it doesn t mean that you can t call somebody else a fascist. interesting about putin reading. experts are telling the washington post at that we could be looking at astalemate in ukraine. based on your understandings of putin and elian, is there a middle ground for putin in will he accept a negotiated peace in . when putin talks about de-nazification, he means i am the one who gets to say what
explain or justify that to himself? it s interesting. appreciate you doing this segment. he does read books and cited other philosophers besides elian. elian not exactly ay correct. his collective writings were distributed on a mass basis in early 2014 when russia was about to invade ukraine. putin cites him in the equivalent of the state of the union address. this is not a secret to russians. the fact that this is a fascist, though, tricky. in popular discourse in russia, fascist doesn t have any meaning like nazi doesn t have any meaning. it just means the other side.
he has used his ideas to portray ukraine, europe and the united states as existential dangers to russia. joining me now tim snider, who drew attention to elian s role to putinism. thanks for coming back on the show, and first off, thank you for your work on all this. highlighting this guy, elian on putin. what would he make of the invasion of ukraine in. on the presidency, he would very much approve. elian s idea of politics was this a one-party state was too much. there should be zero parties. putin sent that to everyone in his party so they would know just how important they were.
about the separation, they believe that to speak of ukraine was to be a mortal enemy of russia. in 2006, putin reclaimed elian s papers. to cast a light on elian s major and lion influence on russian politics, by then, putin was citing elian in his annual addresses. putin relied on elian for invading ukraine. putin cited elian as his authority on the past. the kremlin was sending copies
of elian s words. an article was referring to evan elian as putin s philosopher while describing him as a first conspiracy theorist. if a philosopher is a guiding light and inspiration for the russian president, what does that make putin himself. he is a war criminal. a murderous dictator, a pure thug waging an immoral war against the people of ukraine. tough words, but one word biden hasn t used so far,