Political cynics sans frontiers

Sir Winston S. Churchill said, “There is at least one thing worse than fighting with allies – and that is to fight without them.” This appears to be especially true of Moscow as it keeps rattling the saber with and without cause, even after Beijing made the well-known statement. Despite the Kremlin’s reiterations that the status of Crimea is not negotiable, Beijing made it perfectly clear that it is. The Russians made no formal response but, of course, took this into consideration. After all, they could not have possibly shrugged off what Beijing had to say.

There is an external as well as internal aspect to the problem. Of course, venal Europe and the vile United States are enemies of the Russian state, of this the Russian people, in its infinite devotion to Putin, is profoundly convinced, even without any extra propaganda efforts on the federal channels. Granted, except that the rest of the world is in no hurry to fall into Russia’s embrace, at best settling its affairs at Moscow’s expense. Turkey has agreed to the pipeline across its territory in exchange for substantial gas price cuts and then declared it was against the annexation of Crimea. Hardly a supporting gesture.

Russia badly needs to show it is being supported by all those “healthy forces” in Europe and North America. Well, we’ve been through this. Precisely the way the Soviet Union acted when it organized and funded local communist parties and NGOs that, in turn, staged rallies in support of world peace and against US politics. Such rallies were organized across the world and this was especially easy to arrange in the “democratic” countries. Their activists got together, were served food and drink at Moscow’s expense and then shouted [pro-Soviet] slogans from rostrums, signed declarations, made demands, and so on. Effect: nil, except that the main Soviet newspapers, Pravda and Izvestia, came out with banner headlines proclaiming international support of the Soviet peace-loving policy.

On March 21, St. Petersburg hosted the International Russian Conservative Forum attended by delegates from quite a few European nationalist movements and parties. Formally the event was organized at the initiative of the Russian National Cultural Center “People’s Home,” a non-profit organization founded in April 2014, chaired by Andrei Petrov, member of the Political Council of the Fatherland Party, head of the party branch in St. Petersburg, ex-candidate governor of the city’s Central District, currently deputy governor of that district.

Even before the event, one look at the people who would take part in it was enough to make a rather simple conclusion: the forum in St. Petersburg would gather neo-Nazis from Europe and racists from America.

As it was, the forum involved delegates of 11 parties and movements in the EU countries that are regarded there as the most odious nationalist organizations, like National Independence in Finland, Party of the Swedes, Golden Dawn in Greece, Attack Party in Bulgaria, National Party in the UK, New Force in Italy, and the National Democratic Party in Germany. The latter is regarded by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution of Germany as a right-wing extremist party, and the possibility of its prohibition is being discussed in that country. Among those present were also various researchers of the “national question” like the US writer, Jared Taylor, author of the racist book White Identity, and Chris Roman, chairman of the EU-Russia Center in Brussels.

A picturesque gathering, indeed. Suffice it to say that Golden Dawn’s emblem is a swastika drawn from Greek art. Two years ago this organization was about to be banned. Today its leaders are openly associating themselves with the Third Reich. Several Golden Dawn representatives were arrested on charges of criminal association in 2013, after the murder of the antifascist rapper, Pavlos Fyssas.

All the European rightists who took the floor at the forum lashed out at the US and EU while praising Russia’s peaceful policy. Back in the USSR? But of course, what other policy but one aimed at upholding world peace could Russia be waging? On the podium Chris Roman trilled away like a nightingale about Russian culture and President Putin, and then furiously attacked those who criticized the regime: “Politkovskaya, Berezovsky, Nemtsov, I know where they are! They are burning in hell!”

The Ukrainian issue was among the highest on the agenda. Foreign delegates said in no uncertain words that Ukrainian nationalism was created by anti-Russian forces in the US and EU; that Ukraine was a link in the blood-covered Afghanistan-Syria-Iraq-Libya chain that was being forged by the US to keep its hegemony all over the world. Roberto Fiore, chairman of the Alliance for Peace and Freedom, leader of the New Force, declared that the war in Ukraine is a war for freedom against all the nations of Europe, that it is being waged by the US neoconservatives. I wonder if he even read the title of the forum and if he knows the difference between conservatism and neo-conservatism. On the other hand, he didn’t have to. All he had to do was curse the EU and US, and sing glory to Russia and its policy. Otherwise he wouldn’t be invited to the next forum and would suffer grave financial consequences.

