Letter From the Editors

What’s happening with fringe politicians in Europe? First, Evghenia Gutul, leader of the Gagauzia autonomy within Moldova, was detained at the Chisinau airport on charges of corruption. Then, Belarussian opposition leader Anzhelika Melnikova was reported missing, and there is still no information on her whereabouts. And now, in what may be this week’s most surprising news, French right-wing luminary Marine Le Pen has been convicted of embezzlement. Such charges are nothing new in French politics, points out Andrei Zhvirblis: Back in 2011, even former French president Jacques Chirac was convicted of having created fictitious jobs at Paris City Hall when he was mayor there. But Le Pen’s court ruling lays down serious consequences: She is banned from running in elections for the next five years, just when the star of her party, National Rally, seems to be rising to an all-time high. In fact, Le Pen can’t properly be called a fringe politician anymore, as she recently attained a polling approval rating of 37%.

Zhvirblis writes: “Predictably, Le Pen’s supporters are talking about ‘political persecution.’ . . . But all politicians who end up in situations like this say the same thing.”

Speaking of which, when Donald Trump was asked to comment on the case, he called Le Pen “the leading candidate” and reacted to the electoral ban with a sarcastic laugh: “That sounds very much like this country.”

Despite his apparently lingering persecution complex, Trump got some good press this week when his administration made a point of lifting sanctions on Russian businessman Kirill Dmitriyev to enable the latter to attend Ukraine peace talks in Washington in the capacity of Putin’s adviser. According to experts interviewed by Izvestia, Dmitriyev’s presence in and of itself signals progress in Russian-American negotiations in general.

However, US relations with its own allies are fraught with friction, judging by a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting that took place April 3-4. Nikolai Pershin had this to say: “NATO has unexpectedly found itself in a new reality. For example, it is not quite clear now how to interpret the famous Art. 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty (an attack on any NATO member country is regarded as an attack on the whole alliance) if a key player is in a serious conflict with allies Denmark and Canada, and taking tariffs into account, with all NATO members.” With Trump repeatedly threatening to pull back funding for Ukraine, several alliance ministers reaffirmed their commitment to make up for any possible decreases.

And Ukraine is going to need all the help it can get, based on today’s mood in Russia – not just among the political elite, but in society in general. Sova Center director Aleksandr Verkhovsky sees a reemerging trend toward right-wing nationalism, after 15 years of relative decline. Its hallmark is xenophobia, although it is not expressed in the street violence that characterized the early 2010s. Today’s nationalists seem better behaved – and emerging groups like Russkaya Obshchina are even claiming loyalty to the regime. And that includes support for the Ukraine war.

Verkhovsky’s findings may corroborate a dramatic claim made by Sergei Medvedev in his recent book “Voina, sdelannaya v Rossii” [A War Made in Russia]. Medvedev argues that the invasion of Ukraine was not merely a whim of Putin’s obsession: rather, it was a culmination of Putin’s regime, built up over decades of nationalist propaganda fueled by Russia’s imperial history. Thus, according to Medvedev, the massive bloodshed in Ukraine is not Putin’s war, but Russia’s war – a campaign to relive Moscow’s military glory.

So, if Donald Trump is still wondering why he can’t stop the war in a day, there’s his answer.