I am convinced that it is essential to engage European and American right-wing parties in a clear, evidence-based conversation to explain an obvious truth: Putin’s regime is not right-wing, not nationalist, not conservative, and not Christian. It is the opposite — a neo-feudal plutocracy, an anti-market, state-capitalist system modeled on Chinese authoritarianism, combined with aggressive demographic engineering that is eroding Russia’s native population.
Putin’s Russia Is Not Conservative — It Is Neo-Feudal
In Russia, Christians and traditional religious communities face pressure, censorship, and persecution. Culturally, the Kremlin promotes mass migration that replaces native populations with people from completely different cultural backgrounds — creating racial and ethnic tensions, undermining safety, and increasing the risk of hate crimes and terrorism.
This has nothing to do with “right-wing values.” It is the destruction of a nation.
What Putin Actually Advocates
Let us look at Putin’s latest statements — the same Putin whom liberal Western media laughably frame as a “right-wing conservative.”
Putin has demanded:
• Increased control over cash transactions
• Aggressive tax collection
• Total “legalization” of the economy
• Crackdowns on informal labor
• Full surveillance of retail, online commerce, and small business
With the new tax reform beginning in 2026, the regime plans to extract an additional 2.3 trillion rubles from citizens and businesses. VAT will rise to 22%, the highest since 1992. A new “technology tax” will target electronics and equipment.
This is not conservatism.
This is Soviet-style fiscal repression.
Putin’s Migration Policies: The Opposite of Nationalism
While hundreds of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian Slavic men are dead or disabled, the Kremlin is importing a new population.
Deputy PM Denis Manturov announced Russia is ready to bring in an “unlimited number” of migrant workers from India. Russian industries need at least 5 million workers — and these positions will be filled by migrants from Asia and Africa.
HR experts openly confirm that the Russian labor market will be reshaped by foreign workers, replacing the native population.
And yet Western analysts still call Putin a “Russian nationalist”?
If he is a nationalist, he is an anti-Russian nationalist.
The Point for Western Conservatives
Putin is not one of you.
He is not right-wing, not conservative, not Christian, not a defender of European identity or traditional culture.
He is running a globalist, extractive, authoritarian, anti-national model dressed up in pseudo-patriotic rhetoric.
If we want a sober, strategic understanding of Russia, we must first discard this dangerous illusion.
Anton Gromov
Political Scientist & Eurasian Security Expert | Chair at Astraea NGO | Focused on Russia–China–North Korea Relations & Information