“Denazification” of Ukraine

The most disturbing element of this new potentially totalitarian system is the ideological turn Putin has taken since the first days of the war: his new narrative of the "Denazification" of Ukraine. The accusation that the Ukrainian authorities support the extreme right has been ubiquitous in official Russian discourse for some time – and not entirely unfounded. In February, however, it turned into essentialist rhetoric that Ukrainian essence, supposedly Russian by nature, has been contaminated by a national socialist element. Therefore, it is the task of the Russian army to rid Ukraine of this Nazi element, it says. The Russian Ministry of Defense is already talking about setting up "purification procedures" in the occupied territories. And since Ukrainians are stubbornly resisting, the only explanation is that they were even more "Nazified" than expected, which can easily lead to the conclusion that they deserve to be wiped out. The same "purity" narrative was used by Putin just a few days ago when he spoke of the "internal enemy," the so-called "traitors to the people" who should be "spat out like a moth" by Russian society in order to preserve the health of society.

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Greg Yudin (2022-03-30), »In Russland droht ein faschistisches Regime«. post (A Fascist Regime Looms in Russia)