Machismo and Power

Tessa Szyszkowitz in conversation with Sabine Fischer

Machismo and Power
How Russian chauvinism threatens Europe

Russia's aggressive war of annihilation against Ukraine cannot be understood and stopped without understanding Russian chauvinism. This is fuelled by nationalist and misogynist ideas and serves the autocratic Putin regime to legitimise itself. Russia's chauvinist policy is not only attacking Ukraine. It also threatens significant parts of Russian society and wants to destroy the European security order based on rules and values. The law of the jungle is to take its place.

Russian chauvinism regards everything that has anything to do with liberalism as hostile - and this attitude is also spreading in Europe. Sabine Fischer, an expert on Eastern Europe at the renowned German Institute for International and Security Affairs, explains how aggressive nationalism, misogynistic chauvinism and autocracy are linked in Russia, and how Europe and the Western world must position themselves to defy Russian chauvinism.

»Russia's aggression against Ukraine is not a war in Europe, but against Europe. Anyone who doubts this should read Sabine Fischer's powerful book on the origins and consequences of Putin's chauvinist and revisionist policies.« - Ivan Krastev

»A precise, wonderfully written analysis which, thanks to Fischer's feminist perspective, finally explains comprehensively why the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine was no surprise and what we can learn for the future. A book about Russia that really stands out.« - Alice Bota

»Conceptually innovative and at the same time intuitive, she uses the term ‚chauvinism‘ to guide us through the triad of nationalism, sexism and autocracy, which traces Russia's positioning vis-à-vis Western models of life and the path to the war against Ukraine and opens up a glimpse into Russia's conceivable futures.« - Gwendolyn Sasse  

Sabine Fischer, Author and political scientist, SWP Research Group Eastern Europe and Eurasia with a focus on Russian foreign and security policy, EU-Russia relations, unresolved conflicts in the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood, regional relations in Eastern Europe and Eurasia

Tessa Szyszkowitz, born in Stuttgart, has lived in London since 2010. The journalist and author was previously a correspondent in Moscow, Brussels and Jerusalem. She is a columnist for Weltpolitik in Falter, curator of the Philoxenia series at the Kreiskyforum and a Distinguished Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.