Short-sighted U.S. foreign policy that backs jihadists in the Middle East and neo-Nazis in Ukraine is once again blowing back on the United States, as Max Blumenthal explains.
FBI: Azov Battalion Trained Rise Above Movement
By Max Blumenthal
Last month, an unsealed FBI indictment of four American white supremacists from the Rise Above Movement (RAM) declared that the defendants had trained with Ukraine’s Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi militia officially incorporated into the country’s national guard. The training took place after the white supremacist gang participated in violent riots in Huntington Beach and Berkeley, California and Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.
The indictment stated that the Azov Battalion “is believed to have participated in training and radicalizing United States-based white supremacy organizations.”
After a wave of racist violence across America that culminated in the massacre of twelve Jewish worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue, the revelation that violent white supremacists have been traveling abroad for training and ideological indoctrination with a well-armed neo-Nazi militia should cause extreme alarm.
Not only are white supremacists from across the West flocking to Ukraine to learn from the combat experience of their fascist brothers-in-arms, they are doing so openly — chronicling their experiences on social media before they bring their lessons back home. But U.S. law enforcement has done nothing so far to restrict the flow of right-wing American extremists to Azov’s bases.
There is one likely explanation for the U.S. government’s hands-off approach to Azov recruitment: the extremist militia is fighting pro-Russian separatists as a front-line proxy of Washington. In fact, the United States has directly armed the Azov Battalion, forking over anti-tank rocket launchers and even sending a team of Army officers to meet in the field with Azov commanders in 2017.
Though Congress passed legislation this year forbidding military aid to Azov on the grounds of its white supremacist ideology, the Trump administration’s authorization of $200 million in offensive weaponry and aid to the Ukrainian military makes it likely new stores of weapons will wind up the extremist regiment’s hands. When queried by reporters about evidence of American military training of Azov personnel, multiple U.S. army spokespersons admitted there was no mechanism in place to prevent that from happening.
Two soldiers from the Azov Battalion in front of a building with Nazi symbol at the battalion’s base in Urzuf. (Carl Ridderstråle-Wikimedia Commons)
Today, Azov boasts combat experience, unlimited access to light weapons, and supporters honeycombed throughout the upper echelons of Ukraine’s military and government. No longer just a militia, the organization has developed into a political juggernaut that can overpower Ukraine’s government. Two years ago, the group flexed its muscle on the streets of Kiev, bringing out 10,000 supporters to demand that the government bend to their will or face a coup.
“With its military experience and weapons, Azov has the ability to blackmail the government and defend themselves politically against any opposition. They openly say that if the government will not advance an ideology similar to theirs, they will overthrow it,” Ivan Katchanovski, a professor of political science at the University of Ottawa and leading expert on Ukraine’s far-right, commented to me. He continued, explaining:
Currently the organizations that are fascist are stronger in Ukraine than in any other country in the world. But this fact is not reported by Western media because they see these organizations as supportive of the geopolitical agenda against Russia. So condemnations are limited to violence or human rights abuses.”
The revelations of collaboration between violent American white supremacists and a neo-Nazi militia armed by the Pentagon add another scandalous chapter to a long history of blowback that dates back to the 1950’s, when the CIA rehabilitated several Ukrainian Nazi collaborators as anti-communist assets in the Cold War.
The almost unbelievable story exposes an axis of fascism that stretches across the Atlantic, from the Ukrainian capital of Kiev to the sun-washed suburbs of Southern California, where some of the most rabid modern white supremacist gangs were born.
White Nationalist Fight Club
This October, four members of the RAM gang — Robert Rundo, Benjamin Drake Daley, Michael Paul Mirelis, and Aaron Eason — were arrested by FBI agents. They were accused of “using the internet to encourage, promote, participate in, and carry out riots” from Huntington Beach to Berkeley, California. Four other members had been arrested in connection with their participation in the white supremacist riot in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a counter-protester, Heather Heyer, was killed in a vehicular homicide by a white supremacist.
RAM first appeared in the national limelight during a celebration of Donald Trump’s election victory in Huntington Beach in March 2017. As about one hundred far-right activists marched along the beach donned in red “Make America Great Again” caps and waving Trump flags, they were confronted by a small group of masked anti-racist counter-demonstrators. When a melee ensued, RAM members assaulted their outnumbered opponents, pummeling them into submission and even attacking a local reporter. Afterwards, Orange County police arrested several anti-racist demonstrators, but the RAM gang walked free.
RAM markets itself as a self-defense organization that protects the free speech of white Americans against an onslaught of “Cultural Marxism,” a classic anti-Semitic trope. Its founders emphasize a vaguely anti-consumerist Fight Club mentality along with a rigorous dedication to mixed martial arts. Its co-founder, Rundo, operates an online clothing and apparel company, Right Brand Clothing, that hawks slickly designed t-shirts promoting “European Brotherhood,” stickers emphasizing a straight-edge “nationalist lifestyle,” and ethically sourced designer “Demagogue pants” (yes, white supremacists apparently care about sweatshops). RAM members can be seen at the site modeling their gear with a clean-cut “fashy” look that contrasts sharply with the stereotypical image of skinheads in jackboots.
RAM members from their now deleted Instagram account. (via ProPublica.)
RAM’s careful attention to its public image has not stopped its members from putting their crude neo-Nazi ideology on display at rallies, however. During the Huntington Beach riot, for example, RAM’s Robert Boman was seen waving a sign reading “Da Goyim Know.” This alt-right slogan refers to the white nationalist understanding of the supposed Jewish plot to dominate the world.
“I’m a big supporter of the Fourteen, I’ll say that,” RAM’s Rundo proclaimed into a camera in Huntington Beach. The gang leader was referring to the notorious 14-word slogan coined by convicted white supremacist terrorist David Lane, which has become a rallying cry for fascists across the globe: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
Two months after the violence in Huntington Beach, two RAM members were photographed in the same spot dousing literature they dubbed as “Cultural Marxist” with lighter fluid and setting it ablaze. Among the volumes they torched were “The Diary of Anne Frank,” “The 9/11 Commission Report,” and “Schindler’s List.” Besides evoking memories of the early days of Nazi Germany, the spectacle cast the group’s purported devotion to free speech in an extremely ironic light.
Following RAM’s highly publicized street battles, the group became the subject of intense media scrutiny. In October 2017, the investigative outlet ProPublica produced a video that exposed the identities of RAM’s core membership and wondered why they had not been investigated by law enforcement for their violent actions in Huntington Beach and elsewhere.
