ABSTRACT
The inauguration of President Dmitrii Medvedev on 7 May 2008 was no cause for celebration amongst Russian nationalists. The carefully manipulated election cycle of 2007–8 had wiped out Russian nationalism as a force in systemic politics. During the second half of 2008, Goryachev and his comrades emerged from the shadows of the far-right subculture to become the leaders of a public organisation. Russkii Obraz became first a participant and then an official organiser of major nationalist rallies. What was paradoxical about this collusion was that it coincided with the radicalisation of Russkii Obraz. The transformation of Russkii Obraz into a public movement was part of the Kremlin’s reaction to the coalescence of an ‘Orangist’ coalition of radical nationalists and national liberals. A striking example is Goryachev’s email dating from 3 May 2008, which proposed that Russkii Obraz disrupt the planned ‘National Assembly,’ an alternative parliament organised by the Other Russia coalition.
