Resume
Putinism or “Rashism”?
doc. Ing. Dr. Štefan Danics, PhD., Police Academy of the Czech Republic in Prague, Faculty of Security Management, Department of Security Studies
Abstract
The article analyses and compares the content and the relationship between Putinism and “Rashism”, the term used by the Ukrainian parliament to describe the ideology and politics of today’s Russia. It is part of the information war, where an ideological struggle is waged between the warring parties over the narrative of the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict, which is an element of any modern war. At the same time, the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada calls on the UN and other international organisations, as well as the governments and parliaments of other countries, to condemn the practice of “Rashism” as well. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has even declared that in the future “Rashism” will take its place in history books. In this context, there have also been several articles on “Rashism” by the well-known American historian Timothy Snyder, who states that fascism was defeated as a regime on the battlefields of World War II, but has returned as an idea with the war that Russia is now waging in Ukraine. The article points out that the term “Rashism” is problematic: it is highly politicised, no entity identifies with “Rashism”, and it can promote hatred of Russians, i.e. Russophobia. On the other hand, the article points out that a technical term has been introduced: Putinism, defining the Putin’s regime or Putin’s Russia in political science terms. In essence, it is analogous to the political science terms of Hitlerism and Stalinism, whereby a political regime is associated with a leader which clearly identifies the regime, including its practices of power.
Keywords: Putinism, “Rashism”, war in Ukraine, fascist ideology, information war, Eurasianism, Putin’s authoritarian regime, totalitarian power practices.