radical nationalists: true till death?Thus far, it seems to be decidedly less- prominent organisations
that have dispatched warriors, such as Aleksandr Barshakov’s
dimly remembered Russian National Unity (participating as
Barshakov’s Guard) and the National Liberation Movement
(Natsional’no- osvoboditel’noe dvizhenie) (NOD), led by United
Russia deputy Evgenii Fedorov.^28 One thing is certain, however:
the Russians fighting in Ukraine include people with very different
viewpoints, and the majority of them are not connected with any
sort of nationalist organisation. Even less is known about those
who have left to fight on the Kyivan side. Neo- Nazis make up a
significant proportion,^29 if not the majority, but very different
types of people are also to be found there. When – and if – these
fighters return to Russia, they may well play some sort of role in
redirecting these highly diverse radical currents. Judging by the
information available as of this writing, those groups and currents
that currently dominate the radical nationalist sector will not gain
anything from this process. Indeed, they may even lose out.
As a whole, Russian nationalists appear to be in a fairly awkward
situation: depending on their positions on the ‘Ukrainian ques-
tion’ they are either hanging on the tail of support for the course
President Putin has set, or they must oppose the overwhelming
patriotic majority, which is a scary and – most likely – unprofita-
ble stance to take. This may also explain the drop in their activity.
Most importantly, this situation seems set to last for some time
yet – which suggests that, in terms of their influence on society,
radical nationalists have a gloomy future ahead.
This does not mean, of course, that Russian nationalism has no
future in Russia. Despite the current drop in support for its ideas
and ethno- xenophobic prejudices, this level will probably soon
rise again once the war in Donbas is over. And populists of the
most diverse kinds will undoubtedly manipulate these prejudices,
‘skimming the cream’ from the discourses and even some prac-
tices developed by radical nationalists. However, today’s radical
nationalists themselves have already become superfluous in this
respect.
The radical core, particularly the youth, has not disappeared,
and may even have expanded – the Ukraine crisis and everything
accompanying it having legitimised the use of force. However,