-people-around-the-world-see-the-u-s-and-donald-trump-in-10-charts/ |work=Pew Research Center |date=8 January 2020}}

According to Moscow Carnegie Center Director Dmitri Trenin, anti-Americanism in Russia is becoming the basis for official patriotism. Further researcher states that the Russian ruling elite have stopped pretending that it follows the West and cherishes its declared values. Now, Moscow openly states that its values are not completely common with modern Western values in such fields as democracy, human rights, national sovereignty, role of government, the church, and the nature of family.[http://www.kommersant.ru/doc-rss/2127333 ДМИТРИЙ ТРЕНИН:Основой официального патриотизма становится антиамериканизм], Dmitry Trenin: Anti-Americanism is becoming a basis for official patriotism. Putin's Russia has formed alliances with anti-American regimes in non-Western countries such as China and Iran.{{cite news |title=An anti-US alliance in the making, as Russia and China move ever closer together |url=https://thehill.com/opinion/international/544952-an-anti-us-alliance-in-the-making-as-russia-and-china-move-ever-closer/ |work=The Hill |date=26 March 2021}}{{cite news |title=Why Russia and China Build Up Iran |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-russia-and-china-build-up-iran-biden-administration-foreign-relations-nuclear-negotiations-11643317565 |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=27 January 2022}}{{cite news |title=Sanctions on Russia Pit the West Against the Rest of the World |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-west-vs-rest-of-the-world-russia-ukraine-dictators-south-america-asia-africa-11647894483 |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=21 March 2022}} According to some Russian experts, anti-American sentiments are driven largely by domestic political climate and has little relationship to US foreign policy.[http://www.snob.ru/profile/11778/blog/50815 Сноб: Путинская аномалия. Об антиамериканизме в России], Snob: Putin's anomaly. Anti-Americanism in Russia.

The experts generally agree that Putin's Russia is not fascist. Although noting some similarities, such as revanchism and "hypermasculine authority", they argue that Putin's Russia lacks mass mobilization and revolutionary nationalism which were fundamental characteristics of fascist movements. Additionally, not seek "transcendence" to create a "new man" like fascist movements did. Instead, Putin's Russia has been generally described as reactionary and authoritarian conservative. Oxford historian Roger Griffin compared Putin's Russia to World War II-era Japan, saying that like Putin's Russia, it "emulated fascism in many ways, but was not fascist." American historian Stanley G. Payne argued that Putin's political system is "more a revival of the creed of Tsar Nicholas I in the 19th century that emphasized 'Orthodoxy, autocracy, and nationality' than one resembling the revolutionary, modernizing regimes of Hitler and Mussolini."

He argued that fascism, imbued with revolutionary ideas and seeking to implement changes which would push society into a new order, relied on mobilization of masses of the population and their active participation in politics in order to implement these changes. Putinism, on the other hand, is counter-revolutionary, strictly opposed to any social reforms and social mobilization and aims at the de-politicization of society, which it sees as a threat to its existence. The mass social involvement being discouraged, the politics are reduced to "pure management" left to those who are in power, free from the interference of the masses. In exchange to non-involvement in the politics, Putinism's social contract offers economic development and an important amount of freedom in private life, "bread and entertainment". According to Sheri Berman, both Hitler and Mussolini came to power through a "very large mass movement" and their image stuck in mind as mass leaders in front of people who felt "a sort of direct connection to the leader", while Putin's regime "is not a mass regime that came to power or operates on the basis of mass mobilization", on the contrary, Putin "came up as an apparatchik" and has not built "a dynamic and charismatic movement in the fascist style", preferring to see his people de-mobilized and usually best remembered "sitting alone at the end of the table".

However, some have argued that Putin's Russia is fascist. The historian Timothy Snyder and other authors note that pro-Fascist ultranationalist white émigré Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyin has been quoted by Vladimir Putin in his speeches on various occasions, and is considered by some observers to be a major ideological inspiration for him.{{cite web |surname=Robinson |given=Paul |date=28 March 2012 |title=Putin's Philosophy |publisher=The American Conservative |url=https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/putins-philosophy/ |access-date=27 February 2022}}{{cite web |surname=Snyder |given=Timothy |authorlink=Timothy Snyder |url=https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/03/16/ivan-ilyin-putins-philosopher-of-russian-fascism/ |title=Ivan Ilyin, Putin's Philosopher of Russian Fascism|publisher=The New York Review of Books|access-date=12 December 2019|quote=The proper interpretation of the 'judge not' passage was that every day was judgment day, and that men would be judged for not killing God's enemies when they had the chance. In God’s absence, Ilyin determined who those enemies were|date=5 April 2018|archive-date=19 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191219211022/https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/03/16/ivan-ilyin-putins-philosopher-of-russian-fascism/|url-status=live}}

• {{cite book |surname=Snyder |given=Timothy |authorlink=Timothy Snyder |title=The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America |year=2018 |place=New York |publisher=Tim Duggan Books |isbn=978-0-52557446-0 |pages= 19–21, 23}} |[https://willzuzak.ca/cl/bookreview/Snyder2018RoadToUnfreedom.pdf PDF]| [https://web.archive.org/web/20220314174459/https://willzuzak.ca/cl/bookreview/Snyder2018RoadToUnfreedom.pdf Archived] Aleksandr Dugin, a formerly marginal contemporary apologist for Eurasianism and conservative revolution, whose views are close to Fascism, has become a semi-official philosopher of the Putin regime{{cite journal |author1=Barbashin, Anton |author2=Thoburn, Hannah |date=31 March 2014 |title=Putin's Brain: Alexander Dugin and the Philosophy Behind Putin's Invasion of Crimea |journal=Foreign Affairs |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russia-fsu/2014-03-31/putins-brain |access-date=27 June 2024}} {{cite news |author=Burton, Tara Isabella |title=The far-right mystical writer who helped shape Putin's view of Russia |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/05/12/dugin-russia-ukraine-putin/ |date=12 May 2022 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=27 June 2024}} and headed 2023 establishment the Ivan Ilyin Higher School of Politics at the Russian State University for the Humanities. Russian journalist Andrei Malgin compared Putin's desire to restore a "lost" empire and his support for the church and "traditional values" to the policies of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini.{{cite news |title=Peas In a Pod: Putin's Russia and Mussolini's Italy |url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2015/05/06/peas-in-a-pod-putins-russia-and-mussolinis-italy-a46354 |work=The Moscow Times |date=6 May 2015}} Russian political scientist Andrey Piontkovsky argues that the ideology of Rashism is in many ways similar to German fascism (Nazism), while the speeches of President Vladimir Putin reflect similar ideas to those of Adolf Hitler.{{Citation |title=Що переможе: здоровий глузд чи імперські амбіції? Андрій Піонтковський. | date=11 February 2022 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wucOzeeCq8A |language=en |access-date=26 February 2022}}{{Citation |title="Путинский режим — постмодернистский фашизм" | date=11 August 2021 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3erAJI8nFo |language=en |access-date=26 February 2022}} Van Herpen compares in detail what he considers as similarities between Putin's regime and that of Weimar Germany and Mussolini's Italy, indicating the presence of strong fascist elements in Putin's Russia. However, he argues that these elements are tempered by other elements that show a resemblance with the Bonapartism from Napoleon III's France and the post-modern populism of Silvio Berlusconi, creating a hybrid system which he calls 'Fascism-lite'. According to Van Herpen, although 'Putinism' has a softer face than Mussolinian Fascism, it still contains a hard core of ultra-nationalism, militarism, and neo-imperialism.

