The movement’s claim to stand for the “working man” and for national interests is particularly specious considering the new right’s admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin — someone who blatantly disregards nations’ right to self-determination.
“Nationalism works,” writes Trump supporter and author Mike Cernovich, pointing to the example of “another nationalist,” Putin. The Russian president’s ideology is supple, but if it has centered around anything over the last few years, it is the idea of restoring Russian imperial greatness and crushing the nascent democracies in its former colonies, as evidenced by its aggressions in Ukraine.
In fact, the wave of protests against Putin in 2012 were partly informed by a nationalist surge. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, himself a nationalist, flirted with — for many alarmingly — strong anti-immigration policies. In his calmer moments, Navalny argued Russia needed to grow beyond its imperial mindset to become a “normal” European nation state. Now Navalny has been convicted on trumped-up charges and barred from running in elections, while Putin the imperialist indulges in neocolonial adventures.
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