Anton Shekhovtsov: Putin’s Russia and the European Far Right

Although contacts between Russian political actors and European far-right activists emerged already in the 1990s, they remained relatively low-profile until the second presidential term of Vladimir Putin that started in 2004. As the Kremlin became increasingly anti-Western, contacts with the European far right became more intense and operated at a higher level. The lecture shows that the Russian establishment was first interested in using the Western far right to legitimise Moscow’s politics and actions both domestically and internationally, but then Moscow began to support particular far-right political forces to gain leverage on European politics and undermine the liberal-democratic consensus in the West. In conclusion, the lecture discusses relations between Russia and the European far right against the background of the escalation of the Russian war against Ukraine in February 2022. Dr. Anton Shekhovtsov received his PhD from University College London (UK) in 2018. Today he is Director of the Centr