In 2010, Peter Sucia, an American historian and The National Interest contributor, was one of the first publicists to explicitly describe Putin as a leader who is sincerely convinced in his fascist values as righteous. Sucia wrote: "Some historians and economists have noted that fascism is actually an anti-Marxist form of socialism, especially as it favors class collaboration and supports the concept of nationalism — the latter being something that Marxists could never support. A diehard Marxist leader wouldn't get on a plane and fly halfway around the world to try and win support for the Olympics to be hosted in his country, even his hometown. But a tried and true Fascist might do so."{{cite book|author=Suciu P., Kullman J.|title=America's Road to Fascism: From the Progressives to the Era of Hope and Change|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8DN6RAAACAAJ|year=2010|publisher=PSB |isbn=9780980656718|access-date=26 June 2020|archive-date=2 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302025057/https://books.google.com/books?id=8DN6RAAACAAJ|url-status=live}}

• {{cite web|title=The National Interest: у РФ есть основания опасаться вторжения НАТО|trans-title=The National Interest: Russia has a reason to be afraid of NATO invasion|url=https://aif.ru/politics/world/the_national_interest_u_rf_est_osnovaniya_opasatsya_vtorzheniya_nato|website=aif.ru|publisher=Аргументы и факты|date=13 June 2020|access-date=14 June 2020|language=ru|archive-date=14 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614114521/https://aif.ru/politics/world/the_national_interest_u_rf_est_osnovaniya_opasatsya_vtorzheniya_nato|url-status=live}}

{{Broader|Russian nationalism#Contemporary nationalism}}

Professing its own vision of Russian nationalism, primarily based on a predominantly civil understanding of Russian national identity, Putinism has been challenged by the alternative form of Russian nationalism based on ethnic roots. Ethnic nationalists are critical of Putin's immigration policy, which allows migration of millions of people from post-Soviet Central Asia and Caucasus to Russia's traditionally Slavic heartland. Highlighting his stance on "Russia for Russians" slogan in a 2003 television broadcast, Putin said the people who act upon such slogan are "either idiots or provocateurs" who want to weaken the Russian Federation, which he framed as multi-ethnic and multi-cultural country. The law against "extremism" being adopted in 2002 has resulted in closures of many prominent nationalist organizations in Russia, including the Movement Against Illegal Immigration and the Slavic Union.{{cite news |last=Grove |first=Thomas |date=1 December 2011 |title=In Russia, nationalists turn on Putin|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-nationalism-newspro-idUKTRE7B025420111201|newspaper=Reuters |access-date=26 May 2022}}

According to Robert Horvath of La Trobe University, during the 1990s, when Russia saw waves of racist violence and Putin became president in 2000, his regime exploited this threat to introduce anti-extremism legislation that was also used to target pro-democracy and left-wing activists. The Kremlin's "managed nationalism" would "co-opt and mobilise radical nationalist militants" to fight against the opposition. Afterward, the violent radical nationalists got jailed while others flourished to promote pro-Putin Russian nationalism.{{cite web |date=21 March 2022 |title=Putin's fascists: the Russian state's long history of cultivating homegrown neo-Nazis|url=https://theconversation.com/putins-fascists-the-russian-states-long-history-of-cultivating-homegrown-neo-nazis-178535|author-last=Horvath |author-first=Robert |access-date=2 April 2022 |work=The Conversation}} On 25 December 2022, in a TV interview, Putin, apparently for the first time, openly declared that Russia's goal—territorially "to unite the Russian people" (the Russians as ethnic group).{{cite news |title=Putin Says West Aiming to Tear Apart Russia |publisher=Voice of America |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/putin-says-west-aiming-to-tear-apart-russia-/6890771.html |date=25 December 2022 |access-date=29 December 2022}}

File:Marine Le Pen and Vladimir Putin (2017-03-24) 02.jpg in Moscow, 24 March 2017]]

A number of far-right politicians and parties in the European Union have been linked with Putin, including Marine Le Pen,{{cite web |date=2 March 2022 |title=French far-right leader Marine Le Pen forced to defend Putin links|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/02/french-far-right-leader-marine-le-pen-forced-to-defend-putin-links |author-last=Willsher |author-first=Kim |access-date=2 April 2022 |work=The Guardian}}{{cite web |date=3 April 2017 |title=Marine Le Pen: Who's funding France's far right?|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39478066 |author-last=Gatehouse |author-first=Gabriel |access-date=2 April 2022 |work=BBC}} Matteo Salvini,{{cite web |date=9 March 2022 |title=Polish mayor confronts Italy's Salvini over Putin praise|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/9/polish-mayor-confronts-italys-salvini-over-putin-praise |author-last= |author-first= |access-date=2 April 2022 |work=Al Jazeera}} and parts of the Alternative for Germany. Putinism has also received support from a number of American far-right figures.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/technology/russia-american-far-right-ukraine.html|title=How Russia and Right-Wing Americans Converged on War in Ukraine|newspaper=The New York Times|date=23 March 2022|last1=Frenkel|first1=Sheera}}{{cite web |date=29 April 2017 |title=Le Pen, Putin, Trump: a disturbing axis, or just a mutual admiration society?|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/29/marine-le-pen-putin-trump-axis |author-last=Henley |author-first=Jon |access-date=2 April 2022 |work=The Guardian}} Some populists started to distance themselves from Putin after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.{{cite news |title=Populist Embrace of Putin Cools After Ukraine Invasion |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/populist-embrace-of-putin-cools-after-ukraine-invasion-11646038429 |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=28 February 2022|quote=Some populists are rushing to distance themselves, branding Mr. Putin’s aggression a setback of historic proportions.}}{{cite news |title=Putin's War in Ukraine Has Made Him Toxic to Even His Far-Right Fans in Europe |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/matteo-salvini-putin/ |work=Vice |date=11 March 2022}}

