Why is extremism on the rise in Europe including Central & Eastern Europe?

Putin is an important figure in all of this. He's a beacon to those on left and right who wish to decouple their countries from US-centric economic policies. For those on the far right, they also see Putin as a strong man opposed to western decadance - an agenda which fits in with Russian and far right homophobia, and an outlook which is against women. Russia's military action against Ukraine also strikes a chord with those on the far right, who like their leaders to engage in muscular displays of power. Across Erope, parties from Golden Dawn in Greece to Vlaams Belang in Belgium and Forca Nuova in Italy all talk about Putin in similarly glowing terms. It's not far from there to theories that Russia is supporting such parties - in 2014 Marine le Pen admitted that her Front Nationale borrowed 9m Euros from the Kremlin-linked First Czech Russian Bank. Media power is also important in this picture, and Britain's UKIP figurehead Nigel Farage is a frequent guest on Russia Today, where his criticism of the EU is strident but he never has a bad word to say about Russia. Russia might not be creating European extremism, but certainly does everything it can to support it.