I hear people on the left say that Ukraine is not much more than a nestful of fascists and Nazis as reason to temper their criticism of Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. What is astonishing here? It is the indisputable fact that Putin is an imperialist minded, anti democratic, racist, authoritarian, fascist like leader who enjoys the support of a powerful white Christian, hyper natonalist, cross class constituency in Russia and elsewhere. But that doesn’t seem to register in their thinking in any significant way.