Richard Shorten of the University of Birmingham has stated that Putin "has been appealing, not just for extreme 'manosphere' white supremacists, but also for more 'mainstream' western reactionaries attracted by an unapologetic social conservatism."{{cite web |author-last=Shorten |author-first=Richard |date=17 March 2022 |title=Putin's not a fascist, totalitarian or revolutionary – he's a reactionary tyrant |url=https://theconversation.com/putins-not-a-fascist-totalitarian-or-revolutionary-hes-a-reactionary-tyrant-179256 |access-date=2 April 2022 |work=The Conversation}} Jason Stanley of Yale University argued that Putin was "the leader of Russian Christian nationalism" and "has come to view himself as the global leader of Christian nationalism, and is increasingly regarded as such by Christian nationalists around the world."{{cite web |date=25 February 2022 |title=The antisemitism animating Putin's claim to 'denazify' Ukraine|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/25/vladimir-putin-ukraine-attack-antisemitism-denazify|author-last=Stanley |author-first=Jason |access-date=2 April 2022 |work=BBC}}

In December 2018, Putin said that "restoration of socialism in Russia is impossible", but stressed that "certain elements of socialization of economy and social sphere are possible". He stated that the restoration of socialism "is always related to expenditures and, eventually, an economic dead end".{{cite news|date=20 December 2018 |title=Putin says restoration of socialism in Russia impossible |url=https://tass.com/politics/1037030|access-date=24 February 2023 |newspaper=TASS|location=Moscow}}

In October 2021, while criticizing the modern "Western agenda", he likened it to that of the Bolsheviks for being based on the advocacy of the "so-called social progress". He criticized the Bolshevik efforts, based on "dogmas of Marx and Engels", to change not just political and economic customs, but also "the very notion of human morality and the foundations of a healthy society". He criticized the Bolsheviks for masquerading as "progress" the "destruction of age-old values, religion and relations between people, up to and including the total rejection of family, encouragement to inform on loved ones", and said that these patterns were repeated in the modern West. He also said: "In a number of Western countries, the debate over men's and women's rights has turned into a perfect phantasmagoria. Look, beware of going where the Bolsheviks once planned to go – not only communalising chickens, but also communalising women. One more step and you will be there" (see Glass of water theory).{{cite web|date=22 October 2021 |title=Vladimir Putin Meets with Members of the Valdai Discussion Club. Transcript of the Plenary Session of the 18th Annual Meeting|url=https://valdaiclub.com/events/posts/articles/vladimir-putin-meets-with-members-of-the-valdai-discussion-club-transcript-of-the-18th-plenary-session/|access-date=24 February 2023 |website=valdaiclub.com|location=Sochi}}

Putin's "on conducting a special military operation" speech has been seen as anti-Bolshevik, in particular for his denunciation of Leninist principles regarding national policy.{{cite web|date=26 February 2022 |author=Mario Kessler|title=Putin's Anti-Bolshevik Fantasies Could Be His Downfall|url=https://jacobin.com/2022/02/putin-anti-bolshevik-tsarist-mythic-history-ukraine|access-date=26 February 2023 |website=Jacobin}} However, in his interview to the TV Rain, Russian political scientist Vladimir Pastukhov argued that Putin's regime is based on what he called Russian understanding of communism, what he considered as clinging to Soviet tradition and eclectically uniting Russian nationalist and left-wing ideas, saying that its "missionary ideology of world domination" draws on the Marxist concept of world revolution, even likening Putinism to Trotskyism in this regard.{{YouTube|id=nrGJZal8Zkg|title=Путин как троцкист. Недобитый коммунизм. Кровавое окно возможностей}}

In May 2000, The Guardian wrote: "When a band of former Soviet dissidents declared in February that Putinism was nothing short of modernised Stalinism, they were widely dismissed as hysterical prophets of doom. 'Authoritarianism is growing harsher, society is being militarised, the military budget is increasing,' they warned, before calling on the West to 're-examine its attitude towards the Kremlin leadership, to cease indulging it in its barbaric actions, its dismantlement of democracy and suppression of human rights.' In the light of Putin's actions during his first days in power, their warnings have gained an uneasy new resonance".{{cite news |last=Gentleman |first=Amelia |date=29 May 2000 |title=Back to the USSR |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/may/29/russia.ameliagentleman |access-date=24 February 2009 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London}}

In February 2007, Arnold Beichman, a conservative research fellow at the Hoover Institution, wrote in The Washington Times that "Putinism in the 21st century has become as significant a watchword as Stalinism was in the 20th".{{cite web |date=10 February 2009 |title=Regression in Russia |url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/feb/10/20070210-101939-5365r/ |access-date=24 February 2009 |work=Washington Times}} Also in 2007, Lionel Beehner, formerly a senior writer for the Council on Foreign Relations, maintained that on Putin's watch nostalgia for Stalin had grown even among young Russians and Russians' neo-Stalinism manifesting itself in several ways.[http://www.cfr.org/publication/13697/ Russia's Soviet Past Still Haunts Relations with West] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202063214/http://www.cfr.org/publication/13697/|date=2 December 2008}} by Lionel Beehner. Council on Foreign Relations. 29 June 2007.

In February 2007, responding to a listener's assertion that "Putin had steered the country to Stalinism" and "all entrepreneurs" were being jailed in Russia, the Russian opposition radio host Yevgeniya Albats said: "Come on, this is not true; there is no Stalinism, no concentration camps—thankfully". She went on to say that if citizens of the country would not be critical of what was occurring around them, referring to the "orchestrated, or genuine" calls for the "tsar to stay on", that "could blaze the trail for very ugly things and a very tough regime in our country".[http://www.echo.msk.ru/programs/albac/55902/ "Full Albats"]. Ekho Moskvy. Yevgeniya Albats. 28 October 2007. (in Russian)

Neo-Sovietism, sometimes known as neo-Bolshevism, is the Soviet Union-style of policy decisions in some post-Soviet states, as well as a political movement of reviving the Soviet Union in the modern world or to reviving specific aspects of Soviet life based on the nostalgia for the Soviet Union.{{cite book |last=Heathershaw |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CkZMU9srK7IC&pg=PA63 |title=Post-Conflict Tajikistan: The Politics of Peacebuilding and the Emergence of Legitimate Order |publisher=Routledge |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-134-01418-7 |series=Central Asian Studies |location=London; New York |pages=63–64}}{{cite book |last=Shevtsova |first=Lilia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7giTPNSJx3cC&pg=PA200 |title=Russia—Lost in Transition: The Yeltsin and Putin Legacies |publisher=Carnegie Endowment |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-87003-236-3 |page=200 |translator-last=Tait |translator-first=Arch |author-link=Lilia Shevtsova}} Some commentators have said that current Russian President Vladimir Putin holds many neo-Soviet views, especially concerning law and order and military strategic defense.{{cite journal |last=Slade |first=Gavin |date=Spring 2005 |title=Deconstructing the Millennium Manifesto: The Yeltsin–Putin Transition and the Rebirth of Ideology |url=http://www.sras.org/news2.phtml?m=633 |journal=Vestnik: The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies |volume=1 |issue=4 |pages=74–92 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926235109/http://www.sras.org/news2.phtml?m=633 |archive-date=26 September 2007}} According to Pamela Druckerman of The New York Times, an element of neo-Sovietism is that "the government manages civil society, political life and the media".{{cite news |last=Druckerman |first=Pamela |author-link=Pamela Druckerman |date=8 May 2014 |title=The Russians Love Their Children, Too |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/09/opinion/druckerman-the-russians-love-their-children-too.html |access-date=27 December 2015 |work=The New York Times}}

