U.S. corporate media spent years dismissing the role of neo-Nazis in Ukraine’s 2014 coup but it is suddenly going through a conversion, as Daniel Lazare reports.
By Daniel Lazare
Special to Consortium News
Last month a freelance journalist named Joshua Cohen published an article in The Washington Post about the Ukraine’s growing neo-Nazi threat. Despite a gratuitous swipe at Russia for allegedly exaggerating the problem (which it hasn’t), the piece was fairly accurate.
Entitled “Ukraine’s ultra-right militias are challenging the government to a showdown,” it said that fascists have gone on a rampage while the ruling clique in Kiev closes its eyes for the most part and prays that the problem somehow goes away on its own.
Thus, a group calling itself C14 (for the fourteen-word ultra-right motto, “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children”) not only beat up a socialist politician and celebrated Hitler’s birthday by stabbing an antiwar activist, but bragged about it on its website. Other ultra-nationalists, Cohen says, have stormed the Lvov and Kiev city councils and “assaulted or disrupted” art exhibits, anti-fascist demos, peace and gay-rights events, and a Victory Day parade commemorating the victory over Hitler in 1945.
Yet nothing has happened to stop this. President Petro Poroshenko could order a crackdown, but hasn’t for reasons that should be obvious. The U.S.-backed “Euromaidan” uprising not only drove out former president Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014, who had won an OSCE-certified election, but tore the country in two, precisely because ultra-rightists like C14 were in the lead.
When resistance to the U.S.-backed coup broke out in Crimea and parts of the country’s largely Russian-speaking east, the base of Yanukovych voters, civil war ensued. But because the Ukrainian army had all but collapsed, the new, coup government had no one to rely on other than the neo-fascists who had helped propel it to power.
So an alliance was hatched between pro-western oligarchs at the top – Forbes puts Poroshenko’s net worth at a cool $1 billion – and neo-Nazi enforcers at the bottom. Fascists may not be popular. Indeed, Dmytro Yarosh, the fire-breathing leader of a white-power coalition known as Right Sector, received less than one percent of the vote when he ran for president in May 2014.
But the state is so weak and riddled with so many ultra-rightists in key positions – Andriy Parubiy, founder of the neo-Nazi Social-National Party of Ukraine, is speaker of the parliament, while ultra-rightist Arsen Avakov is minister of the interior – that the path before them is clear and unobstructed. As Cohen points out, the result is government passivity on one hand and a rising tide of ultra-right violence on the other. In the earlier stages of the civil war, for instance, the rightwing extremists burned more than 40 people alive in a labor union building in Odessa, a horrific incident downplayed by Western media.
Confusing its Readers
Inside Kiev Town Hall.
Cohen’s article may have Washington Post readers scratching their heads for the simple reason that the paper has long said the opposite. Since Euromaidan, the Post has toed the official Washington line that Vladimir Putin has exaggerated the role of the radical right in order to discredit the anti-Yanukovych revolt and legitimize his own alleged interference.
Sure, anti-Yanukovych forces had festooned the Kiev town hall with a white supremacist banner, a Confederate flag, and a giant image of Stepan Bandera, a Nazi collaborator whose forces killed thousands of Jews during the German occupation and as many as 100,000 Poles. And yes, they staged a 15,000-strong torchlight parade in Bandera’s honor and scrawled an SS symbol on a toppled statue of Lenin. They also destroyed a memorial to Ukrainians who had fought on what Bandera supporters regard as the wrong side of World War II, that is, with the Soviets and against the Axis.
But so-called responsible, mainstream journalists are supposed to avert their eyes to avoid being tarred as a “useful idiot” whom Putin supposedly employs to advance his “anti-American agenda.” Ten days after Yanukovych’s departure, the Post dutifully assured its readers that Russian reports of “hooligans and fascists” had “no basis in reality.”
A week or so later, it said “the new government, though peppered with right-wing politicians, is led primarily by moderate, pro-European politicians.” A few weeks after that, it described Bandera as no more than “controversial” and quoted a Kiev businessman as saying: “The Russians want to call him a fascist, but I feel he was a hero for our country. Putin is using him to try to divide us.”
Thus, the Post and other corporate media continued to do its duty by attacking Putin for plainly saying “the forces backing Ukraine’s government in Kiev are fascists and neo-Nazis.” But who was wrong?
The New York Times was no better. It assailed Russia for hurling “harsh epithets” like “neo-Nazi,” and blamed the Russian leader for “scaremongering” by attributing Yanukovych’s ouster to “nationalists, neo-Nazis, Russophobes, and anti-Semites.” The Guardian’s Luke Harding – a leading Putin basher – said of the far-right Svoboda Party:
“Over the past decade the party appears to have mellowed, eschewing xenophobia, academic commentators suggest. On Monday, the U.S. ambassador in Kiev, Geoffrey Pyatt, said he had been ‘positively impressed’ by Svoboda’s evolution in opposition and by its behavior in the Rada, Ukraine’s parliament. ‘They have demonstrated their democratic bona fides,’ the ambassador asserted.”
This is the party whose founder, Oleh Tyahnybok, said in a 2004 speech that “a Moscow-Jewish mafia” was running the Ukraine and that Bandera’s followers “fought against the Muscovites, Germans, Jews and other enemies who wanted to take away our Ukrainian state.” Had the leopard really changed its spots, according to Pyatt? Or was it simply a matter of America not giving a damn as long as Svoboda joined the fight to encircle Russia and advance NATO’s drive to the east?
As someone named Marx once observed, “Who you gonna believe, me or your own two eyes?” As far as Ukraine was concerned, the answer for the corporate press came from the U.S. State Department. If Foggy Bottom said that Ukrainian neo-Nazism was a figment of Russia’s imagination, then that’s what it was, regardless of evidence to the contrary.
Someday, historians will look back on Euromaidan Ukraine as one of the looniest periods in western journalism – except, of course, for all the ones that have followed. But if one had to choose the looniest story of all, one that best reflects the abject toadyism of the reporting classes, it would have to be “Why Jews and Ukrainians Have Become Unlikely Allies,” a 1,400-word article that ran on the Post-owned Foreign Policy website in May 2014. Four years later, it stands as a model of how not to write about an all-important political crisis.
Cohen’s Conversion
Tyahnybok: ‘Moscow-Jewish mafia’ is running Ukraine.
The piece begins with the usual hand-wringing about Svoboda and Right Sector and expresses remorse that the latter still venerates the “controversial” Bandera, whose followers “fought on the side of the Nazis from 1944 until the end of World War II.” (Actually, they welcomed the Germans from the start and, despite rocky relations with the Slav-hating Nazis, continued to work with them throughout the occupation.)
But then it gets down to business by asserting that as bad as Ukrainian nationalists may be, Russia is doubly worse. “Despite the substantial presence of right wing nationalists on the Maidan during the revolution,” it says, “many in Ukraine’s Jewish community resent being used by Putin in his propaganda war.” The proof is an open letter signed by 21 Ukrainian Jewish leaders asserting that the real danger was Moscow.
“We know that the political opposition consists of various groups, including some that are nationalistic,” the letter declared. “But even the most marginal of them do not demonstrate anti-Semitism or other forms of xenophobia. And we certainly know that our very few nationalists are well-controlled by civil society and the new Ukrainian government – which is more than can be said for the Russian neo-Nazis, who are encouraged by your security services.”
This was music to Washington’s ears. But if neo-Nazis are free of “anti-Semitism or other forms of xenophobia,” how does one explain the white-power symbols in the Kiev town hall? If nationalists were “very few” in number, why did journalists need to explain them away? If Russian security forces really encouraged neo-Nazis, where were the torchlight parades and portraits of Bandera-like collaborators hanging from public buildings in Moscow?
The article might have noted that Josef Zissels, the Jewish community leader who organized the letter, is a provocative figure who has long maintained close relations with Ukraine’s far right. A self-styled Zhydobanderivets – a word that roughly translates as “Kike follower of Bandera” – he has since infuriated other Jewish leaders by criticizing California Congressman Ro Khanna for sending a letter to the State Department asking that pressure be brought on the governments of Poland and Ukraine to combat Holocaust revisionism in their countries.
Forty-one Jewish leaders were so angry, in fact, that they sent out a letter of their own thanking Khannna for his efforts, expressing “deep concern at the rise of anti-Semitic incidents and expressions of xenophobia and intolerance, including attacks on Roma communities,” and “strongly proclaim[ing] that Mr. Iosif Zissels and the organization VAAD do not represent the Jews of Ukraine.” A Jewish community leader in Russia was so outraged by the pro-Bandera apologetics of Zissels and a Ukrainian-Jewish oligarch named Igor Kolomoisky that he said he wanted to hang both men “in Dnepropetrovsk in front of the Golden Rose Synagogue until they stop breathing.”
So Foreign Policy used a highly dubious source to whitewash Ukraine’s growing neo-Nazi presence and absolve it of anti-Semitism. As crimes against the truth go, this is surely one of the worst. But now that the problem has gotten too big for even the corporate media to ignore, overnight muckrakers like Joshua Cohen are seeing to it that getting away with such offenses will no longer be so easy. Before his abrupt about-face, the author of that misleading Foreign Policy piece was Joshua Cohen.
Daniel Lazare is the author of The Frozen Republic: How the Constitution Is Paralyzing Democracy (Harcourt Brace, 1996) and other books about American politics. He has written for a wide variety of publications from The Nation to Le Monde Diplomatique, and his articles about the Middle East, terrorism, Eastern Europe, and other topics appear regularly on such websites as Jacobin and The American Conservative.
If you enjoyed this original article please consider making a donation to Consortium News so we can bring you more stories like this one.
The Latest Heist: US Quietly Snatches the Ukraine’s Gold Reserves.
Isn’t this what the COUP was really about ??
And to force Ukraine to borrow from the IMF
And with those borrowed monies from the IMF – for some of those monies to be uses to purchase GOLD.
Borrowed monies to be repaid with interest.
GOLD stolen from & sold back to original owner.
Only that the GOLD never actually leaves the US Federal Reserve.
“You buy it back from us, but well mind it for you to keep it safe.” ??
The tax-payer funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
also played a significant role in Ukraine since the early 2000’s at
least :
https://www.mintpressnews.com/the-national-endowment-for-democracy-regime-change-playbook/245565/
I heard a lecture by a person who was very involved in the NED’s
Ukraine campaign, given at the very same time as the Maidan
crisis peaked in February of 2014. He was shocked ! shocked !
that all the NED’s good intentions were going south so fast, but
at the same time totally unapologetic regarding their interference.
Finally some light is shed on this malarkey we’ve been force feed for the past 3-4 years by the MSM and the likes of Victoria Nuland. It has been painful to witness this propaganda/fake news. I’m amazed and grateful that finally the truth is out. You’ve been caught! Shame on you!
You would think that world Jewry would be up in arms over Ukrainian neo-Nazis. Far from it. Israel is arming these same neoNazis it now turns out.
https://grayzoneproject.com/2018/04/07/the-us-is-arming-and-assisting-neo-nazis-in-ukraine-while-congress-debates-prohibition/
Sorry. Wrong referencr above.
Here’s the correct link on Israelis arming neoNazis in Ukraine
https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-arming-neo-nazis-ukraine/24876
Bravo, posa,
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/religious-extremism-heart-us-support-israel
Historically this is kind of par for the course at least for anybody was read Anthony Sutton or Carol Quigley. What we came to know as the eastern establishment or US Anglo alliance, all lunatics partnered with the equally lunatic zionists have been playing these games for well over 100 years, historians in the far future will have trouble distinguishing events from the first and second world war not to mention the the current period, war is a profitable industry and if we cannot get the Russians to stand in for the bad guys we are going to have to create our own again.
At last – some truth from the MSM on this subject. As a Canadian, I am more than shocked that our Minister of Foreign Relations is one Chrystia Freeland who’s grandfather was a highly ranked Ukrainian nazi collaborator. Ms Freeland is an ardent supporter of Ukraine and has an over the top hate on for Russia. In fact, Freeland is banned from the country. Ms Freeland seems to hold some power over our wet behind the ears young Prime Minister. Consequently, Canada supports the Neo Nazi puppet state of Ukraine and is not talking to Russia! As well, we are leading the Nato team in Latvia and have just extended the tour for three years!
I agree with you Anne. Ms freeland, when talking about Russia, sounds like corner gas cast spitting on the ground when mentioning next town( Canadian sitcom). If she was more open, Canada could talk trade with the
Russians whom share the same geographical position on the globe, and are needing trade to help their populations standard of living increase.(thanks USA). That would wake the Americans as to their aggressive trade position! P.s. It seems that Canadian Ukrainians celebrate bandera…what up with that?
The Amerikastani war propaganda machine never does anything without an ulterior motive. I assume that the motive behind this about-face is to now accuse Porkyshenko of collusion with the newly-discovered Ukranazis, and replace him with another puppet, a new Yatsenyuk. The war criminal fugitive former Georgian dictator Mikheil Saakashvili is the most likely candidate to assume that role.
32 ??ars ago my cousin’s (she has been living in Kiev for 35 years after her husband returned to the Ukrain – he’s a Ukrainian himself) daughter divorced her husband and came to Kiev with her 2 -year old daughter. The small girl attended a Uk.kindergarten, then a Ukranian school and university.Then quite suddenly she (a Russian girl) started to say how she hates Russia and all Russian. They were shocked and said they had overlooked all those years when she had been educated in hatred for Russia.
And its the same with all their young generations.
WaPo’s current take on Crimea :
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/annexing-crimea-was-egregious-why-does-trump-disagree/2018/07/08/5d749ebe-806b-11e8-b660-4d0f9f0351f1_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-f%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
I can’t comment on WaPo articles but maybe someone who can, might post a link to this article Consortium
News in the comments section ?
WaPo has wilfully detached itself from reality.
“Inside the U.S. government there is virtual unanimity on the question of Crimea, the Ukrainian region invaded and abruptly annexed by Russia in 2014: It was an egregious act of aggression…
The Crimean question … tells us … about Trump… His crude and uninformed policy positions consistently outlast staff opposition and efforts at reasonable persuasion; this is particularly true when it comes to appeasement of Putin… There’s really been no debate until now about Russia’s land grab among foreign policy experts, or, apart from a handful of outliers, members of Congress.”
The last part may be true. Congress is on the same page as WaPo. Personally I want to hear more from those outliers. They are the only voices of sanity.
It will be interesting to see if Canada’s mainstream media will have the courage to acknowledge the truth… At least one courageous journalist -David Pugliese from the Ottawa Citizen- has been a dissonant voice in the past months while the rest of the press cowardly endorsed the first day Freeland version, defending her and even becoming her mouthpiece.
Let’s recall that the marvellous CBC could not even muster an article on the Globe and Mail second day story in which Minister Freeland acknowledged her family past and knowing about it all along. The CBC sycophants and their censors remained at the “Russia propaganda” phase and have been there since.
Why? Because the Canadian military appears to still be working with Azov as of the Ukrainians’ own 19 June 2018 twitter posting showing a visit with a Canadian military attache identified as Colonel Brian Irwin… Investigative journalism in Canada only works on minor Paradise Papers non-stories trumpeted by the Open Society infiltrated ICIJ member.
The irony of this as a supporter of the old roosevelt democratic party vs the new reagen clinton democratic party is that there’s no evidence of trump/russia interference in 2016 election but there is concrete proof of obomba and killary with the cia interference of ukraine election in the coup where joe biden son benefited being placed on board of directors a gas company while allegedly in divorce setting of drugs, prostitutes…russia takes back crimea which they originally owned and obomba and killary put sanctions on russia…so it’s possible—possible some russians ran some adds against killary…
Seems likely the current President could easily be deposed and replaced by a hardliner. As long as he supports the US goals he’ll be ‘our bastard’. Never lose hope that things could take a bright turn.
One can see the discussed article of Joshua Cohen as a part of a larger problem of out establishment, and the solution that was selected. The problem is a side effect of how the “Empire” could expand eastwards: by encouraging least rational and most nationalistic movements in East/Central Europe as staunchly anti-Communist and anti-Russian, hence begging for membership in NATO etc., foregoing benefits of fostering deep commercial relations with the West while maintaining good relations with Russia and allied countries and enjoying traditional markets for some of their goods and most economic sources for other, including “dreaded energy dependence”.
Political movements, especially those that deem themselves traditionalists, need traditions. So what antecedents of those “organically pro-Western movements” could do between WWI and WWII, and during WWII? In a nutshell, they were between Hitler and Stalin, so they opted for Hitler if it was possible. And the epigones, while eager to be allies, were at times unseemly, so they had to be admonished from time to time to adorn their mugs using lipstick or lip service. For example, a video made rounds on Internet showing a visit of Latvian patriots in a Latvian preschool, demonstrating what kinds of weapons were used by the heroes of Latvian Legion (who fought against Soviet enemies, while all such ethnic units were placed by German under the umbrella of SS). Little tykes between 3 and 5 years old stared at a heavy machine gun, grenades etc. and later joined their young female teacher in singing a Latvian patriotic song. Organizers were duly admonished. Lipstick was used as required.
Sadly, ardent Ukrainian patriots have more traditions that Latvian, going back to Ukrainian Kossacks who were fighting Polish lords and each other, and as a result are quite anarchic. Organizationally, they resemble Frei Korps that predated fascists in Germany and who were squashed once Hitler got to power; while their murders and other acts of violence terrorized some Socialists and Communists, they could not be tolerated by a state where all violence had to be controlled from a single center. But Ukrainian state is too feeble to impose control, while those guys hate the very idea of lipstick and lip service, being real men. So occasional articles signal that more effort is required.
Of course, an article of that kind has to gloss over the fact that often cited electoral statistic do not represent the strength of the extreme nationalists. For starters, part of that strength is the ability to kill and intimidate. Secondly, they have members in the parliamentary representations of all major parties in the current Verkhovna Rada, and the minister of Interior that theoretically could take them to heel is one of them. The apparatus that could impose legal penalties that they richly deserve is infiltrated and terrorized.
Lastly, what types of sticks and carrots could be applied to Ukraine? On the stick side, that would “do a work for Putin”, a no-no. On the carrot side, Ukraine is too big to prosper with the hand-outs that the West can give. Thus the remaining sticks are un-enthusiastic articles that appear, however rarely, in the Western establishment press.
I wouldn’t count on this being the harbinger of a sea change by the American media re Russia. After all, they have already jumped on the preposterous Russia-poisoned-a-couple-more-Brits-with-Novichok bandwagon. Maybe the cited article is just planted to convince the public that the author or the venue is strictly “objective” when they come down like a ton of bricks on Trump if he makes any agreements with Putin during their summit. You know, “trust us to speak the truth about Ukraine, as we always have” after they blast Trump if he concedes any ground to Putin on Crimea or the Donbass.
Be especially wary of any commentary, as noted in the article, on the Jewish community supposedly blasting Russia for being the regional “fascists” when Israel sets the standard for fascistic oppression of their Palestinian populations. Moreover, Israel supplies weaponry and military advisors to the real fascists in Ukraine. The only true reveal in the article may be the de facto admission by Joshua Cohen that he loathes Ukrainians as much as he does Russians, which would be my educated guess just based on first principles. Based on the words I’ve usually heard uttered by his ilk, I’d say he probably viscerally hates all the indigenous peoples of Eastern Europe, because, as the standard quote goes, “antisemitism is in their mother’s milk.”
Don’t get your hopes up that this article represents a new hope for rapprochement between Russia and world Jewry, just because this author takes a swipe at the hatemongers in Kiev, who include actual descendants of the local hired help that ran the crematories for Hitler.
I agree. No rapprochement soon. Flight forward of several hundred years of trying to “get Russia” has momentum. However, “The People” could care less about the interest of big banks, corporations and their “intelligence” organization’s welfare. These have already lost. The ideas and principals of the “General Welfare” of “The People” is ascending. Our Franklin awakens: in China, in Russia.
Realist – I completely agree with your comments. As always your observations are always spot on.
Repprochement? Forget it. They have been after Russia for a very long time. There will be no let up until Russia and it’s resources come under the financial control of the Wall Street. This Trump-Putin meeting must be some kind of a trap set up to go after Russia with much more force than currently being employed with sanctions and with intensified information warfare. I don’t believe for a second that Western Europe wants reconciliation with Russia – just look at NATO policy/actions since 1991. Russians must be aware of all this – Russia has faced this threat from The West during most of their history.
Israel licenses Fort, the Ukrainian weapons company to produce rifles and these weapons will make it into Nazi hands eventually.
because, as the standard quote goes, “antisemitism is in their mother’s milk.”
I’ve seen this same racist* screed used by today’s Jews against today’s Germans too. What ticks me off is how this apparently is the same logic the Nazis used to justify genocide against the Jews: claims of genetic inferiority. A European saying similar things about Jews runs the risk of being labeled an anti-Semite, while a Jew saying the same about Europeans gets off scot-free. This double standard drives me crazy.
Quoth Nietzsche: “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster . . . when you gaze long into the abyss the abyss also gazes into you”.
*If this isn’t the right word to describe it, I’d be grateful for a better term.
is c14 related to m13?
And the rich people who run the United States are worse than the Nazis, who they learned many of their evil strategies from. The American people are asleep in their “greatest democracy on Earth”. It is no accident that Trump keeps a copy of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside.
Many many of the wealthiest Americans had to be convinced to withdraw their support of Hitler and the German Miracle … many were old enough to be “glad to see someone like Hitler stand up and make Germany “great again”” … for many the new borders of drawn after WWI merely proved that things — with enough of the right kind of pressure ($$$) could be (favorably) altered …. if not now, well, eventually …
All depending on what you value and hold dear I guess — hence neoliberalism as some unified theory/philosophy of “god’s will” …. when it’s so obviously blatantly self-interested for those who control the purse-strings.
I am hopeful some Americans will wake up to the problem of a “strong man” as leader as the secondary and tertiary effects of Trump’s tariffs hit home. (nuff sorry to bring Trump into it, except he embodies the simplistic black/white thinking that — as the Ukraine exemplifies — ignores history, even the history of one life span … (among other things)
Thanks all for so many brilliant posts … I learn so much from all of you!
Meine Omi hat immer gesagt, ” Kinder, nie mehr Krieg”. Translation my granny born in 1904 saw two world wars she said, children no more war. that would have been 1968 and I was 5 years old
yes, Merkel has referrenced the dying off of those who lived through and remember the Wars … those who remember what came before — the imperial European wars of the Empires and their collapse is long forgotten. Europe is being forced to chose between increasingly erratic and dangerous American NATO “protection” or reviving autonomous national defense (many countries of course contributed soldiers from their armies to various American coalitions …not.starting.from.scratch.) The ignored miracle of the “refugee crisis” has not been the few terrorist/terrorism related attacks, bu the absence of violence towards the refugees, either vigilante style or state sponsored, which I think is the specter that still haunts and keeps Merkel in the driver’s seat. Germany went through the 1980’s and 1990’s wrt immigrants and guest labor (and reunification) … most don’t even know what that signifies. How infuriating they insist on learning from history (be it ever so recent).
Mike, I think you mean Mussolini.
Trump is more like Mussolini than any president we’ve ever had.
The leaders of Israel who sell weapons to the Nazis in Ukraine, are no better than those Nazis.
for those having Alice In Wonderland whiplash, yes the USA was funding the Ukranian neonazis Azov Brigade before Congress banned the funding in March 2018.
https://therealnews.com/columns/the-us-is-arming-and-assisting-neo-nazis-in-ukraine-while-congress-debates-prohibition
which of course does not mean that others are not funding them and/or funding or simply “arming” their friends and allies
https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-arming-neo-nazis-ukraine/24876
same old “syrian playbook” wrt to enemy-of-my-memory bull….
I just love the leaders of Israel.
We (Obama) denied we were arming Syria for years … as he “begged” others to refrain … as the French send special forces and the Saudis and Emirates opened their purse and European governmnent turned a blind eye to all their young muslims eager to fight the good fight for ISIS, Islam, the caliphate and prophesy …. because incidentally, we assumed they would get rid of Assad for us …
The two-hour documentary “Putin” shows in an interview Pres. Putin explaining his government’s cooperating with the Western- supported Ukrainian government for four years (because they were neighbors and had many links) which he considered normal behavior. However, once the 2014 election brought in a more “Moscow-friendly” team to govern Ukraine, the USA began its plans to overthrow it and we see all the consequences shown in this article.
rosemerry,
….say, what? “Moscow friendly”????
Ukraine: Fascism’s toe-hold in Europe.
The tacit support given by the centre-left to the installation of the regime in Kiev should give them cause for concern writes Frank.
Politics in the Ukraine can only be understood by reference to its history and ethnic and cultural make-up – a make-up criss-crossed by lasting and entrenched ethnic, cultural and political differences. The country has long been split into the northern and western Ukraine, where Ukrainian is the official and everyday lingua franca, and the more industrialised regions of the east and south where a mixture of Russian speaking Ukrainians and ethnic Russians reside. Additionally, there has long been Hungarian and Romanian settlement in the west of the country, and a particularly important Polish presence, whose unofficial capital, Lviv, was once the Polish city of Lwow. The Russian Orthodox Church is the predominant form of Christianity in the East, whilst in the west the Christian tradition tends towards Roman Catholicism.
Politically the Eastern and Southern Oblasts (Regions) which includes the cities and centres of heavy industry, Kharkov, Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporozhe, Nikolayev, Kherson, Simferopol and Odessa, have tended to tilt towards Russia whilst the western regions have had a more western orientation. This has traditionally been reflected in the electoral division of the country. There is no party which can be considered ‘national’ in this respect, except ironically, the old Communist party, which of course is now banned. The major regional parties have been the Fatherland party of Yulia Tymoshenko (since renamed) and the former head of government, Arseniy Yatsenyuk as well as the ultra-nationalists predominantly in the west of the country, and the deposed Victor Yanukovich’s Party of the Regions in the East (now defunct) along with its junior partner in the coalition, the Ukrainian Communist Party.
However, what is new since the coup in February 2014 there has been the emergence from the shadows of ultra-nationalist (fascist) parties and movements, with both parliamentary and extra-parliamentary (i.e.,military) wings. In the main ‘Svoboda’ or Freedom Party, and the paramilitaries of ‘Right Sector’ (Fuhrer: Dimitry Yarosh) who spearheaded the coup in Kiev; these have been joined or changed their names to inter alia the Radical Party, and Patriots of the Ukraine; this in addition to the punitive right-wing militias, such as the Azov Regiment responsible for numerous atrocities in the Don Bas.
Suffice it to say, however, that these political movements and parties did not emerge from nowhere.
This far-right tradition has been historically very strong in the western Ukraine. The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) was first established in 1929 and brought together, war veterans, student fraternities, far-right groups and various other disoriented socially and political flotsam and jetsam under its banner. The OUN took its ideological position from the writings of one, Dymtro Dontsov, who, like Mussolini had been a socialist, and who was instrumental in creating an indigenous Ukrainian fascism based upon the usual mish-mash of writings and theories including Friedrich Nietzsche, Georges Sorel, and Charles Maurras. Dontsov also translated the works of Hitler and Mussolini into Ukrainian.
The OUN was committed to ethnic purity, and relied on violence, assassination and terrorism, not least against other Ukrainians, to achieve its goal of a totalitarian and homogeneous nation-state. Assorted enemies and impediments to this goal were Communists, Russians, Poles, and of course – Jews. Strongly oriented toward the Axis powers OUN founder Evhen Konovalets (1891-1938) stated that his movement was ‘’waging war against mixed marriages’’, with Poles, Russians and Jews, the latter which he described as ‘’foes of our national rebirth’’. Indeed, rabid anti-Semitism has been a leitmotif in the history of Ukrainian fascism, which we will return to below.
Konovelts himself was assassinated by a KGB hit-man in 1938 after which the movement split into two wings: (OUN-m) under Andrii Melnyk and, more importantly for our purposes (OUN-b) under Stepan Bandera. Both wings committed to a new fascist Europe. Upon the German invasion in June 1941, the OUN-b attempted to establish a Ukrainian satellite state loyal to Nazi Germany. Stepan Lenkavs’kyi the then chief propagandist of the OUN-b ‘government’ advocated the physical destruction of Ukrainian Jewry. OUN-b’s ‘Prime Minister’ Yaroslav Stets’ko, and deputy to Bandera supported, ‘’the destruction of the Jews and the expedience of bringing German methods of exterminating Jewry to Ukraine, barring their assimilation and the like.’’
During the early days of the rapid German advance into the Soviet Union there were some 140 pogroms in the western Ukraine claiming the lives of between 13000-35000 people (Untermensch, in fascist terminology). In 1943-1944 OUN-b and its armed wing the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainska povstanska armia – UPA) carried out large scale ethnic cleansing resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands; this was a particularly gruesome affair in Volhynia where some 90000 Poles and thousands of Jews were murdered. The campaign of the UPA continued well into the 1950s until it was virtually wiped out by the Soviet forces.
It should be said that during this early period Bandera himself had been incarcerated by the German authorities up until his release in 1944, since unlike Bandera they were not enamoured of an independent Ukrainian state but wanted total control. Bandera was only released at this late date since the German high command was endeavouring to build up a pro-German Ukrainian quisling military force to hold up the remorseless advance of the Red Army. Also pursuant to this it is also worth noting that during this period the 14th Galizian Waffen SS Division, a military Ukrainian collaborationist formation established by Heinrich Himmler, was formed to fight the Soviet forces, and yet another being the Nachtingal brigade; (1) this unit was integrated into the 14th Galizian in due course. It is also interesting to note, that every year, and up to 2014 commemoration ceremony including veterans of this unit takes place with a march through Lviv in an evening torchlight parade – genuine Nazi pastiche. The flag of this unit is not dissimilar to the Peugeot logo, the standing lion, and can be seen at ultra-nationalist rallies as well as football matches involving Lviv Karparti FC. There are also numerous statues of Bandera across Ukraine, and since the 2014 coup even street names bearing the same name. Significantly the UPA have now received political rehabilitation from the Kiev Junta, with Bandera declared a hero of the Ukraine and the UPA rebranded as ‘freedom fighters.’ One particularly splendid statue of Bandera stands proudly in Lviv and is usually adorned with flowers.
Other novel attractions the capital of Banderestan include ‘Jewish themed restaurants’ one such is Kryivka (Hideout or Lurking Hole) where guests have a choice of dishes and whose dinning walls are decorated with larger than life portraits of Bandera, the toilet with Russian and Jewish anecdotes. At another Jewish themed restaurant guests are offered black hats of the sort worn by Hasidim. The menu lists no prices for the dishes; instead, one is required to haggle over highly inflated prices ‘’in the Jewish fashion’’. Yes, it’s all good clean fun in Lviv. Anti-Semitism also sells. Out of 19 book vendors on the streets of central Lviv, 16 were openly selling anti-Semitic literature. About 70% of the anti-Semitic publications in Ukraine are being published by and educational institution called MUAP (The Inter-Regional Academy of Personnel Management). MAUP is a large, well-connected and increasingly powerful organization funded from outside anti-Semite sources, and also connected to White Supremacist groups in the USA and to the David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
(It is one of the ironies of history that if the Zionists in AIPAC and the Washington neo-con think tanks, and the Labour Party Friends of Israel, were so concerned about anti-Semitism, they might try looking for it in Lviv. They wouldn’t have to search very far.)
Present day neo-Nazi groupings in Ukraine – Svoboda (Freedom) party and Right Sector – have been the direct descendants from the prior ideological cesspool. Heading Svoboda is Oleh Tyahnybok. Although these are separate organizations Tyahnybok’s deputy Yuriy Mykhalchyshyn is the main link between Svoboda’s official wing and neo-Nazi militias like Right Sector. The Social-Nationalist party as it was formerly known chose as its logo an amended version of the Wolfsangel, a symbol used by many SS divisions on the Eastern front during the war who in 2004 a celebration of the OUN-UPA, stated in 2004, that ‘’they fought against the Muscovite, Germans, Jews and other scum who wanted to take away our Ukrainian state.’’ And further that ‘’Ukraine was ruled by a Muscovite-Jewish mafia.’’ Tyahnybok came under pressure from the then President, Yuschenko, to retract his inflammatory statements, which he did, but he then retracted the retraction!
Given the fact that Svoboda was, apart from its stamping grounds in the west, making little national electoral headway, it was essential to clean up its image and deny its Nazi past. But this was always going to be difficult since the members of such groups cannot help the unscripted outbursts and faux pas which they tend to make and which reveals their true colours. For example, following the conviction and sentencing of John Demjanjuk to five years in jail for his role as an accessory to the murder of 27,900 people at the Sobibor death camp, Tyahnybok travelled to Germany and met up with Demjanjuk’s lawyer, presenting the death camp guard as a hero, a victim of persecution ‘’who is fighting for truth’’.
And so it goes on. We can therefore infer that this organization is inveterate fascist. More disturbing Svoboda has links with the so-called Alliance of National European Movements, which includes: Nationaldemokraterna of Sweden, Front Nationale of France, Fiamma Tricolore in Italy, the Hungarian Jobbik and the Belgian National Front. More importantly Svoboda held several ministerial portfolios in the Kiev administration, and Right Sector swaggers around Kiev streets with impunity, and/or are being drafted into a National Guard to deal with the separatist movements in the east, or to beat down anyone who doesn’t conform to their Ayran racial and political ideals.
One would have thought that this mutating revolution in the Ukraine would have drawn attention of the centre-left to the fact that fascism had gained a vital beachhead in Europe, and that the danger signals should be flashing. But not a bit of it; a perusal of the Guardian newspaper quickly reveals that their chief concern has been with a non-existent ‘Russian threat’. One of their reporters – or old friend, Luke Harding -described Right Sector as an ‘’eccentric group of people with unpleasant right-wing views.’’ Priceless! This must rank as the political understatement of the century. In fact, the Guardian was simply reiterating the US-imposed neo-conservative foreign policy. But naturally, this is par for the course.
(1) The Nachtingal brigade, which was later incorporated into the SS Galizien, took part in a three-day massacre of the Jewish population of Lvov (now Lviv) from 30 June 1941. Roman Shukhevych was the commander of the Nachtingal and later, in 1943, became commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (the “Banderivtsy”, or UPA/UIA[5] ), armed henchmen of the fascist Stepan Bandera, who after the war pretended that they had fought both Nazis and Communists. Members of the division are also accused of having murdered some 800 residents of the Polish village of Huta Pieniacka and 44 civilians in the village of Ch?aniów.
Fascism is fine with oligarchs as long as it is their particular faction that controls it. That appears to be the battle we are seeing play out. In the process, millions of innocents are killed. Economic democracy would undercut the fascist system.
Great write up!! Thank you.
Just for the record: the Ukrainians hailed the Nazis as liberators after the Soviets had let millions of Ukrainians die of hunger in the thirties, a sort of “genocide” that goes under the name of Holodomor and has officially been recognized by western Parlaments only a few decades ago. In eastern Ukraine there were no more inhabitants after the Holodomor, and the Russians imported hundreds of thousand peasants from Russia to get agriculture working again.
The problems of Ukraine are so deep that fomenting regime change there was a most idiotic thing to do. Sooner or later the problems will explode, and it will be tough shit. Whoever helped this regime change should be locked up in some high security jail as far as possible.
That would be former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Asian Affairs Victoria Nuland, Former Ambassador to Ukraine Jeffrey Pyatt, Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President of the United States Barack Obama. Lock ’em up!
> Just for the record: the Ukrainians hailed the Nazis as liberators after the Soviets had let millions of Ukrainians
> die of hunger in the thirties, a sort of “genocide” that goes under the name of Holodomor
But it is reported that even more non-Ukrainians died in this famine, so even assuming it was all the result of a deliberate government policy, it hardly qualifies as genocide, but “merely” as mass murder or mass manslaughter.
Ukraine: Fascism’s toe-hold in Europe.
The tacit support given by the centre-left to the installation of the regime in Kiev should give them cause for concern.
Politics in the Ukraine can only be understood by reference to its history and ethnic and cultural make-up – a make-up criss-crossed by lasting and entrenched ethnic, cultural and political differences. The country has long been split into the northern and western Ukraine, where Ukrainian is the official and everyday lingua franca, and the more industrialised regions of the east and south where a mixture of Russian speaking Ukrainians and ethnic Russians reside. Additionally, there has long been Hungarian and Romanian settlement in the west of the country, and a particularly important Polish presence, whose unofficial capital, Lviv, was once the Polish city of Lwow. The Russian Orthodox Church is the predominant form of Christianity in the East, whilst in the west the Christian tradition tends towards Roman Catholicism.
Politically the Eastern and Southern Oblasts (Regions) which includes the cities and centres of heavy industry, Kharkov, Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporozhe, Nikolayev, Kherson, Simferopol and Odessa, have tended to tilt towards Russia whilst the western regions have had a more western orientation. This has traditionally been reflected in the electoral division of the country. There is no party which can be considered ‘national’ in this respect, except ironically, the old Communist party, which of course is now banned. The major regional parties have been the Fatherland party of Yulia Tymoshenko (since renamed) and the former head of government, Arseniy Yatsenyuk as well as the ultra-nationalists predominantly in the west of the country, and the deposed Victor Yanukovich’s Party of the Regions in the East (now defunct) along with its junior partner in the coalition, the Ukrainian Communist Party.
However, what is new since the coup in February 2014 there has been the emergence from the shadows of ultra-nationalist (fascist) parties and movements, with both parliamentary and extra-parliamentary (i.e.,military) wings. In the main ‘Svoboda’ or Freedom Party, and the paramilitaries of ‘Right Sector’ (Fuhrer: Dimitry Yarosh) who spearheaded the coup in Kiev; these have been joined or changed their names to inter alia the Radical Party, and Patriots of the Ukraine; this in addition to the punitive right-wing militias, such as the Azov Regiment responsible for numerous atrocities in the Don Bas.
Suffice it to say, however, that these political movements and parties did not emerge from nowhere.
This far-right tradition has been historically very strong in the western Ukraine. The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) was first established in 1929 and brought together, war veterans, student fraternities, far-right groups and various other disoriented socially and political flotsam and jetsam under its banner. The OUN took its ideological position from the writings of one, Dymtro Dontsov, who, like Mussolini had been a socialist, and who was instrumental in creating an indigenous Ukrainian fascism based upon the usual mish-mash of writings and theories including Friedrich Nietzsche, Georges Sorel, and Charles Maurras. Dontsov also translated the works of Hitler and Mussolini into Ukrainian.
The OUN was committed to ethnic purity, and relied on violence, assassination and terrorism, not least against other Ukrainians, to achieve its goal of a totalitarian and homogeneous nation-state. Assorted enemies and impediments to this goal were Communists, Russians, Poles, and of course – Jews. Strongly oriented toward the Axis powers OUN founder Evhen Konovalets (1891-1938) stated that his movement was ‘’waging war against mixed marriages’’, with Poles, Russians and Jews, the latter which he described as ‘’foes of our national rebirth’’. Indeed, rabid anti-Semitism has been a leitmotif in the history of Ukrainian fascism, which we will return to below.
Konovelts himself was assassinated by a KGB hit-man in 1938 after which the movement split into two wings: (OUN-m) under Andrii Melnyk and, more importantly for our purposes (OUN-b) under Stepan Bandera. Both wings committed to a new fascist Europe. Upon the German invasion in June 1941, the OUN-b attempted to establish a Ukrainian satellite state loyal to Nazi Germany. Stepan Lenkavs’kyi the then chief propagandist of the OUN-b ‘government’ advocated the physical destruction of Ukrainian Jewry. OUN-b’s ‘Prime Minister’ Yaroslav Stets’ko, and deputy to Bandera supported, ‘’the destruction of the Jews and the expedience of bringing German methods of exterminating Jewry to Ukraine, barring their assimilation and the like.’’
During the early days of the rapid German advance into the Soviet Union there were some 140 pogroms in the western Ukraine claiming the lives of between 13000-35000 people (Untermensch, in fascist terminology). In 1943-1944 OUN-b and its armed wing the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainska povstanska armia – UPA) carried out large scale ethnic cleansing resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands; this was a particularly gruesome affair in Volhynia where some 90000 Poles and thousands of Jews were murdered. The campaign of the UPA continued well into the 1950s until it was virtually wiped out by the Soviet forces.
It should be said that during this early period Bandera himself had been incarcerated by the German authorities up until his release in 1944, since unlike Bandera they were not enamoured of an independent Ukrainian state but wanted total control. Bandera was only released at this late date since the German high command was endeavouring to build up a pro-German Ukrainian quisling military force to hold up the remorseless advance of the Red Army. Also pursuant to this it is also worth noting that during this period the 14th Galizian Waffen SS Division, a military Ukrainian collaborationist formation established by Heinrich Himmler, was formed to fight the Soviet forces, and yet another being the Nachtingal brigade; (1) this unit was integrated into the 14th Galizian in due course. It is also interesting to note, that every year, and up to 2014 commemoration ceremony including veterans of this unit takes place with a march through Lviv in an evening torchlight parade – genuine Nazi pastiche. The flag of this unit is not dissimilar to the Peugeot logo, the standing lion, and can be seen at ultra-nationalist rallies as well as football matches involving Lviv Karparti FC. There are also numerous statues of Bandera across Ukraine, and since the 2014 coup even street names bearing the same name. Significantly the UPA have now received political rehabilitation from the Kiev Junta, with Bandera declared a hero of the Ukraine and the UPA rebranded as ‘freedom fighters.’ One particularly splendid statue of Bandera stands proudly in Lviv and is usually adorned with flowers.
Other novel attractions the capital of Banderestan include ‘Jewish themed restaurants’ one such is Kryivka (Hideout or Lurking Hole) where guests have a choice of dishes and whose dinning walls are decorated with larger than life portraits of Bandera, the toilet with Russian and Jewish anecdotes. At another Jewish themed restaurant guests are offered black hats of the sort worn by Hasidim. The menu lists no prices for the dishes; instead, one is required to haggle over highly inflated prices ‘’in the Jewish fashion’’. Yes, it’s all good clean fun in Lviv. Anti-Semitism also sells. Out of 19 book vendors on the streets of central Lviv, 16 were openly selling anti-Semitic literature. About 70% of the anti-Semitic publications in Ukraine are being published by and educational institution called MUAP (The Inter-Regional Academy of Personnel Management). MAUP is a large, well-connected and increasingly powerful organization funded from outside anti-Semite sources, and also connected to White Supremacist groups in the USA and to the David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
(It is one of the ironies of history that if the Zionists in AIPAC and the Washington neo-con think tanks, and the Labour Party Friends of Israel, were so concerned about anti-Semitism, they might try looking for it in Lviv. They wouldn’t have to search very far.)
Present day neo-Nazi groupings in Ukraine – Svoboda (Freedom) party and Right Sector – have been the direct descendants from the prior ideological cesspool. Heading Svoboda is Oleh Tyahnybok. Although these are separate organizations Tyahnybok’s deputy Yuriy Mykhalchyshyn is the main link between Svoboda’s official wing and neo-Nazi militias like Right Sector. The Social-Nationalist party as it was formerly known chose as its logo an amended version of the Wolfsangel, a symbol used by many SS divisions on the Eastern front during the war who in 2004 a celebration of the OUN-UPA, stated in 2004, that ‘’they fought against the Muscovite, Germans, Jews and other scum who wanted to take away our Ukrainian state.’’ And further that ‘’Ukraine was ruled by a Muscovite-Jewish mafia.’’ Tyahnybok came under pressure from the then President, Yuschenko, to retract his inflammatory statements, which he did, but he then retracted the retraction!
Given the fact that Svoboda was, apart from its stamping grounds in the west, making little national electoral headway, it was essential to clean up its image and deny its Nazi past. But this was always going to be difficult since the members of such groups cannot help the unscripted outbursts and faux pas which they tend to make and which reveals their true colours. For example, following the conviction and sentencing of John Demjanjuk to five years in jail for his role as an accessory to the murder of 27,900 people at the Sobibor death camp, Tyahnybok travelled to Germany and met up with Demjanjuk’s lawyer, presenting the death camp guard as a hero, a victim of persecution ‘’who is fighting for truth’’.
And so it goes on. We can therefore infer that this organization is inveterate fascist. More disturbing Svoboda has links with the so-called Alliance of National European Movements, which includes: Nationaldemokraterna of Sweden, Front Nationale of France, Fiamma Tricolore in Italy, the Hungarian Jobbik and the Belgian National Front. More importantly Svoboda held several ministerial portfolios in the Kiev administration, and Right Sector swaggers around Kiev streets with impunity, and/or are being drafted into a National Guard to deal with the separatist movements in the east, or to beat down anyone who doesn’t conform to their Ayran racial and political ideals.
One would have thought that this mutating revolution in the Ukraine would have drawn attention of the centre-left to the fact that fascism had gained a vital beachhead in Europe, and that the danger signals should be flashing. But not a bit of it; a perusal of the Guardian newspaper quickly reveals that their chief concern has been with a non-existent ‘Russian threat’. One of their reporters – or old friend, Luke Harding -described Right Sector as an ‘’eccentric group of people with unpleasant right-wing views.’’ Priceless! This must rank as the political understatement of the century. In fact, the Guardian was simply reiterating the US-imposed neo-conservative foreign policy. But naturally, this is par for the course.
(1) The Nachtingal brigade, which was later incorporated into the SS Galizien, took part in a three-day massacre of the Jewish population of Lvov (now Lviv) from 30 June 1941. Roman Shukhevych was the commander of the Nachtingal and later, in 1943, became commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (the “Banderivtsy”, or UPA/UIA[5] ), armed henchmen of the fascist Stepan Bandera, who after the war pretended that they had fought both Nazis and Communists. Members of the division are also accused of having murdered some 800 residents of the Polish village of Huta Pieniacka and 44 civilians in the village of Ch?aniów.
Israel is arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-arming-neo-nazis-ukraine/24876
Thanks for the link, Mike Morrison.
Another successful US Coup to be ticked off the list by the American Govt, such as what happened in Ukraine! And US support of Nazi’s to achieve this, no problem as we created ISIS & ISIL & we arm Terrorists to the teeth to fight Assad in Syria! It never ceases to amaze me how America has the absolute, bare faced cheek & hypocrisy to accuse other Countries such as Russia of election meddling! It’s the pot calling the kettle black scenario! For decades America has meddled in other Nations affairs either by supporting Tyrants & Dictators or committing illegal Wars & coups to overthrow democratically elected Govts & their Leaders! Anyone who offers resistance to US tyranny such as Cuba, Iran, Venezuela etc are sanctioned with soft power means to overthrow them in order to force compliance with US demands or face economic ruin! Or hard power is used such as Military intervention in Iraq, Afghanistan & Libya! Only Russia & China stand in the way to stop this illegal behaviour & are spearheading the way to a multipolar world & Trump is accelerating America’s decline & isolation which will be a great thing for every Peace loving person on Earth who are sick to death of US interference & Warmongering in other Nations affairs! Make America mind it’s own business again & stop waging war, should be Trump’s motto!
The big lie is 180° opposite of reality repeated over and over using free corporate propaganda.
So true, KiwiAntz.
You may want to catch the “Russian Military Strategy” report by the Rand Corporation, the think tank the MIC heeds. The report says without equivocation that the “coming war” with Russia will not be short as Putin thinks but the US will press on for as long as the war takes until Russia runs out of any ways and means to resist. Then the US will have won the inevitable war. My god, it was the most chilling hour of my life in a long time. Two people calmly presented the report and none of the 50 or so people in the room even questioned the coming of the war. The presenters noted that the US spreads its war strategy, unlike Russia, all over the world. This was quietly admitted more than once.
I’ve come to despise the USA.
Rand Corporation is based here in Santa Monica near Los Angeles. The people like the two who made the presentation are infected with some kind of insanity. And they have no human feelings of love or feelings for humanity left in them; they are very sick people.
There are two worlds in America now. One World in which people like that live, and we live in that World too. Just a few miles from Santa Monica is another World which they never care to look at. In that world ten people may be living in one bedroom apartment. And in some of that World you can not venture to go at night, and it is not a pleasant experience to go during the day either. And there is miles and miles of this World here in Southern California. It is not here in Southern California only. Most of the cities in the Midwest and else where are like that. I lived in Detroit and in that area during 60’s and 70’s and go back every other year or so since then.
There are so many problems waiting to be solved here. It is difficult to even imagine what can be done about the concentration of power in the hands of few, a very small minority, which has happened gradually in the last four decades or so.
Kudos to Daniel Lazare for continuing the truth-telling about the US-engineered (not-so neo) Nazi coup in Ukraine. The great Robert Perry never ceased to write that truth.
Every time I see the phrase “Putin invaded Crimea” (or something similar) in the MSM amen corner reporting on Ukraine or Putin, it is the “tell” that lies and propaganda are being spewed.
Time to flood the State Dept with letters!
Cohen got another piece on the topic published by the Atlantic Council. The droll headline reads:
“Ukraine’s Got a Real Problem with Far-Right Violence (And No, RT Didn’t Write This Headline)”
So at least they’re a little self-conscious about the about-face.
The Maidan affair was planned, organized and financed by the USA. This was not the first time we tried to have regime change in Ukraine. In 2004 we organized “the orange revolution”, but it did not succeed. So this time we came better prepared. We brought in armed thugs. We used Sloboda and Right Sector, brought the paid scum to Hotel Ukraina and ordered them to shoot police and “demonstrators” to set the putch in motion to oust the elected president of Ukraine. These are proven facts. there are intercepted phone conversations that confirm them. The Foreing ministers of germany, France and Poland met with President Yanukovich and signed an agreement. He was going to form a new government and have early elections in December. But the USA did not like that. So Ms NUland, the Assistant Secretary for European Affairs called and told our Ambassador in Kiev “fuck the EU. We want Yatseniuk to be the Prime minister”. So the putch was set in motion to make sure this time we will get what we wanted. Another phone call was intercepted. The EU Minister of Foreign Affairs called the Foreign Minister of Estonia who had just come back from a visit to Ukraine and asked him what learned. “I was told, he said, that all the shooting that killed civilians and policemen came fro the hotel Ukraina, which was occupied by Sloboda and Righe Sector”, “I know”, she replied. But as far as the US press and media, nothing reported. Really shameful.
Not sure how this article could be written without the role of Victoria Nuland and the US State Department discussed. Without America propping up these NAZIs, Ukraine could not have been destabilized, and divided between an uncaring EU and a historic protector in Russia.
Not the first time either they used Nazis as their lackeys. Aside from the several Nazi helpers after the war, that they pardoned because they promised to help the USA instead, they also used them for what they do best in Gladio. I wouldnt be surprised if even the NSU is a new version of Gladio in Germany. Evidence points to that direction for sure.
Demetri,
People at the time of the bombshell leaked phone conversation – between Estonia’s Urmas Paet and the E.U.’s Catherine Ashton, (mistakenly … and big time) believed the false flag coup blaming Yanukovich for the “Maidan Massacre” was totally blown out of the water. People in the West believed the propaganda Yanukovich massacred his own people, then Paet reveals it was “the opposition” responsible for the killings of both Ukraine police and civilians – certainly THE story at that point in the unfolding development of the Ukraine turmoil – , yet astonishingly not a single Western corporate media reported on the phone call.
Also astonishing was the (non)response during the call of Ms. Ashton after hearing Paet’s facts. She un-energetically responded as if Paet had just told her he had a “wonderful breakfast this morning” instead of the whole Western narrative on Ukraine is dead wrong, something on the lines of “Oh, I didn’t know that…”, leaving it at that and without showing any (what would be expected) surprise, or curiosity by asking for much more detailed information. Ms. Ashton by her bizarre, completely unaffected response to what was absolutely shocking information at the time leads one to think she knew the truth about Maidan and the coup well before she took the call from Paet.
