The growing influence of Russia on the Western far right has been much discussed in the media recently. This book is the first detailed inquiry into what has been a neglected but critically important trend: the growing links between Russian actors and Western far right activists, publicists, ideologues, and politicians. The author uses a range of sources including interviews, video footage, leaked communications, official statements and press coverage in order to discuss both historical an...

Political warfare is a grey area between peace and war. It involves a diverse array of methods and instruments that go beyond traditional diplomacy and soft power but stops short of open kinetic conflict using nations’ regular armed forces. This collection of Anton Shekhovtsov’s essays delves into practices of Russian political warfare designed to advance Moscow’s strategic and tactical objectives in European countries and certain African states. It reveals how Russian state actors and pro...

This timely intervention exposes the euphemized language of the extreme right as a Trojan Horse of deception to re-gain greater influence on public policy. Since the end of the Second World War, the extreme right has been tactically using ‘doublespeak’, aping the language of liberal democracy. Attentive observation and accurate recognition of the extreme right pedigree means taking seriously their deliberately crafted slogans, symbols and themes. The essays in this book inquire into the ex...

The 2014 Ukrainian crisis has highlighted the pro-Russia stances of some European countries, such as Hungary and Greece, and of some European parties, mostly on the far-right of the political spectrum. They see themselves as victims of the EU “technocracy” and liberal moral values, and look for new allies to denounce the current “mainstream” and its austerity measures. These groups found new and unexpected allies in Russia. As seen from the Kremlin, those who denounce Brussels and its subm...

Across Europe, radical right-wing parties are winning increasing electoral support. The Dark Side of European Integration argues that this rising nationalism and the mobilization of the radical right are the consequences of European economic integration. The European economic project has produced a cultural backlash in the form of nationalist radical right ideologies. This assessment relies on a detailed analysis of the electoral rise of radical right parties in Western and Eastern Europe....

Der Begriff „Faschismus“ scheint zu einem Allerweltsbegriff geworden zu sein: Ausgehend von Mussolinis „Faschisten“, übernommen von den Nationalsozialisten unter Hitler, findet er sich heute in nahezu allen politischen Auseinandersetzungen: Trump, Putin, Orbán, Bolsonaro, in Deutschland Höcke, die AfD. Während einige argumentierten, dem Wort „Faschismus“ fehle es an jeglicher charakteristischen, begrifflichen Bedeutung, liefern andere ausführliche Definitionen seiner –vermeintlich oder tat...

Fascism is inherently duplicitous, claiming one thing whilst being committed to something else. In examining this dishonesty, it is essential to distinguish between the surface arguments in fascist discourse and the underlying ideological commitments. Analyzing contemporary fascism is particularly difficult, since no fascist party admits to being fascist. Drawing on the critical insights of historical and linguistic research, this book offers an original and discerning approach to the crit...

This timely book examines far-right politics in Hungary—but its relevance points much beyond Hungary. With its two main players, the radical right Jobbik and populist right Fidesz, it is an essentially Eastern European, European, and global phenomenon. Jobbik and Fidesz, political parties with a populist, nativist, authoritarian approach, Eastern and pro-Russian orientation, and strong anti-Western stance, are on the one hand products of the problematic transformation period that is typica...