The first politically controversial step made by Putin, then the FSB Director, was restoring in June 1999 a memorial plaque to former Soviet leader and KGB director Yuri Andropov on the facade of the building, where the KGB had been headquartered.[http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/8260-14.cfm Andropov's Legacy in Putin's Foreign Policy]. The Jamestown Foundation. 18 June 2004. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212120251/http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/8260-14.cfm|date=12 February 2009}}

In late 2000, Putin submitted a bill to the State Duma to use the Soviet national anthem as the new Russian national anthem. The Duma voted in favor. The music remained identical, but new lyrics were written by the same author who wrote the Soviet lyrics.{{cite news |last1=Tyler |first1=Patrick E. |date=9 December 2000 |title=Russian Deputies Restore Soviet National Anthem (Published 2000) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/09/world/russian-deputies-restore-soviet-national-anthem.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230327005404/https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/09/world/russian-deputies-restore-soviet-national-anthem.html |archive-date=27 March 2023 |work=The New York Times}}

In September 2003, Putin was quoted as saying: "The Soviet Union is a very complicated page in the history of our peoples. It was heroic and constructive, and it was also tragic. But it is a page that has been turned. It's over, the boat has sailed. Now we need to think about the present and the future of our peoples".[http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2003/09/19/1204_type82914type82915_52505.shtml Answers to Questions at a Press Conference following the CIS Summit] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120803052552/http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2003/09/19/1204_type82914type82915_52505.shtml|date=3 August 2012}}. 19 September 2003.

In February 2004, Putin said: "It is my deep conviction that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was a national tragedy on a massive scale. I think the ordinary citizens of the former Soviet Union and the citizens in the post-Soviet space, the CIS countries, have gained nothing from it. On the contrary, people have been faced with a host of problems." He went on to say, "Incidentally, at that period, too, opinions varied, including among the leaders of the Union republics. For example, Nursultan Nazarbayev was categorically opposed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and he said so openly proposing various formulas for preserving the state within the common borders. But, I repeat, all that is in the past. Today we should look at the situation in which we live. One cannot keep looking back and fretting about it: we should look forward".[http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/text/speeches/2004/02/12/0002_163321.shtml President Vladimir Putin's Answers to Questions During a Meeting with His Election Campaign Representatives] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120802234228/http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/text/speeches/2004/02/12/0002_163321.shtml|date=2 August 2012}}. 12 February 2004.

In April 2005, during his formal address to Russia's Parliament, President Putin said: "Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century. As for the Russian nation, it became a genuine drama. Tens of millions of our co-citizens and compatriots found themselves outside Russian territory. Moreover, the epidemic of disintegration infected Russia itself".{{cite web |title=Annual Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation |url=http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2005/04/25/2031_type70029type82912_87086.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090524042631/http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2005/04/25/2031_type70029type82912_87086.shtml |archive-date=24 May 2009 |access-date=24 March 2014 |publisher=Kremlin.ru}}

In December 2007, Putin said in the interview to the Time magazine: "Russia is an ancient country with historical, profound traditions and a very powerful moral foundation. And this foundation is a love for the Motherland and patriotism. Patriotism in the best sense of that word. Incidentally, I think that to a certain extent, to a significant extent, this is also attributable to the American people".[http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2007/12/19/1618_type82916_154779.shtml Interview with Time Magazine] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080306114451/http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2007/12/19/1618_type82916_154779.shtml|date=6 March 2008}}. 19 December 2007.

In August 2008, The Economist claimed: "Russia today is ruled by the KGB elite, has a Soviet anthem, servile media, corrupt courts and a rubber-stamping parliament. A new history textbook proclaims that the Soviet Union, although not a democracy, was 'an example for millions of people around the world of the best and fairest society'".{{cite news |date=7 February 2008 |title=Russian intellectuals. The hand that feeds them |url=http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11880594 |access-date=5 February 2009 |newspaper=The Economist}}

In November 2008, International Herald Tribune stated:

The Kremlin in the Putin era has often sought to maintain as much sway over the portrayal of history as over the governance of the country. In seeking to restore Russia's standing, Putin and other officials have stoked a nationalism that glorifies Soviet triumphs while playing down or even whitewashing the system's horrors. As a result, throughout Russia, many archives detailing killings, persecution and other such acts committed by the Soviet authorities have become increasingly off-limits. The role of the security services seems especially delicate, perhaps because Putin is a former KGB agent who headed the agency's successor, the FSB, in the late 1990s.{{cite web |date=27 November 2008 |title=Purging history of Stalin's terror |url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/26/europe/26archives.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081203055420/http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/26/europe/26archives.php |archive-date=3 December 2008 |access-date=2 January 2009 |work=International Herald Tribune}}

Some hardline Western socialists have been seen as supporting Putin during the war in Ukraine. According to the National Post, as after the collapse of the Soviet Union no socialist state has managed to fully replace it as a socialist rallying point, many hardliners adopted a negative approach to politics defined by the opposition to the United States. Identifying America as the "imperialist core", they have supported the anti-American regimes around the globe under the slogan of "anti-imperialism", including Putin's regime in Russia. This support for Putin exacerbated in the 2010s as Russia regained the strength to challenge American hegemony and was seen as heir to the Soviet legacy, despite the fact that it had transformed into a kleptocracy. It has been also noted that these segments of the international pro-Soviet left have distaste towards the post-Soviet Eastern Europeans states which Putin's Russia has engaged in conflicts with because these countries rejected the Soviet rule as "colonial". National Post identified Canadian Green Party eco-socialist Dimitri Lascaris as one of the representatives of this "pro-Russian socialism".{{cite news |date=17 September 2023|author=Adam Zivo|title=Adam Zivo: The sad truth about socialist 'anti-imperialists' who defend Putin|url=https://nationalpost.com/opinion/adam-zivo-the-sad-truth-about-socialist-anti-imperialists-who-defend-putin|publisher=National Post}}

