The Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek spoke with Meduza about the Russia-Ukraine war, framing it as part of a global ideological conflict, in which Vladimir Putin himself is befriending other authoritarian regimes to create a new, ultra-conservative axis of global power. A self-described pessimist, Žižek cautions the West against settling into a complacent sense of moral superiority. The Neo-Fascist ideological turn that now serves Putin’s imperialist ambitions is not, he says, a specifically Russian problem. Instead, it’s a case study in how things go wrong when political competition devolves into struggle among oligarchs. This is a condensed version of the philosopher’s interview first published by Meduza in Russian.
