Neocommunism

Here's a Washington Times article I missed last month. It's a very perceptive analysis by Jeffrey Kuhner of the phenomenon of neocommnism, which Kuhner sees at work both in Putin's Russia and in parts of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and which he describes as Europe's new fault line:

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, American conservatives celebrated the defeat of communism. Confident their victory was complete, they turned their guns on other issues such as Iraq, Bill Clinton and the rising threat of China.
The prevailing assumption among conservatives is that the break-up of the Soviet empire signaled the death knell of Marxist-Leninist ideology throughout Eastern Europe.
Their assumption is wrong. Communism may be dead, but the prevailing communist mindset continues to live on.
President Vladimir Putin's re-election reveals an increasingly authoritarian Russia. The former KGB chief seeks to reconstitute a Great Russian Imperium composed of former Soviet republics. Belarus is ruled by Stalinist strongman Alexander Lukashenko, who imposed a one-party police state.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Bulgaria and Serbia, neocommunist reactionaries have sought to derail their countries' efforts to enter NATO and become full members of the West. In all these nations, the Red old guard continues to exercise a predominant influence over the media, the military and the political class.

The whole piece is well worth reading.

Hat tip: Mari-Ann Kelam