Some magazine editors claimed Jean-Luc Mélenchon "supported Russia" and was sympathetic towards Vladimir Putin.{{Cite news |last=Sénécat |first=Adrien |date=16 December 2016 |title=Les ambiguïtés de Jean-Luc Mélenchon sur la Russie et la guerre en Syrie |url=http://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2016/12/16/les-ambiguites-de-jean-luc-melenchon-sur-la-russie-et-la-guerre-en-syrie_5050147_4355770.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170422040536/http://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2016/12/16/les-ambiguites-de-jean-luc-melenchon-sur-la-russie-et-la-guerre-en-syrie_5050147_4355770.html |archive-date=22 April 2017 |access-date=2 May 2017 |work=Le Monde.fr |language=fr |issn=1950-6244}}{{Cite news |title=Mélenchon prouve son amour pour Vladimir Poutine |url=http://www.liberation.fr/planete/2016/02/22/melenchon-prouve-son-amour-pour-vladimir-poutine_1435136 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170428071919/http://www.liberation.fr/planete/2016/02/22/melenchon-prouve-son-amour-pour-vladimir-poutine_1435136 |archive-date=28 April 2017 |access-date=2 May 2017 |work=Libération.fr |language=fr}} Notably, the journalist Nicolas Hénin said that Mélenchon is "on the left of the political spectrum, but is an advocate for the Kremlin leader", with Hénin quoting how Mélenchon is the "political victim number one" after the murder of the Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.{{Cite book |last=Hénin |first=Nicolas |title=La France russe : enquête sur les réseaux de Poutine |publisher=Fayard |year=2016 |location=France |pages=324}} Cécile Vaissié, author of The Kremlin Networks, considers Jean-Luc Mélenchon as "one of those that approve of Putin",{{Cite news |date=22 April 2016 |title=Comment le Kremlin tisse sa toile en France |url=http://www.rfi.fr/hebdo/20160422-france-russie-reseaux-vaissie-medias-politique-etc-comment-le-kremlin-tisse-toile-fra |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170724231335/http://www.rfi.fr/hebdo/20160422-france-russie-reseaux-vaissie-medias-politique-etc-comment-le-kremlin-tisse-toile-fra |archive-date=24 July 2017 |access-date=2 May 2017 |work=RFI |language=fr-FR}} and Yannick Jadot of EELV said that the "pro-Russia" stance is "contrary to any environment thinking".{{Cite news |date=27 September 2016 |title=Débat primaire EELV : Yannick Jadot tacle Jean-Luc Mélenchon |url=https://www.publicsenat.fr/lcp/politique/debat-primaire-eelv-yannick-jadot-tacle-jean-luc-melenchon-1500705 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803005629/https://www.publicsenat.fr/lcp/politique/debat-primaire-eelv-yannick-jadot-tacle-jean-luc-melenchon-1500705 |archive-date=3 August 2017 |access-date=2 May 2017 |work=Public Senat |language=fr}}

Mélenchon mocked accusations of support for Putin, saying that it is unlikely that an "eco-socialist" would support Putin,{{Cite web |title=Veillée de futur |url=http://www.jean-luc-melenchon.fr/2015/03/12/veillee-de-futur/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170427032232/http://www.jean-luc-melenchon.fr/2015/03/12/veillee-de-futur/ |archive-date=27 April 2017 |access-date=2 May 2017}} and when attacked by Benoît Hamon on the topic of Putin, he stated: "I am not bound in any way to Mr. Putin. I am absolutely fighting his policy, and if I were Russian, I would not vote for his party, but for the Russian Left Front whose leader is in prison."{{Cite news |date=4 April 2017 |title=Jean-Luc Mélenchon : ce qu'il a vraiment dit sur la Russie, Poutine et la Syrie |url=https://www.marianne.net/politique/jean-luc-melenchon-ce-qu-il-vraiment-dit-sur-la-russie-poutine-et-la-syrie |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170407233944/https://www.marianne.net/politique/jean-luc-melenchon-ce-qu-il-vraiment-dit-sur-la-russie-poutine-et-la-syrie |archive-date=7 April 2017 |access-date=2 May 2017 |work=Marianne |language=fr}} However, Mélenchon believes Putin was legitimately elected and thus deserves appropriate respect for his position. Mélenchon declared opposition to Putin's domestic policy and notes his friend of the Russian Left Front, Sergey Udaltsov, is imprisoned in Russia.{{Cite news |date=22 February 2018 |title=LA RUSSIE EST UN PARTENAIRE, PAS UN ADVERSAIRE - Mélenchon |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8Xo-Iz6aVc |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200529215932/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8Xo-Iz6aVc&gl=US&hl=en |archive-date=29 May 2020 |access-date=13 December 2018 |work=Youtube Mélenchon |language=fr}}{{Cite news |date=10 May 2018 |title=Entretien entre Jean Luc Mélenchon et Sergeï Oudaltsov - YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ddBjxW9uk0 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180513182257/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ddBjxW9uk0&gl=US&hl=en |archive-date=13 May 2018 |access-date=13 December 2018 |work=Youtube Mélenchon |language=fr}}{{Cite web |last=JDD |first=Le |date=16 October 2016 |title=Mélenchon : "Je deviens central" |url=http://www.lejdd.fr/Politique/Jean-Luc-Melenchon-Je-deviens-central-817324 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170802125420/http://www.lejdd.fr/Politique/Jean-Luc-Melenchon-Je-deviens-central-817324 |archive-date=2 August 2017 |access-date=2 May 2017 |website=www.lejdd.fr |language=fr-FR}}

