Putinism is an Ideology and a Threat to Russia and the World, Skobov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, February 11 – Because there is no book entitled “Putinism,” many have convinced themselves that the Putin regime functions without an ideology, but Vladislav Surkov’s latest essay in Nezavisimaya gazeta shows that it exists and that it is extremely dangerous, according to Russian commentator Aleksandr Skobov.

            Having read Surkov’s text, Skobov says, he finds that it confirms three theses that the commentator has long insisted on (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5C61A758138A8). They include the following:

            First, the Putin regime does have an ideology, even though it has not been formulated by “the nominal head of the regime” and is not contained in books labelled as such.

            Second, “the ideology of the Putin regime is a variety of fascism.” That Putin has not fully implemented his ideology does not change things.

            And third, “the global pretensions of the Putin regime are the destruction of liberal democracy as a social-political model in the entire world and its ‘exit from history.’”

            These three things mean, Skobov concludes, that “liberal democracy can defend itself only by forcing the Russian imperial state to ‘exit from history.’”