But the media coverage of RAM glossed over the group’s attraction to a burgeoning trans-Atlantic conglomeration of white supremacists that centered on U.S.-allied Ukraine as the base for a fascist reconquest of Europe. By the Spring of 2018, RAM leadership was barnstorming through Germany and Italy and heading east to meet fascist cohorts from across the West at a conference in Kiev.
RAM’s Ukrainian Hate-cation
Buried in the FBI indictment of RAM members are details of their meetings with one of the key figures in Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov Battalion militia.
In August, according to the indictment, RAM members published photos on Instagram showing themselves meeting with Olena Semanyaka, the leader of the international department of the Ukrainian National Corps, which functions as a civilian arm of the Azov Battalion:
The indictment also referenced a video of RAM co-founder Benjamin Drake Daley performing a crossed-forearm salute to the Southern California-based white supremacist Hammerskin gang while in Ukraine:
RAM’s Gab account provides additional details of the group’s foray through Ukraine this May. The trip centered around the Paneuropa conference, an event that brings together fascists from across the West to encourage international collaboration. It is hosted at the Reconquista Club in Kiev, and included an a mixed martial arts competition.
“One of our guys has had the honor to be the first American to compete in the pan european organization Reconquista in Ukraine!” RAM declared on its Gab account. “This was a great experience meeting nationalist[s] that came [sic] as far as Portugal and Switzerland to take part.”
The visit, which followed on the heels of meetings with white supremacists in Germany and with Italy’s fascist CasaPound party, highlighted the centrality of Ukraine to international fascist organizing. Further, the Paneuropa conference, where fascists build connections across national borders, revealed the Azov Battalion as much more than a militia fighting for control of a sliver of contested territory in eastern Ukraine.
Semanyaka did not respond to an interview request delivered through Facebook messenger; however, she told Radio Free Europe’s Christopher Miller that RAM “came to learn our ways” and showed interest in learning how to create youth forces in the way Azov has.
Today, Azov leaders openly acknowledge that were it not for the U.S.-backed coup that unfolded in Kiev’s Maidan Square in 2014, their organization would never have developed into the powerhouse it is. As Semanyaka said this year, according to a summary:
The Ukrainian nationalist movement would have never reached such a level of development unless the war with Russia had begun. For the first time since the Second World War, nationalist formations have managed to create their own military wings, the brightest example being the Azov regime of the National Guard of Ukraine.”
Right-wing Maidan Revolution
Pravyi Sektor (Right Sector) extremists in Maidan, February 22, 2014. (Wikipedia)
The 2013-14 Maidan revolt was the cataclysmic event that Ukraine’s already potent ultra-nationalist camp had been waiting for. The protests erupted in Kiev’s Maidan Square after the democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign an economic association agreement with the EU. Celebrated in the West as a pro-Western movement guided by tech-savvy middle-class youth, EuroMaidan depended heavily for its success on phalanxes of black-masked hardmen from Right Sector (see appendix at bottom), an ultra-nationalist party that did battle with the government’s Berkut riot police.
Along with Right Sector, the leadership of the far-right Svoboda Party assumed a prominent role at the Maidan, dubbing the protests a “Revolution of Dignity.” Svoboda co-founder Oleh Tyahnybok — who had once demanded an investigation of the “Jewish-Muscovite mafia” that he saw controlling Ukraine — appeared on stage at the square beside U.S. Senators John McCain and Chris Murphy when they arrived to encourage the protesters.
Another key figure in Ukraine’s neo-Nazi scene was Andriy Biletsky. A university Ph.D. who stressed physical violence as a means to revolutionary change, Biletsky led the Patriot of Ukraine militia, an early forerunner of Azov that attacked migrant camps and menaced foreigners. In a manifesto published during the height of the Maidan clashes, Biletsky outlined his post-revolutionary agenda: “The historic mission of our nation in this critical moment is to lead the White Races of the world in a final crusade for their survival,” he wrote. “A crusade against the Semite-led Untermenschen.”
In May 2014, Right Sector and an assortment of far-right forces banded together to massacre their opponents in Odessa, attacking a pro-separatist protest camp with iron pipes then burning the fleeing protesters alive after they took shelter in a local trade union building. Over 40 pro-separatist Ukrainian citizens were consumed in the flames. The U.S. and EU studiously looked the other way, legitimizing the violence and setting the stage for more.
Behind the scenes, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt were carefully stage managing the opposition, positioning the pliable Arseniy Yatsenyuk as the future leader of a U.S. client-state. Meanwhile, billionaire-backed U.S. soft-power entities like the Omidyar Network and Open Society Foundation plowed money into the opposition, providing it with high-tech organizing capacity and establishing new media outlet Hromadske overnight.
Given the amount of U.S. investment in regime change in Ukraine, it was necessary for American pundits who cheered on the operation to downplay or simply deny the central role neo-Nazi forces played in making it all possible. In perhaps the most absurd attempt at whitewashing the fascist presence, the neoconservative pundit James Kirchick described Right Sector in an article for Foreign Affairs as “Putin’s imaginary Nazis.” Meanwhile, groups like the Anti-Defamation League — which supposedly exist to battle anti-Semitism — refused to support a congressional effort to ban arms to groups affiliated with Right Sector, because “the focus should be on Russia.”
With all the cover he needed from Washington, Biletsky organized the “imaginary Nazis” of Patriot of Ukraine, Right Sector, and assorted football ultras into a real militia called the Azov Battalion. Together, they fought under the neo-Nazi Wolfsangel symbol, which also happens to be incorporated into the logo of the U.S.-based Aryan Nations.
Azov logo.
On the frontlines of eastern Ukrainian flashpoints, Azov did battle with Russian-speaking separatists and set up government-sponsored indoctrination camps for children and teens closer to the country’s interior, instructing ten year olds on marksmanship and the evils of foreigners. Azan was subsequently absorbed into Ukraine’s military as a national guard unit, and began appearing in the field with PSRL-1 rocket launchers supplied under the watch of the U.S. Department of Defense. In November 2017, Azov leadership received a team of U.S. Army officers for training and logistical discussions (see photo below and to the right).
By the time Congress approved a ban on arms to Azov this year, the Trump administration had already authorized a new shipment of offensive weapons to the Ukrainian military, including advanced Javelin anti-tank missiles. As in Syria — where the CIA-backed Free Syrian Army functioned as a de facto “weapons farm” for jihadist groups, including Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS — any new U.S. arms are likely to wind up in the possession of Azov, the congressional ban notwithstanding.
