| It’s because there’s a huge support for these views in Russia. And any politician who actually wants to succeed is bound to channel this energy or at least address it. Russia has severe ongoing problems with national tensions and conflicts. Not only between Russians and other nations but among those nations as well (e.g. ingush vs chechen). Main reason is that Russia was built as a colonialist empire. Most ethnic regions had nothing in common except for being conquered. That led to bad blood such as ongoing ethnic conflicts, disputed regions and insurgencies being crushed by Kremlin using mostly ethnically white army. Multiple bombings of Grozny easily rival current destruction of Ukraine, along with mass rape and pillaging. Conscripts were executed and tortured by locals which led to army’s brutal retaliation leading to cycle of violence. Ethnic crime also contributed with some diasporas having immense powers in Moscow. This boiling cocktail leads to a huge albeit suppressed anger amongst general population. A politician who proposes disbanding Russian Federation and imposing a visa regime with ethnic regions will ride a wave of support not seen by Putin. That’s why Putin crushes any nationalist opposition much harder than liberal one. It’s the biggest threat to his rule if there’s one. Rogozin served mainly as a spoiler. His fake party sponged some dissent votes in 2003 and then disappeared. Once again even if his Nazi views are genuine, he’s a power hungry Machiavelist first. |