Despite the shouting and the beating of drums, the absence of Marine Le Pen, leader of the France’s National Front, and her Hungarian counterpart of the Jobbik Movement for a Better Hungary, was immediately obvious. Both had ignored the forum. Dmitry Dubrovsky, an expert on radical nationalism, believes that their absence was not coincidental: “Some of them know what reputation is all about. People who represented the most odious radical forces came to St. Petersburg. Marine Le Pen wouldn’t have wanted to be seen near them.”

In fact, the holding of a neo-Nazi forum in St. Petersburg shortly before VE-Day [traditionally marked on May 9 in the post-Soviet countries] can only be regarded as proof that Russia’s foreign and information policies are deadlocked. You can tell people stories about international support, but those who know can see a degree of confusion. Greek fascists and US racists speaking in support of Russian politics make the whole notion of Ukrainian Nazism burst like a soap bubble. To think that St. Petersburg [former Leningrad], a city that survived a historic Wehrmacht siege during WW II, would play host to a gathering of despicable neo-Nazi characters [a month and a half] before VE-Day which the Russian government is going to celebrate with unprecedented pomp and ceremony!

COMMENTARY

KREMLIN IDENTIFIES WITH FORCES WORTHY OF NO RESPECT

Semen NOVOPRUDSKY, independent journalist, Moscow:

“Moscow had been flirting with far-right forces in Europe even before it started interfering in Ukrainian affairs. Jean-Marie Le Pen, when at the head of the National Front, would often visit the Russian Duma and Zhirinovsky. Zhirinovsky is a politician who, while pulling pranks, will never do anything serious without the Kremlin’s approval.

“The forum in St. Petersburg was a disgusting event. Russia is using quasi-anti-Nazi rhetoric for inadequate purposes, adding fuel to the fire of xenophobia, aggravating such moods within the country. Russian politicians say that Nazism is marching in Europe and then St. Petersburg, being a symbolic center of resistance against real Nazism, hosts a gathering of people who openly identify with Nazism. Many of them would’ve supported Hitler if he’d come to power again.

“What happened was another shameful event. There is no direct evidence that it was inspired by the Kremlin, but it was apparently organized by the Fatherland, a party which is absolutely loyal to the regime. One of its founding fathers was Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin in charge of the military-industrial complex. All this is proof that the Russian authorities didn’t mind or at least didn’t ban the event. That’s very bad for Europe and [particularly for] Russia where these moods are mounting, with the rest of the masses remaining indifferent.

“That event was a signal from the state to the most radical forces that such events are in vogue – and in a way part of Russia’s domestic policy. That event was as dangerous for Russia as for the rest of the world. That event was bad for this country.

“Why does the Kremlin rely on Western nationalists? Because such is the logic of the clandestine agencies. This is another political hoax, an attempt to form a pool of people who will put pressure on European governments. Those in power in Russia wholeheartedly hope to split Europe, so it will stop enforcing sanctions. That’s a strategic objective of Russia’s foreign policy; they want to break the ties between the US and EU, rather than break through the isolation. These forces have turned out to be pliant enough, so they are banking on them. In fact, they are making no secret of this. The Russian government is trying to use the cat’s paw – in this case what we know as the fifth column.

“This strategy will eventually prove a losing game. Russia is a multiethnic state. By waging this policy Russia is risking a boomerang effect in coping with domestic problems. Russia started something in the southeast of Ukraine that should have happened – and may well happen – within this country. Moscow staged those events in Ukraine, but if anything like that happens in Russia, Moscow won’t be able to get the situation under control.

“Western diplomacy will stand united. The problem is not that these events are taking place against the backdrop of our rhetoric or shortly before the 70th anniversary of VE-Day. The problem is that we’re identifying with forces that aren’t worthy of any degree of respect. This shows that there are political cynics sans frontiers.”

Interviewed by Ihor SAMOKYSH, The Day