Arayan Nations logo.
“It’s very corrupt in Ukraine and money can be stolen — the same as in Syria where extremist fighters got guns from U.S.-backed units,” said Katchanovski. “Azov can just establish new political fronts so they can circumvent the U.S. prohibitions.”
Foreign Fighters for Fascism
The Azov Battalion has received not only U.S. weapons, but also volunteer American military veterans like Brian Boyenger. “It’s not illegal,” Boyenger told a Ukraine Today interviewer of his presence in an Azov camp. “From a U.S. perspective, as long as you’re not fighting with a terrorist group or committing war crimes or things like that. It is legal — mostly I’ve been serving as kind of like an advisor.”
Azov has also welcomed Islamist fighters from Chechnya to continue their long war against Russia in a new theater. A sniper from Sweden with “typical neo-Nazi views,” Mikael Skillt, has been assigned to oversee an entire Azov regiment. And neo-Nazis from as far away as Brazil have flocked to Ukraine to join the fascist crusade. One foreign fighter from France, a young anti-Semite named Gregoire Moutaux, returned from a Ukrainian militia camp in 2016 “armed to the teeth and ready to strike” synagogues, mosques and the 2016 soccer championships when he was arrested on the Ukrainian border by national police.
To consolidate its political influence over the country, the Azov Battalion established a National Druzhina, or street patrol unit. A slickly produced recruitment video released in 2017 featured drone footage of National Druzhina members marching in formation into Kiev as Biletsky, their ideological guide, impelled them to “restore Ukrainian order” to a corrupted society. The street patrol was openly backed by Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, a powerful patron of Azov who belongs to the ruling party of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
This year, the National Druzhina and state-funded neo-Nazi militias like C14 (the “14” represents the notorious “fourteen words” mantra) staged a series of lethal pogroms against the local Roma population, vandalized the offices of insufficiently pliant politicians, stormed city council meetings, and even sued the Hromadske station that was established with U.S. funding for describing their members as neo-Nazis.
“Their connection to power is why they can commit any crime and they will never be punished,” Katchanovski said of Azov and its various street-muscle brigades. “Because they have the police and senior police members like [Vadym] Troyan, they can intimidate people and intimidate politicians with impunity.” (Once a member of Azov, Troyan now serves as Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Interior).
Serhiy Bondar, a member of Ukraine’s neo-Nazi C14 militia, is hosted by the U.S.-funded America House in Kiev. (YouTube)
The U.S. has not only kept silent about the wave of ultra-nationalist violence sweeping across Ukraine, it has been complicit in legitimizing the perpetrators. This November, America House Kyiv — a U.S. government-funded cultural center — hosted a speech by a uniformed leader of the neo-Nazi C14 gang, Serhiy Bondar. Months earlier, Republican House Majority Leader Paul Ryan and the NATO-funded Atlantic Council hosted Andriy Parubiy, the speaker of the Ukrainian parliament and co-founder of the fascist Social-National party, for a friendly exchange on Capitol Hill.Given the free rein and open acceptance right-wing extremists enjoy in post-Maidan Ukraine, it is no wonder the country has become a haven for fascists from across the West.
Grand Reconquista Strategy
As the international secretary of Azov’s National Corps, Olena Semanyaka has emerged as one of the most prolific publicists of Eastern European fascism. With jet black hair and a faintly gothic look, she brands herself as a “traditionalist,” emulating her hero, Julius Evola, the late Italian occultist philosopher who espoused a “racism of the spirit.” Though she has been photographed bearing a Nazi flag and throwing up a sieg heil salute, Semanyaka has also been a welcome guest on Ukrainian nationalist TV to promote her campaign for the release of Ukrainian nationalist activists held by Russia.
In her role with Azov, Semanyaka organizes conferences aimed at popularizing the concept of “the great European Reconquista” — a pan-European fascist-nationalist takeover that begins in the former Soviet satellite states and ultimately sweeps through Western Europe on the strength of anti-foreigner resentment.
Semanyaka laid out the fascist grand strategy in Kiev at a December 2016 gathering of Black Metal fans from across Europe called the “Pact of Steel:”
For the first time [in] a long period, the success of the Right in Western Europe — the rise of the Right because of refugee influx and terror — gives the chance for the realization of our ‘pact of steel’ between East and West, between Western and Eastern European nationalists.”
She continued:
Our main task today is to show to Western nationalists, to inform them that Putin’s Russia is no alternative to the EU of the West and that the only ally for them is an alternative axis of European integration which is being formed now in Kiev, Central and Eastern Europe, as a springboard for the all-European reconquest, for the new Europe between the EU and neo-Soviet neo-Bolshevik Putin’s Russia.”
Semanyaka and other Ukrainian fascist ideologues refer to the regional springboard for the European reconquest as the “Intermarium.” This is a concept originally envisioned after World War One by Polish military leader Jozef Pilsudski, who imagined a confederation of countries from the Baltic to the Black Sea as a counter-weight to German and Russian aggression. Though his idea never materialized, Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the failure of the EU and NATO to prevent it revived interest in the Intermarium. One of the biggest boosters of the alliance, the right-wing Polish President Andrzej Duda, saw it primarily through the prism of regional security. The extreme right in Ukraine, however, understood the Intermarium as an ethnically pure base for exporting their revolution to the rest of Europe.
Semanya, upper left corner of Nazi flag, dispalys the Nazi salute. On the right, Semanyaka is shown during an appearance on Ukrainian state TV.
The first Intermarium conference was held in Kiev in January 2016 under the banner of Azov’s National Corps. Semanyaka headlined the event alongside Biletsky, the Azov founder, welcoming far-right activists from Poland and the Baltic States. Within a year, the concept was promoted at an officially sanctioned event at the Latvian embassy in Kiev. There, the Latvian ambassador welcomed a who’s who of the Ukrainian fascist scene, from Svoboda to National Corps representatives like Semanyaka, for a ceremony honoring Peter Radzins, a Latvian general who advocated for the Intermarium.
Organized by Latvia’s far-right National Alliance party, a member of the country’s governing coalition, the spectacle provided Azov leaders with the sheen of international legitimacy. As Matthew Kott, an academic expert on the European far-right, argued, Latvia’s “membership in the EU and NATO allows it to act as a Trojan horse for increasing the clout of the far-right in the Euro-Atlantic community.”
