An interesting question came up this week; with Putin's government regularly being described as fascist, is it accurate for us to do so? I have generally stopped short of doing this due to Putin's outward popularity and electoral success. That said, there is no doubt that many other dictators and governments that we would describe as fascist are also genuinely popular due to factors such as their control of the media. I have heard Putin's system described as a 'managed democracy' before, which seems appropriate, and there is a lot of interesting stuff online about Putinism.
The below tweet, by David Klemperer in response to Sam Freedman, states that "one distinction I consider important is that fascist regimes attempt to keep their populations in a state of permanent political mobilisation, whereas Putin's regime has always attempted to do the opposite". So, a traditional fascist regime demands enthusiasm (think the Hitler youth or mass rallies) while Putin's regime pushes apathy.
I am reminded of a short video in Charlie Brooker's 2014 Wipe by Adam Curtis, where he discusses how Putin used a variety of strategies to keep the electorate in a constant state of confusion, and certainly in the last election this was the case. I read one report of a popular opposition candidate being faced by three opponents who changed their name to be the same as his, and even modified their appearance to be similar so as to confuse voters. Despite the 'enthusiasm anomoly', I would suggest that Putin's Russia does have a number of fascist characteristics, as we will see below.
So what are the criteria for a fascist state? There isn't really a defining statement or ideology in the way we can see for communism or socialism, but it has been defined by Lawrence Britt as having 14 characteristics, which I have listed below, and I think it is clear that Putin's regime fulfil a large number of these criteria:
1. Powerful and resurgent nationalism
2. Disdain for human rights
3. Identification of scapegoats
4. Glorification of the military
5. Rampant sexism
6. Controlled mass media
7. Obsession with national security
8. Religion and government intertwined
9. Corporate power is protected
10. Labour power is surpressed
11. Disdain for intellectuals and the arts
12. Obsession with crime and punishment
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption
14. Fraudulent elections
https://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html
As such, despite any genuine popularity Putin may enjoy, on the basis of these criteria it certainly isn't unreasonable to describe Putin's regime as fascist in nature
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