Labelling its opponents fascists is an old Soviet trick. Over the years, plenty of very different people have been called fascists by Soviet propaganda even when they had nothing to do with the fascist ideology. Thus, in the early 1930s European social democrats were tagged “social fascists” by the Communist International. However, the man who headed Comintern at the time, Grigory Zinoviev, was soon also declared a “fascist” at a Moscow show trial which featured him and other prominent Bolsheviks.The Soviets fought fascism in Spain, but then Soviet military

advisors returning from the Spanish civil war were themselves shot for being

fascist agents. Josip Broz Tito, the communist leader of Yugoslavia, was at one

time called a fascist, as were American, Israeli and West German governments.

And so were various military rulers around the world, from Greece to Latin

America.

Now, the Russian media claims that the “Kyiv Junta” with elected President Petro Poroshenko has joined

this long and diverse list. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s television and state-owned media have dusted

off World War II “fascisms” cliches as they report – ad nauseum, and to the

exclusion of all other news, foreign or domestic – on latest developments in

Ukraine.