While historical tensions between the Intermarium nations are still simmering, Semanyaka has pleaded with her international allies to heed the call of the late pro-Hitler British Blackshirt leader Oswald Mosley for a “great act of oblivion…of all our former struggles, conflicts, historical enmity. What we need,” she argued, “is the revival of a sense of the new European aristocracy, a new European unity as a real basis for the union I am talking about.”
There are no historical grievances between American white supremacists and their cohorts in Ukraine. After all, the U.S. government has made itself the main guarantor of Ukraine’s security, going as far as directly arming Azov in its bid to bleed Russia. And decades before the U.S. backed extremists in contemporary Ukraine, the CIA ran a program to rehabilitate former Nazi collaborators from the country as anti-communist intelligence assets. Backing Ukrainian fascists is a grand American tradition, indeed.
This November, during the latest Paneuropa conference organized by Semanyaka as a safe space for fascists from across the West, she played host to one of the most prominent self-styled intellectuals of America’s white nationalist movement, Greg Johnson.
“I think that what’s happening in Ukraine is a model and an inspiration for nationalists of all white nations and I wanted to learn as much as possible about what you’re doing here and see as much as possible,” Johnson told his rapt audience. “And I’m enormously impressed and I’m taking notes.” Johnson is a highbrow racist who publishes a journal, Counter-Currents, that advances what he calls “white identity politics.” Like the Rise Above Movement leaders before him, he was clearly inspired by his visit to Kiev. “I’m already planning to come back,” Johnson exclaimed during a break-out session. “I’m very impressed with what I’ve seen here. I want to come back and learn more.”
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Svoboda Party: Originally called the Social-National Party of Ukraine, a Ukrainian political party with long history of anti-Semitism. Led by Oleh Tyahnybok, Svoboda played a prominent role in the 2013-2014 Maidan uprising, where Tyahnybok shared the stage with U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Chris Murphy (D-CT). Andriy Parubiy, who had co-founded the Social-National Party of Ukraine, is now Speaker of Parliament.
Azov Battalion: 3,000-member neo-Nazi formation in Ukraine’s National Guard. Azov began as a paramilitary, originally formed out of the Patriot of Ukraine neo-Nazi gang led by Andriy Biletsky, and is now a Ukrainian National Guard unit. The battalion’s logo incorporates the neo-Nazi Wolfsangel and black sun symbols. Biletsky is now a member of Ukrainian Parliament. Vadim Troyan, another Azov veteran, is now Deputy Interior Minister.
Ukrainian National Corps: Azov’s civilian arm, responsible, among other things, for coordinating with and recruiting neo-Nazis and white supremacists from around the world. The international outreach is led by Olena Semanyka, who’s been photographed with a swastika flag.
National Druzhina: Azov’s street patrol organization, established in January 2018 with the aim of “restoring Ukrainian order” to the streets. The National Druzhina — whose members pledge personal loyalty to Biletsky — has been involved in pogroms against the Roma, LGBT, and other activists.
Right Sector: Loose formation of neo-Nazis and football ultras, which supplied street muscle to the 2013-2014 Maidan uprising. Later involved in lethal suppression of anti-Maidan movements in places like Odessa.
C14: Ukrainian neo-Nazi gang that receives government funding and has been responsible for some of the lethal Roma pogroms as well as anti-LGBT violence. The 14 is a reference to the Fourteen Word slogan of white supremacy. Led by Serhiy Bondar, who spoke at America House, a cultural center funded by the U.S. government.
This article was originally published on Mint Press News.
Max Blumenthal is the founder and editor of GrayzoneProject.com, the co-host of the podcast Moderate Rebels, the author of several books, and producer of full-length documentaries including the recently released Killing Gaza. Follow him on Twitter at @MaxBlumenthal.
Kagan, Krystol, McCain,Wolfowitz, Council on Foreigh Relations, and Neocons galore put the Nazi’s in place as the muscle to control the government even as we placed OUR stooge, who robbed the country blind.
We are waking up to this. Unfotunately, with the help of Google, Facebook and others. Those who get truth out to others are being shadow banned. We must not surrender to these tactics, Or
We will live in a country that day by day becomes a tech version of the Soviet Union
Pravda……….. indeed
Sorry Max. Just because a group of degenerates appropriated the term Cultural Marxism and don’t know what it means, doesn’t make it a jewish slur.
i’m so terrified at this news i may not sleep for more than eight hours tonight! the most violent and armed population on the planet needs to get training from the ukraine? are you serious? if such people exist, they are among the most alienated of our population of an alienated majority. more than 30 million living in poverty, well over a million in our jails and prisons, more than half a million living in the street, tens of trillions spent on weapons and war and tens of billions spent on the well being of our pets, but we should worry about a handful of right wing extremists allegedly being schooled in violence? in the ukraine? is it any wonder that an over-qualified rich, arrogant, egomaniacal asshole is president of this nation?
This isn’t blowback, it’s just normal Deepstate procedure. Deepstate always creates “opposing” groups of extremists. In the ’50s it was CPUSA “versus” John Birch. Now it’s Antifa “versus” Alt-right. Both puppets are pulled by the same hand.
The purpose is simple. More internal conflict justifies more budget, more workforce, and more weapons for Deepstate. Good old Parkinson’s Law of bureaucracy.
Washington supports Sunni terrorists in Syria, why not support neonazis in Ukraine. Anything for a buck for the MIC.
The right-wing groups in America were the inevitable pushback against the left-wing brown shirts of antifa.
I am an American man of color who spent a lot of time in Ukraine a decade ago, mostly in Odessa. I speak some Russian too, thats what they speak in Kiev, not Ukrainian. I got along well with the people there and the women were very willing. I was snubbed here and there, but I get snubbed more in New York City, where segregation is the rule at high class establishments. Ukraine was great until the 2014 coup financed by Victoria Nuland, a Jewish neocon married to a Kagan.
I think most Ukrainians are embarrassed by this racist and nazi spectacle. Its not who they are. Its a tiny minority that gets a lot of attention and is empowered by the US and Israel. Yes Israel.
Im not worried about these fascists and racists, they are seriously stupid and misinformed people who cant be reasoned with. Let them have their say and their white trashonalist parties. They cant beat us one to one in anything. Russians kicked their ass in WW2 and are beating them now in Donetsk. Put one of these California white boys in a boxing ring with a black man of the same weight, who do you think will win? Racists are dangerous when they become police officers and they are dangerous when they run in a pack and attack peaceful individuals as they do in Ukraine.
