Nationalists and communists clash in Putin's shadow

The Kremlin would like to create a traditionalist far-right party, led by special military operation veterans, to be merged with the heirs of Vladimir Zirinovskij to spur the same deputies of United Russia into more convinced patriotic activism. But the move is viewed with nervousness by Zyuganov's communists, who represent the traditional ‘popular and leftist’ Russian soul.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - Russia's ‘illiberal’ democracy does not provide for a real political distinction between right and left, since the whole scene is reserved for the presidency and its party, which not surprisingly bears the title ‘United Russia’.

The butlers of the Tsar are the Communists of the CPRF and the Liberal-Nationalists of the LDPR, the groups that even before the advent of Vladimir Putin had taken a stand against the ‘false liberal values’ in the name of traditional and authentic Russian values. A small percentage of the degraded liberals is left for the Yabloko (‘Apple’) party, a remnant of Yeltsin's dependence on Western ideologies.

With the paroxysmal exaltation of patriotism in times of war, against the ‘Ukrainian Nazis’ and all their allies, an even more radical ultra-conservative reaction is spreading, that of the ‘Russian nationalists’ who also lash out against enemies within the Federation, the many ethnic groups or ‘dark-skinned nationalities’ who dream of autonomy from the Russians and are suspected of preparing attacks like the one last year at Krokus City Hall, the detonator of reactions against all foreigners, internal migrants and former Soviet citizens from Central Asia.

Now the ‘extreme right-wing conservatives’, who gather in different variations of the Russkaja Obscina movement, the ‘Russian Community’, are thinking of gaining space not only in street fights, but also among the seats of the Duma, causing feelings of panic especially in the communists, who represent the ‘popular and leftist’ Russian soul , in the continuity between Soviet totalitarianism and the Putin regime.

Various hypotheses appear in the press about the formation of a real ‘nationalist party’, which would be supported by the Kremlin leadership as the most effective instrument of war propaganda, which does not arouse great emotions in the majority of the population, which has sunk into indifference.

It wouldn't be the first attempt at the artificial creation of parties and groups capable of exploiting certain widespread trends, such as the SRZP or ‘Righteous Russia - for the truth’ with the anti-corruption slogans of 15 years ago, or the ‘New Men’, Novye Ljudi, who in recent years have tried to tap into the emotions of young people, who have been drawn into the streets by Aleksej Naval'nyj.

A survey appeared in the Niezavisimaja Gazeta on 31st March about the opinions circulating about the parties in view of the local elections next autumn, spread through Telegram channels with various comments from analysts and political scientists.

It would appear that the Kremlin is planning to intercept the confused trends that emerge from these surveys, by creating a traditionalist far-right party, led by veterans of the special military operation Svo, to be merged with the heirs of Vladimir Zirinovsky, the founder of Ldpr who died just at the dawn of the invasion of Ukraine.

The main sponsor of this operation would be the speaker of the Duma, Vjaceslav Volodin, one of the most frenzied propagandists in recent years, with the aim of spurring the majority of the edinorossy, the deputies of United Russia, to more convinced patriotic activism.

President Putin himself has not made it clear what he expects from the artificial framework of Russian politics, having always been a supporter of the ‘trinity’ of the main party with two supporting parties on the side, but hints at the new far-right party are multiplying even from the highest rooms of the Kremlin.

The polls reveal a certain weariness with this party arrangement that has been in force for a quarter of a century now, and this is spreading an increasingly evident nervousness especially among the communists, who repeat the appellation of ‘fascists’ when addressing the new super-conservatives.

These, in turn, call the followers of Gennadij Zjuganov, the elderly founder of the Kprf still at the forefront of Russian political diatribes, ‘Bolsheviks’ and ‘Marxists’, evoking the twentieth-century controversies in an increasingly grotesque form. After all, the young communists don't waste time with ideological polemics, and they gather data from extreme right-wing organisations, preparing to ‘flex their muscles’ in the electoral campaigns.