THE POPULIST

Dr Elisabeth Schimpfössl, expert on Russian elites

A classical feature of populists, according to scholar Jan-Werner Müller, is to claim the exclusive right to represent “the people” and defend them against both external and internal enemies.

Putin did so when annexing Crimea in 2014 and accusing opponents of being foreign agents conspiring against the nation.

Last month, hundreds of young people repeatedly took to the streets to express their discontent at seeing every single opposition candidate to the Moscow City parliament disqualified.

As previously during the protests of 2010-11 against rigged elections and Putin’s return to presidency in 2012, many protesters were brutally beaten and some face draconian jail sentences of up to seven years. By default, protesters are said to be instigated and paid for by the West.

According to Müller, populist leaders cultivate an image as the saviours of “traditional” conservative, religious values, usually be defending the people from a large influx of immigrants and liberal ideas.

Culture wars of this sort typically go along with a clampdown on civil society organisations, trade unions and environmentalist campaigns.

From the official start of his presidency in 2000 Putin raged against the establishment and the elites. Once in power, Putin picked the most influential 1990s oligarchs, such as Boris Berezkovsky and Vladimir Gusinksy, deprived them of their media holdings and – in the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, until his arrest in 2003 the richest Russian – their personal freedom.

Alongside such crusades, many populists run largescale campaigns against elite corruption.

In Russia, concerns about the effects of endemic corruption were initially articulated by the opposition, first by Alexey Navalny, but soon seized by the Kremlin. This does not hinder many populists to hand over the most lucrative contracts to friends and family.

Elisabeth Schimppfossi, a lecturer in sociology at Ashton University, Birmingham, is author of Rich Russians: From Oligarchs to Bourgeosise