The use of the term “fascism” in connection with the modern Russian state and its actions has at least three dimensions. 

First, it is a historical analogy used to guide public interpretation of current events in light of well-known developments from recent history. 

Second, it is a Ukrainian code expressing the lived experience of millions of Ukrainians today. 

Third, “fascism” is an academic umbrella term that serves as a scientific classification, enables comparisons across time and space, and highlights the differences and similarities between historical fascism, on the one hand, and Putinism, as it exists today, on the other. 

Most public references to Putin’s regime as fascist serve as a diachronic analogy or metaphorical classification to better understand recent developments in Russia and its occupied territories. Such historical comparisons and verbal visualizations of current phenomena with events and images from the past help to identify key characteristics and challenges of today’s Russia. The attribution of “fascism” to Putin’s regime serves to illustrate to the general public what is happening in Russia and the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories. 

This comparison is justified insofar as there are numerous parallels between the political rhetoric and actions of Putin’s Russia, on the one hand, and Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany, on the other. By mid-2025, many political, social, ideological, and institutional similarities will have accumulated. 

These range from increasingly dictatorial and partly totalitarian features of the Russian regime to revanchist and increasingly genocidal features in the Kremlin’s external behavior. Against this backdrop, the use of the term fascism serves to guide debates in mass media, civil society, and educational institutions. 

The use of the term “fascism” to describe Putin’s regime by outside commentators aims to give audiences outside Russia and Ukraine an impression of current Russian domestic and foreign affairs. In contrast, the Ukrainian use of the term “fascism” and the neologism “Rashism,” a combination of “Russia” and........

© The National Interest