Russia Under Vladimir Putin: Is it Fascist?

[Meursault]

No. In many ways, Putinism runs counter to the Mussolinian spirit of authentic fascism. Do you think the Futurists who declared a race car more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace would have much truck with the smoky, incense-filled chambers of Eastern Orthodoxy?

Putinism means conservative dictatorship. Nothing more.

[Meursault]

Neither the Estado Nuevo nor the falange were really fascist. Perhaps the Iron Cross, but 'clerico-fascism' really runs counter to the hyper-Modern tendencies of Italian fascism.

Salazar was basically a reactionary, and Franco was a junta in one person. Both did much less than either Hitler or Mussolini to alter the social composition of their countries; Robert Paxton rejects their classification as fully fascist for this very reason.

 Then again, I hate lumping in even Nazism with fascism.