As for burning the 9/11 Commision report, I applaud them. Its a lie. 3 towers were demolished with explosives and bin Laden was a patsy. Its common knowledge.
Let us bear arms and stop putting generations of black men in jail on bullshit drug charges and we will be just fine dealing with any American fascists trained by the azov battalion. We will take them with pleasure.
By the way Israel backs the Nazis in Ukraine andbacks the banana nazi Bolsonaro in Brazil. Zionist Jews have strong fascist and racist instincts and O’ bomber armed these Ukrainian Nazis as well. Israel denied me entry based on my race. They pulled me out of line and interrogated me all night.
Hi Daniel,
It is a pleasure.
Meet Tom Gatz and Metzger, they only want to be seperate’ but they swear they dont think they are superior.
Piss off the Russians enough and these people will find out what the result was for the original nazis.
+1 There needs to be a blood letting every 3 generations. Bring it on.
Sick white nationalists, buttressed by failing capitalism, are bent on creating a new, horrifying reality.
FBI now classifies far-right Proud Boys as ‘extremist group’, documents say
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/19/proud-boys-fbi-classification-extremist-group-white-nationalism-report?__twitter_impression=true
The Wolfsangel insignia was worn by the militarised Waffen SS units as well as the Einsatzgruppen (death Squads) during their invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941-45. Thus is the sort of proxy scum the west sees fit to consort with and arm.
test
Who knew? Ukraine as a bastion of free speech rights; certainly the most alarming speech Nuland GovCorp money could buy. Does that mean as long as you don’t actually shout “fire” in a crowded, barricaded building, if you then burn up those inside (especially if they’re Russkies) there’s no infringement of anyone’s free speech, including those screaming for help as they burn alive?
The overstatements here are suspect: the “burgeoning trans-Atlantic conglomeration of white supremacists” appears to be hundreds among hundreds of millions, far from a “fascist reconquest of Europe.” There are fearmongers in all tribes, but seldom much agreement among them. How much agreement exists among “white supremacists” (such as z*****s) and those opposing Russians and J**s (both “white”)?
My J****h friends say that they almost never encounter anti-J****h attitudes. The writer’s use of the propaganda term “anti-s*****c” suggests the “white supremacism” of the extreme z*****s, who use it as an equivocation, to falsely accuse their critics of racism.
The author bemoans “short-sighted US foreign policy” by which “U.S. law enforcement has done nothing so far to restrict the flow of right-wing American extremists to Azov’s bases.”
I bemoan the recurrent short-sightedness & timidity of CNews, and many otherwise “informed” news/analysis outlets, that still fail to realize that, a maximal cynicism policy best explains US foreign and domestic policy.
That is, why not, for at least one moment, entertain the possibility that sending these domestic thugs to Ukraine is NO different from the US accepting thugs, usually Latin American, to Fort Benning for training.
Note also that His Hairness is here using the Rootin’ Tootin’ Putin hysteria to even more effectively hide the operation.
We should never forget that the great journalist and chronicler of Nazi Germany, William L Shirer, said that perhaps America would be the first nation to go fascist voluntarily.
I don’t think a lot has changed in the seventy years or so since he said that.
the same old , same old. pit people against one another because of ethnicity, etc.. this works as a great distraction from class differences. alas, nothing has changed
Great article. Canada is a huge supporter of fascist Ukraine and there is a strong ultranationalist lobby based here. As well, the foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, a Ukraianian-Canadian, is closely connected to the Kyiv regime. Canada actually arms and trains Ukrainian forces, including Azov. Here is a training medallion much coveted by Azov members.
https://twitter.com/mikolaswed/status/913468028741996545
Interesting!
Is there any debate or questioning in Canada of the naive support for the Kiev regime?
Or the origins and opinions of the Ukrainian diaspora?
Yes, there is a strong Ukrainian presence in Canada and it has some political clout. These were the the 14th Waffen SS Division Galizia, who were made up of Ukrainian volunteers and who were the survivors of the battle Brody during the latter stages of the war in the western Ukraine. They were routed by the Red army and fled to Rimini in northern Italy where they were interned by the Anglo-American military authorities. They were eventually given leave to enter the US and Canada as refugees. Hence their presence in modern Canadian
A few loaded terms in this article.
Very interesting read nonetheless.
I’m just worried about creeping bias in one of the best news organisations out there.
Finally see on with same feelings: “CREEPING BIAS”.
Yes, this is not run by Robert Parry R.I.P. anymore.
Today 21st century (2018) is worse than the thirties when I was growing up (the majority of you reading this weren’t even around) watching out of Holland across the border what was going on in Germany. At that time it was possible to keep track of what was going on because it predominantly was Hitler pulling the strings and Mussolini in Italy doing the dancing. Tojo in Japan was toooo far away to make much of a difference in the West of course he played HELL in China. Now 2018 the CHARADE is WORLDWIDE and of all different colors to DEVIDE and RULE. Followed the charade in London over the weekend and as usual Jeremy Corbin showed as I had figured him, same as I had figured Bernie Sanders across the pond. Nothing more than a tool being used by the elite. I’m glad I’m as old as I’m and do not have to put up with this for many more years, after all, mother nature made the Human animal for a 40-45-year lifespan, Elephants 96-years, Big Cats 16-years, and so on.
I take issue with one point you raise;
Corbyn isn’t being used by the “elites” as much as he is pandering to the momentum wing of his party, pro remain identitarians. They’ll throw him under the bus at the first hint of wrong-think. It makes me laugh that these supposed socialists are so eager to stay part of the capitalist hegemony.
Strange people that live in US, those that live under belife of free speech and expression, and yet there are literaly thousands of examples where those of opposing view points that try and present them in public are met with disruptive behaviors, banning from presentations of opposing ideology from speaking at Colleges and University campus, and removal and witholding of tenure to those who question edicts of correct speech and lets admit it anything that questions support of Israel the State.
And condoling of violent behavior by groups in US , crosses religious, political Partys, Anarchist, and now a liber storm trooper style ANTIFA that is beginning to better equip themselve tha. just pipes, knives, and clubs into having numbers armed with the Leftist hate most guns.
We have ultra right Trump supportive Malitia that actively said they would revolt if Trump was defeated and now if he is impeached.
The largest and most virulent part of the southern state malitia are of Christian Zionist, and some maltias signature patches have Star of David upon them and the cross
We have the Southern Law Society, which supposedly started out as anti Black bigotry but in reality was a Jewish American funded darling of supposedly libera progressives, an outfit that has grown so powerful they blackmail olleges and University Administrations into an anti open speech critics of Israel from being hired and upping the amounts of how many of Jewish must be allowed entrance even unto Harvard and Yale and MIT.
