Vile Bodies: How Fascists, Cultists and Spooks Spearheaded...

Free Russia Foundation has released a groundbreaking investigation titled “Vile Bodies: How Fascists, Cultists and Spooks Spearheaded Russia’s War on Ukraine.” The report, authored by Pierre Vaux and Michael Weiss, sheds light on the true nature of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and reveals the influential role played by Russian far-right figures.

Contrary to President Vladimir Putin’s claims that the invasion aimed to combat neo-Nazi elements in Ukraine, the report establishes that these assertions were false. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is of Jewish and Russian-speaking heritage, has been leading a democratic government and is not associated with any fascist endeavors. Despite the presence of certain neo-Nazi elements within Ukrainian armed forces and allied paramilitary groups, the indiscriminate destruction of cities and the so-called “humanitarian” campaign waged by Russia across Ukraine cannot be justified.

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The report uncovers the striking resemblance between the Russian government’s actions and the traditional definition of fascism. State-controlled media in Russia has been complicit in promoting the complete militarization of society, fostering genocidal rhetoric against Ukrainians, perpetuating paranoia about Western adversaries such as the United States and NATO, and fueling hostility towards those who challenge traditional values, including LGBTQ rights and freedom of expression.

The Russian government’s ability to mislead foreign audiences into perceiving the conflict as a left-wing or antifascist struggle is also exposed in the report. The architects of Russia’s war against Ukraine, operating under the patronage of the Russian security services, have long harbored ambitions to resurrect the fallen Russian Empire. Many of these individuals, including politicians, intelligence operatives, mercenaries, and military commanders, established their relationships and developed their ideological beliefs during the tumultuous years following the Soviet Union’s collapse.

The report not only chronicles the leadership of Russia’s far-right figures from the war’s inception but also investigates how these individuals and their ideas were cultivated by the Russian security services. Rather than being used solely as pawns for covert operations or plausible deniability, these extremists were strategically incorporated into critical positions of the state apparatus during wartime, gaining notoriety both domestically and internationally.

This report reveals a pattern of the Russian security services utilizing fringe elements of the political opposition throughout history to stage provocations and suppress dissent. However, the figures detailed in this report stand apart due to their extreme ideologies and unconventional personalities, which run counter to the official state line. Nevertheless, they were entrusted with significant public-facing responsibilities, which propelled them to become household names domestically while facing condemnation internationally.

The rise of the far-right within the Russian state has a long history, dating back to the 1980s when the KGB, the predecessor to the FSB, recognized fascism as a potential lifeline for their authoritarian “deep state” amidst the ideological and economic decline of communism. The report uncovers the influence of esoteric beliefs, a combination of management theory jargon, pseudo-paganism, and antisemitism, that circulated among Russian spooks during the social and political upheaval of the 1990s.

Russia’s dependence on perilous and aggressive ideologues to promote national interests is indicative of the country’s evolution over the past three decades. Significantly, although the ultranationalist and neo-Stalinist factions suffered a decline in political influence following their unsuccessful attempts to oust Yeltsin, the utilization of force by security institutions and the constitutional amendments implemented by the triumphant administration of the first Russian president ultimately paved the way for the establishment of the very authoritarian regime that Yeltsin’s adversaries had long yearned for. This report, “Vile Bodies: How Fascists, Cultists and Spooks Spearheaded Russia’s War on Ukraine,” exposes the true motivations behind Russia’s actions in Ukraine and provides critical insights into the role of far-right elements within the Russian state. It serves as a call to action for the international community to address the growing influence of fascist ideologies within Russia and support Ukraine in its struggle for sovereignty and democracy.