Putin's fascists: The Russian state's long history of cultivating homegrown neo-Nazis Many commentators have already debunked Russian President Vladimir Putin's absurd claim to be waging war to "de-Nazify" Ukraine. Some have pointed out the far right received only 2 per cent of the vote in Ukraine's 2019 parliamentary elections, far less than in most of Europe. Others have drawn attention to Ukraine's Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the efforts of the Ukrainian state to protect minorities like Crimean Tatars and LGBTQ+ people , who are subject to brutal persecution in Russia. What has received less coverage is the Putin regime's...