Before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Sahra Wagenknecht was a prominent defender of Russia and its President Vladimir Putin, arguing that while the United States were trying to "conjure up" an invasion of Ukraine, "Russia has in fact no interest in marching into Ukraine".{{Cite web |date=24 February 2022 |title=How Germany helped blaze Putin's path into Ukraine |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/how-germany-helped-blaze-vladimir-putin-path-into-ukraine/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220301142939/https://www.politico.eu/article/how-germany-helped-blaze-vladimir-putin-path-into-ukraine/ |archive-date=1 March 2022 |access-date=1 March 2022 |website=POLITICO |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=28 February 2022 |title=Germany's 'Putin-caressers' start coming to terms with their naivety |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/28/germanys-putin-caressers-start-coming-to-terms-with-their-naivety |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220406204239/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/28/germanys-putin-caressers-start-coming-to-terms-with-their-naivety |archive-date=6 April 2022 |access-date=1 March 2022 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Hoyer |first=Katja |date=22 February 2022 |title=Deluded Berlin has finally woken up to the truth about Vladimir Putin |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/02/22/deluded-berlin-has-finally-woken-truth-putin/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220301142939/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/02/22/deluded-berlin-has-finally-woken-truth-putin/ |archive-date=1 March 2022 |access-date=1 March 2022 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}} After Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Wagenknecht said that her judgment had been wrong.{{Cite news |date=27 February 2022 |title=Ukraine conflict: Putin's war prompts dramatic German U-turn |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60549916 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220228113936/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60549916 |archive-date=28 February 2022 |access-date=1 March 2022 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}{{Cite news |last=WELT |date=28 February 2022 |title=Ukraine-Invasion: Ist Putin ein Kriegsverbrecher, Frau Wagenknecht? – "Ja, wobei …" |url=https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/video237190675/Ukraine-Invasion-Ist-Putin-ein-Kriegsverbrecher-Frau-Wagenknecht-Ja-wobei.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220301142939/https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/video237190675/Ukraine-Invasion-Ist-Putin-ein-Kriegsverbrecher-Frau-Wagenknecht-Ja-wobei.html |archive-date=1 March 2022 |access-date=1 March 2022 |work=DIE WELT |language=de}} Wagenknecht opposed sanctions against Russia over the 2022 invasion, and, in a speech in September 2022, accused the German government of "launching an unprecedented economic war against our most important energy supplier". Before the war, over half of Germany's gas was supplied by Russia. In May, The Left had voted in favor of economic sanctions against Russia. Her speech was applauded by The Left party leadership and by the far-right Alternative for Germany. Her speech prompted the resignation of two high-profile party members.{{Cite web |date=19 September 2022 |title=Germany's Die Linke on verge of split over sanctions on Russia |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/19/germanys-die-linke-on-verge-of-split-over-sanctions-on-russia |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221014065251/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/19/germanys-die-linke-on-verge-of-split-over-sanctions-on-russia |archive-date=14 October 2022 |access-date=15 October 2022 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}

On 10 February 2023, Wagenknecht and Alice Schwarzer started collecting signatures for their Manifest für Frieden (lit. 'Manifesto for peace') on Change.org. It called for negotiations with Russia and a halt to arms deliveries to Ukraine. By the end of the month it had received 700,000 signatures. A rally for peace with Wagenknecht and Schwarzer on 25 February was also attended by far-right groups,{{Cite news |date=25 February 2023 |title=Thousands in Berlin attend 'naive' Ukraine peace rally |url=https://www.dw.com/en/thousands-in-berlin-attend-naive-ukraine-peace-rally/a-64818249 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230228234231/https://www.dw.com/en/thousands-in-berlin-attend-naive-ukraine-peace-rally/a-64818249 |archive-date=28 February 2023 |access-date=28 February 2023 |work=DW |language=en}} and was said to have appealed to the Querfront.{{Cite news |date=27 February 2023 |title=Germany: Left Party, Wagenknecht clash after 'peace' rally |url=https://www.dw.com/en/germany-left-party-wagenknecht-clash-after-peace-rally/a-64826659 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230228223222/https://www.dw.com/en/germany-left-party-wagenknecht-clash-after-peace-rally/a-64826659 |archive-date=28 February 2023 |access-date=28 February 2023 |work=DW |language=en}}

The Slovak political party Smer holds Russophilic and Eurosceptic stances on foreign policy; however, it claims to support Slovakia's membership in the European Union and NATO. The party expresses strong anti-Western, especially anti-American sentiment, often spreading Russian propaganda narratives.{{cite news |author= |date=10 March 2023 |title=Fico's pro-Russian party takes poll lead ahead of Slovakia's Sept vote |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ficos-pro-russian-party-takes-poll-lead-ahead-slovakias-sept-vote-2023-03-10/ |accessdate= |work=Reuters |language=en}}{{cite web |author= |date= |title=Fico se na Slovensku může vrátit k moci, využívá k tomu slovník ruské propagandy |url=https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/svet/3568037-168-hodin-fico-se-na-slovensku-dere-zpatky-k-moci-vyuziva-k-tomu-slovnik-ruske |accessdate= |publisher=Czech Television |language=cs}}{{cite web |author= |date= 19 April 2023|title=Slovensko se znovu přiklání k sebevědomému bumerangu jménem Fico |url=https://www.seznamzpravy.cz/clanek/zahranicni-stredni-evropa-slovensko-se-znovu-priklani-k-sebevedomemu-bumerangu-jmenem-fico-229624 |accessdate= |publisher=Seznam.cz |language=cs}}

Regarding the Russo-Ukrainian War, Smer calls for an end to military aid to Ukraine as well as to sanctions against Russia. It interprets the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a proxy war between the US and Russia, with the latter "dealing with threats to its national interests". The party declares that the conflict was provoked in 2014 by "the extermination of citizens of Russian nationality by Ukrainian fascists".{{cite web |author= |date=25 April 2023 |title=Fico pred veľvyslancami podporil vstup Ukrajiny do EÚ, verejnosti to najskôr nepovedal |url=https://dennikn.sk/3341998/fico-pred-velvyslancami-podporil-vstup-ukrajiny-do-eu-a-verejnosti-to-zatajil/?ref=list |accessdate= |publisher=Denník N |language=sk}}{{cite web |author= |date=24 February 2023 |title=Riešením rusko-ukrajinského konfliktu sú mierové rokovania, tvrdí Smer-SD |url=https://www.trend.sk/spravy/riesenim-rusko-ukrajinskeho-konfliktu-su-mierove-rokovania-tvrdi-smer-sd |accessdate= |publisher=Trend |language=sk}}{{cite web |author= |date=8 February 2023 |title=Fico na tlačovej konferencii znovu klamal a šíril prokremeľskú propagandu |url=https://dennikn.sk/minuta/3229997/ |accessdate= |publisher=Denník N |language=sk}}

{{See also|On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians}}

A number of commentators have remarked on the importance of history in the views and actions of Vladimir Putin, with several stating themes of Russian irredentism and historical revisionism.{{cite web |date=22 February 2022 |title=Putin's absurd, angry spectacle will be a turning point in his long reign|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/02/22/putin-speech-ukraine-war-history-russia/|author-last=Andrejsons|author-first=Kristaps|access-date=11 March 2022 |work=Foreign Policy}}{{cite web |date=24 February 2022 |title= Putin is on a personal mission to rewrite Cold War history, making the risks in Ukraine far graver|url=https://theconversation.com/putin-is-on-a-personal-mission-to-rewrite-cold-war-history-making-the-risks-in-ukraine-far-graver-177730|author-last=Sussex|author-first=Matthew|access-date=11 March 2022 |work=The Conversation}}{{Cite web|url=https://theconversation.com/putins-war-on-history-is-another-form-of-domestic-repression-176438|title = Putin's war on history is another form of domestic repression| date=18 March 2022 }} Fredrik Logevall of Harvard University has stated that "In a way, I think history is what drives him."{{Cite web|url=https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-biden-united-states-soviet-union-lifestyle-0050dd806e5f8748bf59b5e84d15b959|title=In Russian invasion of Ukraine, Cold War echoes reverberate|website=Associated Press|date=13 March 2022}} Oliver Bullough of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting has argued that Putin's "two core aims" was to restore stability and put an end to revolutions in Russia and to return Russia to a status of a great power.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26769481|title=Vladimir Putin: The rebuilding of 'Soviet' Russia|work=BBC News|date=28 March 2014}}

