Anton Shekhovtsov is a political scientist. An external lecturer in political science at the University of Vienna (Austria), he is an expert at the European Platform for Democratic Elections (Germany), and General Editor of the "Explorations of the Far Right" book series at ibidem-Verlag (Germany). His main area of expertise is the European far right, relations between Russia and radical right-wing parties in the West, and illiberal tendencies in central and eastern Europe. His book, "Russia and the Western Far Right: Tango Noir" was published by Routledge in 2017.
Editor’s Note: This article was commissioned by Voxeurop and republished by the Kyiv Independent with permission. The original published article may be found on Voxeurop's website. The opinions expressed in our op-ed section are those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of the Kyiv Independent.
Just two weeks before the most dramatic escalation of Russia's war against Ukraine in February 2022, colleagues from the Slovak think tank GLOBSEC asked me and other experts in the fie