There are elements of hate in no matter the titles, and yes hate against white males by female correct organizations, many that recieve direct Federal aand from wealthiest people along the supposedly DC Beltway occupants.
We see no popular white support for Blacks Legitimate complaints of being targeted for abuse , bear downs, harrasment, killing and arrest and jailing for even no .ore thatn looking at a cop in a threatening or disrespect escalates by cops into arrest and jailings.
American populace was best described by a college professor, who for speaking of a few words was villified and career in education or major industries or government job openings: What description did he qualify the masses of Americans as being, ” They act just like Little Eichmans”.
Hate cannot be stopped by laws, when they who make the laws get to pick and choose wh, what, where and what words of conformity can be spoken, and outlaw nonccoformist speech.
I am not talking of condoning violent behavior from one group upon another, now that is a threat of bodily harm: as a case in point the actions of ANTIFA as they tore down Confederate soldier memorials were actions no different than Old Germany or Italys mobs of WWII era, none at all. The went into unbridaled frenzy of destruction knowing they had the protection by a major political party thatbwould defend that mob activity as their freedom of Speech,
We condone hate by massive slaughtering against Islamics and dark hued skin peoples and call it revenge and protection of American ideals.
What is the most agregious use of hate groups is that of the over 80 millions of Christian Zionist and Israel Firsters that support even a f’n racist self centered narcissric President with the most openly admitted base acts he committed throughout life.
The fear of a few bigots among US populace, Skin Heads and White Supremacy, nut cases is way over blown as a political tool that allows an even further tightening by laws from or elected, and non elected administrative professional class, upon what speech is free to be expressed.
Interesting nation, that looked at in totality as a One, is totally f’n crazy.
The Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that hate speech is free speech. Only incitement to physical violence is illegal speech.
However, the US government pressures social media to enforce “community standards” that private companies use to censor speech, not just “hate speech” but conspiracy theories and “sowing discord”. And companies now fire employees for views they disagree with. The days of political discourse, debating ideas, particularly bad ideas for people to exercise their own critical thinking over and decide for themselves, ie. Free Speech, is long over.
The Smith Mundt anti-propaganda law was repealed in 2014.
You think that the October massacre marks a culmination? That is naive: it is undoubtedly not an end point and part of a crescendo building for decades. Meanwhile, the professional Right keeps denouncing the Democrats for anti-Semitism, which is frequently simply criticism of Israel and has nothing whatever to do with attacks on persons or property. Your article reminds us that these psychopathic attacks are coming from a particular branch of the “White Right” which has been talking upon Satanic Judaism and killing Jews–and targeting synagogues–for quite a while.
Fascinating article by Max Blumenthal.
Max Blumenthal rightly denounces Italy’s fascist Casa Pound party but fails to report that Casa Pound is on excellent terms with Hezbollah, as reported by the Italian daily Repubblica in 2015.
According to Repubblica, the European Parliament declared Hezbollah a terrorist group on 10 March 2005.
On 26 September 2015 a convention called “Mediterranean Solidarity”, “the first international convention of solidarity [among] identities” was held in Rome attended by Rima Fakhri, member of Hezbollah’s politburo and Sayyed Ammar Al Moussaw, responsible for Hezbollah’s international relations, as well as by top Casa Pound leaders like Alberto Palladino, who was seen in the Donbass during fighting between Russia and the Ukraine, Franco Nerozzi, who was convicted of international terrorism in Verona after taking part in a failed coup detat on the Comoros islands, Casa Pound leader Giovanni Feola, and Luca Bertoni, representing the Lombardy-Russia Association, who always accompanies Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right Lega, on his trips to Moscow.
“Italian right-wingers have consolidated relations with the most fundamentalist and militant Islamic groups. In 2013 the City of Rome refused permission to the Syrian Uodai Soso Ramadan, also invited to the congress, to hold a pro-Assad demonstration. At the time he was staying at CasaPound.”
Source: Roma, la strana coppia Hezbollah-Casapound insieme al convegno, di Corrado Zunino, Repubblica, 20 settembre 2015
https://roma.repubblica.it/cronaca/2015/09/20/news/roma_convegno_mediterraneo_solidale_iniziativa_fascio-islamica-123310960/
I guess I see how the game is played. Squashing free speech you don’t like the little bit but I would call fascist.And I’ve even sent you donations
I take it back. I thought you had eliminated my speech. I apologize
CONFUSING isn’t it???
Place a comment and then it disappears.
A day or so later it appears again.
Then it disappears again.
This afternoon a placed a comment, now a few hours later it has disappeared.
The article on the neo-Nazi presence in Ukraine is very interesting. I am a white working-class white separatist with some longtime following. Even though this article had both lies, truths and maybes. It was well done. However, when it says there is no other side in the US with another view, you are wrong. I have experienced the attempted and sometimes successful penetration of the right wing by CIA types for many years and gotten rid of 2 serious penetrations in years past. I have warned those that listen not to involve themselves in the Ukraine situation. In fact, don’t travel to other countries. Where you do not really know the score and may be fighting on the wrong side anyway. I am aware that anything the State Department involves itself in is totally suspect and probably criminal. Even if you don’t acknowledge it there are other factions that are pretty much out of the right wing, but are still very strongly White separatists . In fact, my politics have moved to the left on several important issues. It would appear to me that the powers that be are attempting to design a right wing alleged neo-Nazi movement somewhat patterned some what after ISIS.It is obvious Blumenthal’s article has a lot of truth in it, but his mindset tends to get in the way . When he uses the old dog whistles like Trump when labeling people. Tom Metzger
Curious why you are a White Separatist? Is there any logical reason because the best I can gather from the many separatist commenters that have littered threads like these over the years is that they’re too fragile to get by in an ethically equal society. It seems that they’re greatest problem is that others have rights now so it’s harder for these White Separatists to succeed seeing as how they must do so on merit instead of birthright.
Be curious to find out if there is any justification for ethnic separatism other than petty whining because of some mythical birthright you feel you’re being denied?
The man is obviously not a brown separatist. And he is governed by those that seek to destroy
the family unit and the communities they may be part of. That seek to deny culture and revise
history to meaningless datapoints without its cenotaphs and markers.
So to remain separate might be a healthy strategy.
Mene Tekel Upharsim. This article.
The oligarchs seek to destroy our nations and slaughter its peoples, yet again. Not worried?
Greetings from multi-ccultural Amsterdam.
Geo, you foolishly and fanatically conflate “separatist” and “supremacist”. I can consider myself distinctly separate without thinking myself superior.
What is truely unexceptional is racism, as long as humans inhabit the planet, there will be racism.
I look at the Clintons, the Bushes, Cheney, Truman, Johnson, the Rockefellers, Cecil Rhodes, and these white leaders are responsible for so much misery in the world, including white working class separist misery. It is not because they were made slaves to their diabolical masters the Rothschilds, it is because they were crooks to the bone.
You seem like a thinking man, and I say that respectively, how do you reconcile this notion of white superiority, with the scum that has been white leadership for most of my life.
Deniz-
There is a difference between a “white separatist” and a “white suprematist”. You are assuming the Metzger believes himself to be superior. FYI, I am neither. I’m just trying to clarify the distinction.
Yes the oligarchs of the ruling class are certainly White supremacist for themselves in pursuit of profits, but that doesn’t equate to the white working class that’s 2 different issues. When I speak I speak in support of the white working class. I did not vote for Trump didn’t support Trump as I didn’t support Ronald Reagan or any of the rest because of their warmongering among other things.
Well, I am pro white middle class too, but I dont think that makes me a white seperatist.
So you believe we are all equal, but should not assimilate and stick to there clan? I think most asian family cultures believe exactly the same thing, but they dont introduce themselves as an Indian seperatisr, or a Chinese Seperatist.
So, I am curious if there are other underlying messages that your community is trying to make?
And the Asians really could not tell you a thing about what militant extremist and their respective intelligence services are up to.
replying to your question lower that has no “reply button”:
>So you believe we are all equal, but should not assimilate and stick to there clan? I think most asian family cultures believe exactly the same thing, but they dont introduce themselves as an Indian seperatisr, or a Chinese Seperatist.
Yes, exactly the same! They love their culture and identity and thats good for them.
>So, I am curious if there are other underlying messages that your community is trying to make?
white race, unlike indian and han chinese, is by all numbers in complete freefall around the world. This makes it more important. Do you try conservation efforts for cows or pandas? Same with cultures and genetic diversity. We stress the importance in genetic diversity in the animal and vegetal kingdom for multitudes of reasons. Why not for human races as well?
I see this non-racist part as very “green” and good for humanity at large. For sure there are racists in there which is why ive never associated myself with any of that, but from a philosophical standpoint. Preservation of all races is important for humankind, whites included.
you are aware that in the german language your sir name means butcher.
My birth name was Linton,Metzger is my adopted name
Thank you for this article, full of important information about the present regime in Ukraine!
I am happy to see the references to Dr Katchanovski, whose work on the Maidan massacre and Ukrainian modern history is courageous, and well recognised.
It would be interesting to see more about how these fascist and nazi movements may fit with the present regime’s Galician-Volhynian ultra-nationalistic ideology, with its glorification of the Banderite nazi collaborators, who took part in the Holocaust as well as ethically cleansed NW Ukraine of its Polish population of more than 80 thousand.
I happy to see George Soros role in the Ukraine coup. I encourage people to read the link to the Open Secrets role in the coup as he has in many other color revolutions.
The amount of misery this country has wrought on millions of people is despicable. I wish I could get the people who both join and support the military to open their eyes to how it’s not spreading freedoms and democracy elsewhere.
Quite apt overview of the situation with Ukrainian neo-Nazis and their US peers, as well Washington and Langley’s support of the former. A couple of aspects are worth reminding of though – the “informations operations”/ psy-ops run on behalf of Ukro-Nazis by US intelligence leftovers like retired major Joel Harding: https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-psychological-warfare-in-ukraine-targeting-online-independent-media-coverage/5437883; https://russia-insider.com/en/politics/brig-gen-joel-harding-natos-troll-king-and-neo-nazi-extraordinaire-part-iii/ri16370 who braged i.e. about advising the Ukrainian “Ministry of Truth”, as well as Ukrainian diaspora in North America (mostly descendants of OUN-UPA WWII Nazis collaborators imported and supported by CIA) who are now serving lobbists of the war against Donbass and laughing stock by trying to hush up and libel alternative media i.e. in their PropOrNot black list (with WaPo help). https://www.mintpressnews.com/connecting-diaspora-ukraines-monsters-ukrainian-diaspora-handler/246021/
Notice that they admit the connection goes back at least to 2014. We never hear much about the overthrow of the new pro-Russian government in Ukraine after the Russians had worked for four years with the pro-Western lot. Only when Nuland/Yats and co interfered did the new “government” with its Nazi links become powerful with the help of the EU and of course USA. The whole continuing insistence on Russia being an enemy has no basis in reason or sense. To support Ukraine now just because it is fanatically against Russia after decades of cooperation in the USSR is not justified by any possible link with “national security of the USA” or of Europe.
Did you ever in your life study Vladimir Putin? You really should study his formative years in the former DDR which you might call GDR. Would anyone in whatever country, want to be humiliated? Cool thing I think.
What unsupportable proposition are you failing to support?
Every time I dig deeper into Vladimir Putin I find that the things I constantly see and hear about him are either incredibly superficial and based on a careful filtering of facts or are outright fabrications. For a guy who is so clearly a vile thug and threat to global order, surely you can point to some concrete things he’s done that are worthy of vilification instead of the endless stream of innuendo and insinuation (like this). On the rare instance one gets any specifics at all, you get cases like Magnitsky that fall apart when analyzed. You mention the DDR, so tell me — what so radicalized him during his time as an office clerk in Dresden that his desire for revenge, Russian imperialism, etc etc are a slam dunk certainty? I’m listening. Whatcha got?
Great reply Stygg. I’ll answer for christina. She ain’t got squat.
Max gives me hope for the future of investigative journalism.
Sadly, white nationalism is a thing the United States enjoys exporting. It’s an existential crises.
https://opensociet.org/2018/11/16/the-rise-of-trump-is-white-america-dying/
And of course, the new far-right fascism globally (Bolsonaro, Netanyahu, Salvini, Azov Batallion, Poland, etc) is the mirror image of the neoliberal fascism of Macron, Hillary, Blairites, etc. Now Israel is going to patrol the European coastline. (https://www.mintpressnews.com/israel-to-police-european-coastlines-protecting-the-continent-from-refugees/251786/). An international network of extreme right and reactionary forces is emerging, as Blumental’s article shows. The left has to make similar international conflicts to eliminate this anti-human and anti-socialist axis.
