zizek41_Mikhail SvetlovGetty Images_putinkirill Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

Fundamentalist Perverts

Like Islamic extremists, Russian President Vladimir Putin wraps himself in the garb of religious orthodoxy in order to present himself as an authentic exponent of traditional values. Yet one need only consider the lives of genuine spiritual fundamentalists to see this ruse for what it really is.

LJUBLJANA – The standard interpretation of the Russia-Ukraine war is that it is a “clash of cultures” pitting Western liberalism against traditional Russian authoritarianism. But this is deeply misleading. Far from being a traditionalist, Vladimir Putin is merely the latest in a series of murderous modernizers stretching from Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great to Catherine the Great and Stalin.

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