Russian President Vladimir Putin is “the godfather of all populists”, while the President of Serbia does not follow the path of the nationalist leaders in terms of the foreign policy, the American political scientist Francis Fukuyama has told N1.

According to Fukuyama, the Russian President uses his democratic mandate “to undermine institutions and to spread a kind of nationalist view of the world.”

“And so Viktor Orban and Erdogan in Turkey, and a number of other leaders have picked up this theme. But each country is being driven by its own history and its own fears, so there is an international dimension but there is also clearly a domestic dimension as well,” he said.

In his opinion, Serbia’s Vucic, in terms of the foreign policy, has continued the agenda of pushing Serbia closer to the European Union, and did not follow the path of the nationalist leaders.

“I think that in terms of domestic Serbian politics he is similar in certain ways in his efforts to weaken the internal check and balance in institutions that I think necessarily characterise the full liberal democracy,” added Fukuyama.

The full interview in English available in the video below: