Extreme-Right Involvement in the Conflict in Eastern Ukraine and Prospects for Local and Regional Security

This dissertation aims to investigate the following research question: whether the Ukrainian conflict could lead to Russian nationalism destabilising the state. My hypothesis is that Russian nationalism is not currently a threat to state stability, but if a crisis arises, nationalist movements could exploit this to challenge authorities. Russian policy in Ukraine has helped to neutralise the Russian nationalist movement by co-opting its ideas; moreover, thousands of young men have joined pro-Russian war efforts in Ukraine, meaning they are less able to take part in nationalist agitations in Russia itself. However, radical groups could weaponise domestic discontent against the authorities if, for example, the economic situation took a serious downward turn. Due to ethnic Russians being the dominant ethnic group in Russia, this dissertation will exclusively examine Russian nationalism, although future research could examine separatism and ethnic minority nationalism in Russia and whether it could become a problem in future years.