In his speech in November 2023, Putin stated that the Mongol-Tatar yoke resulting from the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus' was better for the Russian people than Western domination, saying: “Alexander Nevsky received a jarlyk [permission] from the khans of the Golden Horde to rule as a prince, primarily so that he could effectively resist the invasion of the West." According to Putin, the decision to submit to the Tatar khans preserved "the Russian people - and later all the peoples living on the territory of our country."{{Cite web |last =Pohorilov |first =Stanislav |work=Ukrainska Pravda |date =2023 |title =Putin claims Mongol invaders were better for Russia than 'Western conquerors' |url =https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/11/3/7427059/}}

File:Russia 1533-1896.gif between 1533 and 1894]]

Some commentators have described Putin as wishing to restore the Russian Empire.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-review/article/abs/vladimir-putins-aspiration-to-restore-the-lost-russian-empire/C0099C205BCDBA970CB699AFD534CBE5|doi=10.1017/S1062798717000278|title=Vladimir Putin's Aspiration to Restore the Lost Russian Empire|year=2017|last1=Shinar|first1=Chaim|journal=European Review|volume=25|issue=4|pages=642–654|s2cid=220361283|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite web|url=https://cepa.org/putin-is-determined-to-rebuild-the-russian-empire/|title = Putin is Determined to Rebuild Russian Empire | CEPA|date = 10 January 2022}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/nationalist-and-imperial-thinking-define-putins-vision-russia|title = Nationalist and Imperial Thinking Define Putin's Vision for Russia}} James Krapfl of McGill University has suggested that Putin may be in part inspired by Catherine the Great, stating that "parallels with Putin’s strategy are striking."{{Cite web|url=https://theconversation.com/how-catherine-the-great-may-have-inspired-putins-ukraine-invasion-178007|title = How Catherine the Great may have inspired Putin's Ukraine invasion| date=14 March 2022 }} On 9 June 2022, on the 350th anniversary of the birth of Peter the Great, Putin described the land that had been conquered by Peter in the Great Northern War against Sweden as land being returned to Russia. He also compared the task facing Russia today to that of Peter's.{{cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/hailing-peter-great-putin-draws-parallel-with-mission-return-russian-lands-2022-06-09/|title=Hailing Peter the Great, Putin draws parallel with mission to 'return' Russian lands|website=Reuters|date=9 June 2022}}

Several commentators have also described Putinism as in part an attempt to revive the Russian Empire's doctrine of "Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality".{{Cite web|url=https://lens.monash.edu/@politics-society/2022/03/21/1384545/putting-putins-false-history-of-ukraine-into-perspective|title=Putting Putin's false history of Ukraine into perspective|date=21 March 2022}}{{Cite web|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/12/putins-thousand-year-war/|title = Putin's Thousand-Year War| date=12 March 2022 }} Faith Hillis of the University of Chicago has argued that Putin "wants to reconstitute the Russian Empire and its guiding ideologies, which were orthodoxy, autocracy and nationality—except now, under the power of a very sophisticated police state."{{Cite web|url=https://news.uchicago.edu/story/putin-invasion-ukraine-russian-empire-19th-century-imperialism-history|title=How Putin's invasion of Ukraine connects to 19th-century Russian imperialism | University of Chicago News|date=7 March 2022 }} A 2014 paper in the Journal of Eurasian Studies compares Putin to Emperor Nicholas I, under whose reign the doctrine was instituted, arguing that "Putin has emphasized patriotism, power, and statism to justify centralization of power and authoritarian policies. Putin's policies and rhetoric are strong analogs to those of Nicholas."{{cite journal |last1=Cannady |first1=Sean |last2=Kubicek |first2=Paul |title=Nationalism and legitimation for authoritarianism: A comparison of Nicholas I and Vladimir Putin |journal=Journal of Eurasian Studies |date=1 January 2014 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=1–9 |doi=10.1016/j.euras.2013.11.001 |s2cid=145095605 }}

Richard Shorten of the University of Birmingham has stated that "what Putin retains from the Soviet era is not its utopianism but its late-period security obsession." Tom Parfitt of The Guardian has said that, according to Richard Sakwa, Putin's Soviet patriotism "had little to do with promoting communist values and more to do with besting the enemies surrounding the motherland."{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/dec/23/russia.tomparfitt|title=The Observer profile: Vladimir Putin|website=TheGuardian.com|date=23 December 2007}}

File:1991 Republic of Soviet Union (30849143016).jpg in 1991]]

Putin has made a number of comments referring to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, often blaming it on the creation of federal republics for national minorities within the Soviet Union and on the reforms brought by Mikhail Gorbachev in the late-1980s. In 2005, he referred to it as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century".{{Cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna7632057|title = Putin: Soviet collapse a 'genuine tragedy'|website = NBC News| date=25 April 2005 }} In a documentary released in 2021, he referred to it as "a disintegration of historical Russia under the name of the Soviet Union."{{Cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russia-s-putin-laments-soviet-collapse-says-he-moonlighted-taxi-n1285807|title = Putin says he moonlighted as taxi driver after fall of Soviet Union|website = NBC News| date=13 December 2021 }} In his 2022 "Address concerning the events in Ukraine", he referred to it as the "collapse of the historical Russia".{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/21/world/europe/putin-speech-transcript.html |title=Highlights From Putin's Address on Breakaway Regions in Ukraine|work=The New York Times |date=21 February 2022 |accessdate=12 March 2022}} He has also said: "Anyone who doesn't regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains."{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/23/putin-narrative-ukraine-master-key-crisis-nato-expansionism-frozen-conflict|title=Understanding Putin's narrative about Ukraine is the master key to this crisis|last=Steele|first=Jonathan|work=The Guardian|date=23 February 2022}} On several occasions, Putin has blamed Communist leader Vladimir Lenin for the collapse of the Soviet Union, arguing that his favourable policies toward national minorities in the Soviet Union contributed to destabilize Russia;{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=25 January 2016 |title=Vladimir Putin accuses Lenin of placing a 'time bomb' under Russia |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/25/vladmir-putin-accuses-lenin-of-placing-a-time-bomb-under-russia |access-date= |website=The Guardian |language=en}} in his 2022 speech about Ukraine, Putin went so far to state that "modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia or, to be more precise, by Bolshevik, Communist Russia."{{Cite web |last=Katz |first=Mark N. |date=24 February 2022 |title=Blame It on Lenin: What Putin Gets Wrong About Ukraine |url=https://nationalinterest.org/feature/blame-it-lenin-what-putin-gets-wrong-about-ukraine-200763 |access-date= |website=The National Interest |language=en}}

