This article argues that the term “fascist” in application to the Russian regime may obfuscate more than it clarifies. Classifications of regimes are important not for the purpose of analytical clarity alone but as the ground for a moral judgement and any possible subsequent political action. This is particularly important in cases such as the one unfolding in front of us in real time, when many people fall prey to an ill-defined political ambition, which in turn has been made possible by the nature of the regime itself. In this article Roshchin breaks down a composite concept of the fascist regime into its subsidiary elements and discusses to what extent they apply to the political reality in Russia.