It was most certainly a profound lesson learned in the ability of the media and politicians to bury the largest, most important sets of facts imaginable – intentionally and maliciously with respect to the people’s right to know the fullest historical truth. Unfortunately, that capacity for “burying facts” has continued up until today, making Consortium News and other genuine truth-focused media platforms all the more necessary for exposing the lies.
Peace.
The EU is just as complicit as the US; this is a Trans-Atlantic Empire cobbled together Post-WWII from newly acquired ( non-existent before WWII) American military might and the ruling classes from the former British, French, and Dutch Empires, and German and Italian ruling classes, shorn of overt fascism, now to be used for consolidating their power in cooperation rather than competition ( which only lead to nasty world wars), centered in a EU, commanding an American military as its Legions, to bring as much of the World (their former colonies) into their Global Empire as possible. The smart Ukrainians looked East, toward Russia and China and New Silk Road Policies of development. The less smart Ukrainians looked West to become an undeveloped, breadbasket Province of the Trans-Atlantic Empire of global dimensions. That is what launched the Regime change; to keep the Ukraine looking West, not East (where the future of the World is now being narrated…Trump knows this too, and is looking East toward development, via resolving Korean crisis, meetings with Xi and with Putin on July 16th).
Can the whereabouts of Stepan Bandera be ascertained during the period 1924-1944, when his organization was involved in the massacres in Volhynia that are cited? I have read he was in German detention during that period as the Nazi’s feared he was actually backing an independent Ukraine free of German control. Re: Wikipedia, the author of these killings is not Bandera, but one Mikola Lebed. Do the demonstrators march around with pictures of Lebed?
Wrong, Bandera was in german custody for about 12 months. He freely worked with the Nazis otherwise. The SS Galizian division consisted of 12,000 Ukrainians who saw him as their leader. Lebed was also a follower. Wikipedia for this story is not a good place to find out about the Ukrainian Nazi collaborators.
Look at the picture of the party’s leader It might seem that he is emulating nazi’s greeting or that he might merely pointing at somebody who is addressed to him with a question Speaking of neo nazis Yes its a dangerous precedent to revive those “traditions” but unlike red Khmers Commies or other affiliated organizations they didn’t put to sleep millions of people and even though they are claiming something so far it’s only a war with monuments not people See the difference Mr Cohen And btw passive aggressiveness is much more dangerous that stupid stunts
>> so far it’s only a war with monuments not people <<
" In the earlier stages of the civil war, for instance, the rightwing extremists burned more than 40 people alive in a labor union building in Odessa, a horrific incident downplayed by Western media."
It wasn’t Right Sector it was Yatseniuk who ascribed World War II as the Soviet Union’s invasion of Germany and Ukraine, and who criticized his own removal from office by comparing electoral politics to the Fuehrer Principle.
It was Dutch/American-owned TV channel Hromadske that broadcast a discussion of how many people in the south-east were “surplus to requirements” and would have to be killed.
A grim haha. At least we now known where to find a telltale bellwether for how establishment is rolling. Joshua Cohen has disgraced himself and misled those searching for objective discourse. Great research and reporting here though.
I’ll keep this brief, because I already got blue in the face back in 2014 trying to point out many, if not more of the things covered in this article. Y’all need, first of all, to knock off that “neo” stuff. These people are not “neo” anything. They are bona fide originals. The leadership operating in Ukraine today exhibits an unbroken heritage of loyalty to and association with the OUN-B, Stepan Bandera, Yaroslav Stetsko and the Einsatzgruppen “death squads” of WWII. Some of them, in their nineties now, still dress up in their Wehrmacht uniforms and participate in the rallies and torchlight parades. Poroshenko is no “innocent bystander”, either. Between Pravy Sektor, Svoboda, the Social Nationalist Party and Andrey Parubiy, what we’re talking about here is re-activation of the old guard, not a new movement. Now that they are openly conducting pogroms against Roma people and others, that should be fairly obvious. “Toria” Nuland and her neocon cronies put a Nazi regime in control of a country right on Russia’s border. You gotta be nuttier than a family size jar of Skippy to pull off a stunt like that.
http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-779-ounb-redux-the-underground-reich-and-the-ukrainian-crisis/
Thank you.
Not to gainsay the Ukrainian putschists’
“bona fides” as original Nazis, but we at least need to tip our hats to the influence of U.S. white supremacists in the intervening decades, since that whole “Fourteen Words” business is made in the USA.
F. G. Sanford, many thanks for your long time and deadly accurate commentary on this truly remarkable site. When you first commented on this aspect of German history, I thought surely he’s wrong but like so much of my personal history education, I’ve found that what I was taught, is wrong. I’ve spent a great deal of time researching JFK’s Assassination because, like Forrest Gump I found myself constantly at the wrong place at the wrong time. Upon research and deep reflection, even with skeptical reflection, I still have to be convinced that the media is as bad as it is. I’m fighting my way through a very rare English version of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “Two Hundred Years Together” learning once again that History is an elusive subject.
Again, Many Thanks…
I has to be a combination of hubris and good old fashion American ignorance that would lead the lunatics who carried this coup out to not comprehend just how insane this provocation of Russia was/is.
A Petition for Julian Assange was started July 1. There’s a time limit to require an official response, so it really needs to pick up steam. To defend freedom of speech and the press, please sign and promote to your friends.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/drop-charges-and-allegations-well-grand-jury-against-julian-assange-and-wikileaks
The relentless attacks on Assange and Wikileaks threatens the future of a free press that is the bulwark of democracy.
Drop Charges and Allegations As Well As Grand Jury
I get an error message when I try to sign the petition.
Still scratching my head at the electric last line of Mr. Lazare’s piece. I’m mean, I’m used to “official” organs like WaPo and NYT publishing whatever narrative is most helpful to whatever pieces are being moved on the chessboard, but for the same “freelance journalist” to have written both the earlier Foreign Policy piece and the recent WaPo piece is a puzzle to me. Does Joshua Cohen just write stuff that goes with the flow (at any particular moment) and has a good chance of being published (and consequently of himself being paid)? Or did this person really have an epiphany, and the scales fell from his eyes? I suspect a third explanation though what that may be eludes me. One thing is for sure, as a Trump/Putin meeting gets closer, expect more false “official” narratives concerning both Ukraine and Syria.
https://off-guardian.org/2018/01/11/documentary-ukraine-on-fire-2016/
For anyone who hasn’t watched this film yet.
Thanks for the link. I finally was able to watch Stone’s piece.
‘The U.S.-backed “Euromaidan” uprising not only drove out former president Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014, who had won an OSCE-certified election, but tore the country in two, precisely because ultra-rightists like C14 were in the lead … But if one had to choose the looniest story of all, one that best reflects the abject toadyism of the reporting classes, it would have to be “Why Jews and Ukrainians Have Become Unlikely Allies,” a 1,400-word article that ran on the Post-owned Foreign Policy website in May 2014.’
Here’s the thing though: however weird it may sound, there actually DOES seem to exist some sort of tacit alliance between (some, not all) Jews and Ukrainian Nazis. Even if their ultimate goals are completely at odds–the Nazis hate the EU, but the Jews mostly want to join it–they nearly always seem to work together against Russia. It has even been maintained that the Azov Battalion (one of the all-volunteer Neo-Nazi militias fighting against the Donbass rebels) was entirely financed for a time by Jewish oligarch Ihor Kholomoisky, at least until he did something to piss Poroshenko off and got sacked from his post as governor of Dniepropetrovsk. And in the beginning, Jews who tried to point out that Neo-Nazi groups were involved in overthrowing Yanukovych, like Dr. Stephen Cohen, were roundly denounced a ‘Russia apologists’ just for stating facts.
But now that Washington’s whole Ukraine project has gone south, I guess the Nazis, having outlived their usefulness, are, as usual, to be the fall-guys and take all the blame.
yeh, the Kaganat of Nuland has many veils.
The most stunning aspect of the banderite putsch in Kiev was the dead silence of nazi-hunters from Wiesenthal Center, the always oh-so-sensitive ADL, the main 52 (fifty-two!) American Jewish organizations, and the overall docility and compliance of the “righteous” Israel with the banderite-neo-Nazi ideology by Kagans-selected power structures in Ukraine.
Mr. Kolomojsky, a financier of neo-nazi battalion Azov, is still an Israeli citizen.
Mrs. Nuland-Kagan, the main machinator of the regime change in Kiev, has not been ostracized by the Jewish Community at large.
The deeply amoral and bloodthirsty Carl Gerschman from NED, who has been the main cheerleader for the putsch and for the installing the banderite-friendly government in Kiev, has not been ostracized by the Jewish Community at large either. What a stench!
https://medium.com/@gmochannel/us-staged-a-coup-in-ukraine-brief-history-and-facts-898c6d0007d6
Yeah. The prime minister and many of the top oligarchs are Jewish. Relations between Ukraine and Israel seem quite good despite the UNSC vote that the US abstained on regarding Israeli settlements in the West Bank, perhaps reminded by Stalin doing the same to them in the 1920’s.