Some commentators have argued these statements show that he wishes to restore the Soviet Union. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine begun, U.S. President Joe Biden stated that Putin "wants to, in fact, reestablish the former Soviet Union. That's what this is about."{{Cite web|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-putin-ukraine-invasion-trying-to-restore-soviet-union-2022-2|title = Biden says Putin's invasion of Ukraine shows he has 'much larger ambitions' and wants to 're-establish the former Soviet Union'|website = Business Insider}} That claim has been disputed by many commentators.{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinion-putin-europe-political-order-20220330-46fp3iegfzf5jeg2fuswrzke7i-story.html|title = David Rundell and Michael Gfoeller: Putin wants an empire. But not the Soviet Union as we knew it|website = Chicago Tribune| date=30 March 2022 }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/no-putin-isn-t-trying-to-bring-the-soviet-union-back|title = No, Putin isn't trying to bring the Soviet Union back |work=The Spectator| date=26 December 2021 }} Mario Kessler of the Centre for Contemporary History has stated that Putin is rather "taking up the imperial desires of tsarist Russia" and that "Lenin's internationalism and Putin's Great Russian chauvinism are, indeed, incompatible".{{cite web |date=26 February 2022 |title=Putin's Anti-Bolshevik Fantasies Could Be His Downfall|url=https://www.jacobinmag.com/2022/02/putin-anti-bolshevik-tsarist-mythic-history-ukraine|author-last=Kessler|author-first=Mario|access-date=11 March 2022 |work=Jacobin}} Cihan Tugal of the University of California, Berkeley has described Putin's view of history as one "where Ukraine and the other nations of the USSR are communist artefacts, and only Russia is real and natural".{{cite web |date=6 March 2022 |title=Putin's Invasion: Imperialism after the epoch of Lenin and Wilson|url=https://blogs.berkeley.edu/2022/03/06/putins-invasion-imperialism-after-the-epoch-of-lenin-and-wilson/|author-last=Tugal|author-first=Cihan|access-date=11 March 2022 |work=Berkeley Blog}} Naomi Klein has argued that Putin has been motivated in part by "a desire to overcome the shame of punishing economic shock therapy imposed on Russia at the end of the Cold War".{{Cite web |last=Klein |first=Naomi |date=1 March 2022 |title=Toxic Nostalgia, from Putin to Trump to the Trucker Convoys |url=https://theintercept.com/2022/03/01/war-climate-crisis-putin-trump-oil-gas/ |website=The Intercept}}

For opposition to Putinism, see Opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia.

• Public image of Vladimir Putin
• Putler
• Putin khuylo!
• Russia under Vladimir Putin
• Russophilia
• Russophobia
• Uncle Vova, we are with you!

• Aleksandr Dugin
• Duginism
• National Bolshevik Party
• Chekism
• Conservatism in Russia
• Eurasia Movement
• Russian nationalism
• Russian world
• Rashism
• Z (military symbol)

{{Reflist|2}}

• {{cite journal |last1=Kryshtanovskaya |first1=Olga |last2=White |first2=Stephen |title=Putin's Militocracy |journal=Post-Soviet Affairs |url=http://www.russiafoundation.org/showfile.php?name=putins_militocracy.pdf |date=2003 |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=289–306 |access-date= |doi=10.2747/1060-586X.19.4.289 }}
• {{cite news |last1= |first1= |title=Russia under Putin. The making of a neo-KGB state. |url=https://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9682621 |access-date= |newspaper=The Economist |agency= |issue= |publisher= |date=23 August 2007 |location= |language= |doi=}}
• {{cite news |last1= |first1= |title=Russia's government. Putin's people |url=https://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9687285 |access-date= |newspaper=The Economist |agency= |issue= |publisher= |date=23 August 2007 |location= |language= |doi=}}
• {{cite web |last1=Kryshtanovskaya |first1=Olga |title=The power of Chekists is incredibly stable |url=http://www.wps.ru/en/pp/story/2007/03/22.html |website=old.wps.ru |publisher= |access-date= |location= |language= |doi= |date=}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Anderson |first1=Julie |title=The Chekist Takeover of the Russian State |journal=International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence |date=May 2006 |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=237–288 |doi=10.1080/08850600500483699 |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/08850600500483699 |access-date= |language=en |issn=0885-0607|url-access=subscription }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Anderson |first1=Julie |title=The HUMINT Offensive from Putin's Chekist State |journal=International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence |date=19 February 2007 |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=258–316 |doi=10.1080/08850600601079958 |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/08850600601079958 |language=en |issn=0885-0607|url-access=subscription }}
• {{cite book |last1=Medvedev |first1=Sergei |title=Russia's Cultural Statecraft |date=5 November 2021 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780367694357 |url=https://www.routledge.com/Russias-Cultural-Statecraft/Forsberg-Makinen/p/book/9780367694357 |chapter=11. In Search of Past Glory: Russia’s Cultural Statecraft in the Age of Decline}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Waller |first1=J. Michael |title=Russia: Death and resurrection of the KGB |journal=Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization |date=1 July 2004 |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=333–355 |doi=10.3200/DEMO.12.3.333-355 |pmid= |s2cid=145411592 |url=http://www.iwp.edu/news/newsID.124/news_detail.asp |access-date= |language= |issn=1074-6846|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927231814/http://www.iwp.edu/news/newsID.124/news_detail.asp |archive-date=27 September 2007 |url-access=subscription }}
• {{cite web |last1=Gerecht |first1=Reuel Marc |title=A Rogue Intelligence State? Why Europe and America Cannot Ignore Russia |url=http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.25917/pub_detail.asp |website=AEI - Short Publications |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070914154832/http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.25917/pub_detail.asp |archive-date=14 September 2007 |date=14 September 2007}}
• {{Citation | vauthors=((Kolesnikov, A.)) | title=Scientific Putinism: Shaping Official Ideology in Russia | url=https://carnegieendowment.org/russia-eurasia/politika/2022/11/scientific-putinism-shaping-official-ideology-in-russia?lang=en |website=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |date=21 November 2022 | access-date=18 December 2022}}

• {{Wiktionary inline|Putinism}}

{{Vladimir Putin}}

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