Austrian and Italian far-right parties signed coordination and cooperation agreements with Putin’s “United Russia”

In my book Russia and the Western Far Right, I mistakenly wrote that the Italian far-right Lega Nord (Northern League, rebranded as Lega in 2018) had signed a coordination agreement with the Russian ruling party “United Russia” (ER), in contrast to the coordination and cooperation agreement signed between the Austrian far-right FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria) and the ER. That incorrectly implied that the LN/ER agreement was lesser in scope than the FPÖ/ER agreement. […]

The Ukrainian far-right National Corps picks up where Svoboda left off

Five years ago, the Ukrainian far-right Svoboda (Freedom) party could legitimately brag about their vast contacts with European far-right movements and parties. Even Svoboda’s predecessor, the Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU, renamed into Svoboda in 2004), was a member of the Euronat, an international far-right organisation formed at the end of the 1990s by the French National Front (FN). And it was the FN, then still headed by Jean-Marie Le Pen, who advocated granting Svoboda an observer status in the Alliance of European National Movements (AENM) formed in 2009. […]

European Council on Democracy and Human Rights: “Presidential election in Crimea is fair, free and legitimate”

This is the sort of the headlines that Russian and foreign readers will see in the Russian and pro-Kremlin media after the presidential election in Russia on 18 March 2018. There may also be something like “The European Council on Democracy and Human Rights recognises the presidential election in Crimea”. […]

Putin’s Russia 4.0: What can we expect from it?

On the 7th of December, Vladimir Putin announced that he would run for a new presidential term in March 2018. So far, he has not presented a programme or agenda for his fourth presidential term, which is expected to last from 2018 until 2024, and it is very unlikely that he will do it in the nearest future. However, particular developments in Russia in December can give us a glimpse into what we can expect from Putin’s Russia 4.0. […]