As for relations with the neo nazis I remember before WWII that Zionists in Palestine cooperated with Nazis who sent German Jews to Palestine in return for the purchase of German goods which were being boycotted by Jews in the west
I suspect most Americans dont know Ukranian history. The early years of Bolshevik rule were quite brutal and over 10 million rural Christians lost their lives in Ukraine over their policies .Solzhenitsyn 200 years can shed some light on the roots of the antisemitism among the peasants that developed in the 20’s-30’s and no doubt has been passed on.
I’ve thought about this myself and have concluded that a fair number of Jewish organizations and institutions in the Ukraine were receiving a small portion of the US State Department funding allocated to the Ukraine each year of $200-250 million, totaling $5 billion since 1992. In return for this rather small (by US standards) outlay to a broad spectrum of NGOs, private educational and religious institutions, and political groups, the US purchased an enormous amount of influence. Most of the members of these groups were unaware of this US support, as the funds were funneled through individual leaders who were tasked to influence opinion, organize demonstrations and petitions, and write letters to the press and government members. Scholarships to the US and Canada were offered to promising youth to ensure continuity of support. For this reason, most Jewish and other groups operating in Ukraine have, until recently and only with reluctance, been willing to deviate from the official US “story”. Thus, they knowingly (at least as far as their leadership was concerned) supported an overtly US-led neo-Nazi coup.
Makes sense that Josh Cohen is a former U.S. Agency for International Development project officer involved in managing economic reform projects in the former Soviet Union. Isn’t that really what this is all about? Putin gets elected and takes charge of the economy, jailing corrupt oligarchs and putting the kibosh on said reform projects sponsored by us in care of Jeffrey Sachs et al. As Russia tries to reassert its sovereignty the US gets miffed and retaliates.
It’s a lot of fun until someone loses an eye.
The Electronic Intifada has just posted an article by Asa Winstanley detailing how Israel, among others, has been supplying the Ukrainian Azov Battalion with military arms. It’s well worth reading.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-arming-neo-nazis-ukraine/24876
The next time you hear a pro-Israel mouthpiece sounding off about purported antisemitism in the British Labour Party, or in pro-Palestinine activist circles in the U.S., invite them to consider Israel’s policy- and that of the U.S. as well as friendly European states- of direct military sponsorship of textbook Nazism in Ukraine. Jews are being menaced and beaten in the streets of Kiev by armed bands who celebrate their historical persecution, while thugs like Avigdor Lieberman sit cordially with officials representing that regime. But then, such warm relations between Zionists and anti-Semites is an old story.
Well said.
Interesting. Anyone with two brains to rub together knows that the US, to the best of it’s ability, has been surrounding Russia with compliant right wing governments, usually dictators, but we’ve gotten better at manipulating elections to get reliable puppet government. The bad news is that it is a full time job to stay on top of that.
It used to be that the only things one could depend on were “death & taxes.” Now of course we must add to that list the very dependable presence of CIA / State Dept lies parroted by MSM all over the West. Lies which are endlessly repeated in defiance of all physical reality and often in direct opposition to actual events in the actual world we live in. From the Ukraine coup, to Russia-gate, to the “Assad’s gassing his own people” regime change propaganda, to the totally surreal Alice in Wonderland Skripnal poisoning nonsense in the U.K, the Western MSM have been as dependable as the rising sun. They can and do provide fact-free, evidence-free reporting directly from the bowels of the deep state in support of the neocolonial West, including unending support for the never ending resort to mass violence the West relies upon to keep the rest of the planet subjugated – just as it has for the last 500+ years.
It’s not just the media. The late night talk show hosts are doing their bit too, as I heard
last night on a Jimmy Kimmel rerun (of a recent show). Can’t remember the context as
I was doing the dishes, but did hear him say the usual “Russian illegally annexed Crimea”
standard phrase, immediately followed by “and then invaded Ukraine”. The latter just
casually tossed off as a given. People hear these memes constantly repeated and,
regardless of their veracity (suspect to say the least) it becomes part of their worldview.
Who is behind the political preaching of hosts like Jimmy Kimmel ?
Inquiring minds want to know !
You know what irina, seeing these late night talk shows go all crazy over Putin makes me think of the Zio-Media executives, and where their allegiance to power resides. Joe
I would assume you’d have to look at who owns the media source in question. Kimmel’s show is on ABC, which is partly owned by Disney. Follow the money chain of those 2 parent companies, and you have your answer.
irina – I quite agree. The same is true of the former Daily Show crew members who now have their own shows. Several have shown themselves to be quite the little imperialist war mongers when it comes to gleefully repeating the CIA sponsored Syrian regime change and Russiagate propaganda. Samantha Bee & John Oliver kept triggering my gag reflex with their propaganda lines until I found a simple but effective solution and stopped watching them altogether. We have an amazingly seamless propaganda system here in the U.S. One can chose to either get one’s “pro-war regime change propaganda” delivered with barely concealed racism and misogyny from Fox News, or instead opt for hearing the same nonsense delivered with pretentious blather and catchy jazz interludes at PBS. American democracy is all about having “choices.”
I quite agree. I knew the minute that they started calling RT a propaganda outlet that, in fact, the USG was running a full scale propaganda operation. I don’t know if I simply wasn’t paying enough attention or if they have, in fact ramped the operation up, but I can hardly read any MSM outlet’s output without calling bullshit on it.
Jimmy Kimmel actually used to be funny and there is a really good clip
(somewhere on youtube no doubt) of him reading a ‘doctored’ Dr. Seuss
book to The Donald (a live guest) during his primary candidacy.
But since The Donald’s election Kimmel has opened almost every show
with a ‘ten minutes hate’ segment on The Donald. I still watch (or at least
listen) occasionally because I want to know what is being fed to The Public.
You are absolutely right tho, “we have an amazingly seamless propaganda
system here in the US”. The average person maybe has 30 minutes to
devote to the news, between getting home and having dinner; they watch
some sort of news show and think they are ‘informed’. But it actually takes
MANY hours and a knowledge of alternative websites to even begin to piece
together an approximation of what might, in reality, be going on.
The Russians used to say that, at least they knew they were being propagandized.
Unfortunately, probably due to ‘American Exceptionalism’, most Americans think
the MSM is bringing them ‘the truth’. But nothing could be further from The Truth.
” But it actually takes MANY hours and a knowledge of alternative websites to even begin to piece together an approximation of what might, in reality, be going on.”
You are so right, and that is a central point. Somehow the general public needs to get clued in to the fact that the mainstream media has been captured and cannot be trusted. I encourage everyone to post comments at mainstream sites with links to great articles at Consortium News.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to turn off Colbert’s Late Show for his Russian/Putin bashing BS. So disappointing. That’s a rule in my house now. The first mention of Russia and off it goes.
Likewise, the corporate militarist-Zio media should eventually have to concede someday that the current Syrian “rebels” are little more than ruthless sociopathic Saudi-Zio-Washington intel agency supported mercenary terrorists.
Folks in the know knew very early on that much of the Kiev putschists and violent invaders of Eastern Ukraine were neo-Nazi types bent on eradicating the last vestiges of Russian social and ethnic solidarity.
It’s really truly remarkable when one steps back to think about it all. These are the depraved groups the crypto-fascists, the Wall Street militarist imperialists, and Zionists have embedded themselves with: bloodthirsty Takfiri mercenary terrorists and neo-Nazis.
Well put.
Thanks Seamus.
In solidarity,
Drew Hunkins
Each time I see an article like this I’m reminded of the videos of Zbigniew Brzezinski’s early meetings with the Mujahideen and his manipulation of cultures on The Grand Chessboard or “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” a totally absurd assumption and the natural outcome of that absurdity, is blowback which this article again addresses. Our “boots on the ground” end up paying the price of this kind of supposed intellectualism. Shameful. Thank you Drew Hunkins.
Bob the old saying if I got right is the company you keep is what you become. We have truly loss our way, and Zbigniew Brzezinski is one of the biggest reasons we have become the predators of this dying green earth. All this for the profit, as all mankind must yield to the power of the dollar. Sad. Joe
Great commentary on ZB.
You’re very welcome.
One would think we had learned from Vietnam. Instead the “peace loving” liberals do everything to destabilize whole region for nothing and then send soldiers in who die for their messed up agenda.
It is truly remarkable. A lot of the behind-the-scenes magic is explained in “War Profiteers and Israel’s Bank” http://warprofiteerstory.blogspot.com
.
Nice addition to the thread… Thanks.
Thanks Bob. Your seconding that recommendation will help others decide to take a look at it.