See this video of Obama’s ambassador to Ukraine Pyatt going to visit training base in western Ukraine where Nazis brought into the then newly formed National Guard are still being trained by US Army Special Forces from Fort Carson, Colorado…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxeZFS9hTUg
Half an hour ago there were eight or so comments, now there are only two. I spent some time and posted a comment which is no longer there. Ridiculous. All of this security and quest for control on the comment section– to what end? Block one or two comments a week where someone brags how they make five thousand a week working nights on the internet? Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater. For years, under Parry, comments never disappeared on a regular basis, and we put up with the occasional, rare, spam. I don’t think there was any security or filtering devices, except the readers themselves, which worked just fine.
This has been going on for about a month now. I wish they would fix it. It has caused some commenters I enjoyed to abandon the site. However, there is a work-around. To see the latest comments, type a “test” comment and post it. All the up to date comments will then appear. You can then re-load the page to get to the edit function, and then choose “delete” to remove your test comment. It is a bit of a pain in the ass, but it does work. If you don’t do this, your comment will seemingly disappear until the following day, and then it will show back up.
Thanks Skip. I’ll try the “test” method.
A great but disturbing article by Max. Thanks. I wonder if someone has tried to connect the Reno NV police training in the Ukraine (spring of 2015) to any of this. This was an odd story.
Let’s not forget that the illegal coup in Ukraine and ensuing civil war was pushed by Obama/Hillary. It was HRC who promoted Dick Cheney’s chief foreign adviser, Victoria Nuland, to Secretary of European Affairs, and it was Nuland who was caught on tape discussing how to “midwife this thing” in Ukraine. Nuland is wife of chief neocon Richard Kagan, founder of PNAC. This essentially restarted the cold war between Russia and America. Obama tarnished his presidency primarily by working with Clinton, including the destruction of Libya. Where were the Democrats to object to such shenanigans? I don’t know where they were, but I do know where they are now–charging Trump with colluding with the Russians. I thought it was fascinating that Trump, when he secured the Republican nomination, insisted that the Republicans remove from their platform the promise of military aid to Western Ukraine, to fight the pro-Russian eastern Ukrainians. Where were the Democrats to applaud this anti-war mongering? I know where I, as a Democrat was–I was leaving the party and becoming a Trump supporter.
Thanks, these are important points, is about the neocons.
On our smaller Swedish scale ,
I was similarly disgusted with the support by the once much more ethical Social Democratic Party for the US- and EU-supported coup in Kiev.
Lots of room for disgust… In America, the traditional Democrats and Republicans both are backing the neocons’ stance with just about no questioning or examination. It seems to be a tribal thing, or some sort of group response, like geese in flight, or buffalo running off a cliff…
A shame so much of the the European Social Democratic left lined up to support the “Revolution of (In)dignity!” The Left Parties in Germany and France (Sahra and Jean-Luc) opposed the coup – did the Swedish one do the same?
Good to hear that the German and French parties opposed the coup.
While the Swedish Left party opposes the recent closer cooperation of Sweden with NATO introduced by the Social democratic government, their stance on the Ukraine does not differ:
” There can be no excuses for Russia’s behaviour concerning the Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea. Russia is a threat from the point of view of security policy, first and foremost against all in Russia that oppose the leaders in Kreml. The imperialistic policy of Russia also constitutes a direct threat against the population of several neighbouring countries – Ukraine, Georgia, Moldavia and the countries of Central Asia – not Sweden in the first priority.” (from the party’s bill to Parliament)
It is sad. The party declined to explain their position.
Ew, yuck.
Melanchon is a piece of shit though. Controlled oposition and some. He wants unlimited immigration at the same time as increasing public services. Is he a moron or does he think we are? Seems like a lot of us can’t do math.
Thanks, the author never mentioned Obama, but the Ukraine was another of his instigated Wars. Continuing the pattern (after Clinton abrogated the Reagan Gorbachev accords) of “tightening the noose” around Russia. Victoria “Fuck the EU!” Nuland is one of Hillary’s warmonger disciples. Trump’s arming of Obama’s neoNAZI nation was a direct result of Russiagate, to prove he was not in cahoots with Putin (the world would be a safer place if he stepped away from yet another failed state, and forced Ukraine to deal with Russia diplomatically.)
I noticed Max did not say who Nuland was assistant to or who was running the nice-sounding society that gave Ukraine this black eye. I suppose those are two buttons too hot to push. I’m just happy to see the “N” word regarding Ukraine’s government is finally off the banning list.
Thank you for providing a platform for Max Blumenthal’s reporting.
Very good article except for the line “……….. Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the failure of the EU and NATO to prevent it….” I always take issue with that representation because it implies an aggressive and forceful action by Russia when in fact Crimea seceded from Ukraine after the western backed and illegal coup of the democratically elected government.
One of the definitions of annexation is “the adding of new territory”. I believe this is the way the word is being used in this article. It has come to mean “forceful acquisition” to many folks, and this leads to confusion. To those of us who know a little history, maybe a better word would have “rejoining”, since Crimea was part of Russia until the early 1950’s. When Khrushchev gave it to Ukraine it was still part of the USSR, so it was really no more than a gesture. The Russian naval base in Sevastopol has been there since the 1700’s.
Very good point!
Wording is important, and accepting the word annexation without clarification may be a step towards buying the lie.
Great point Skip. Joe
YES – It seemed to me that “annexation” came into alternative vernacular as a counter to the many MSM commentators who endlessly referred to Russia’s “invasion” of Crimea.
It’s hardly an isolated case Skip.
Examples of other polluted or propagandized, nay, Orwellian words:
Patriot,
Freedom,
Democratic,
Resistance.
“Right to work” is a single lexical unit and a good one.
Language drift due to ideology would make for a good paper.
Statistically we could view the new meaning as well established and it’s usage amounts to framing the conversation.
Very true David. I would add “Liberal” and “Conservative” for “language drift”. It is a shame that much of our political discourse, especially in the MSM, has become full of loaded phrases and utterly lacking in logically constructed rational arguments.
Crimea has been Russian, not Ukrainian since Catherine the Great. The population is only 15% Ukrainian, and Crimea voted overwhelmingly to rejoin Russia; it was not annexed. America always has problems with “Democracy”-based decisions.
Krushchev was born on the Russia Ukraine border and no longer appreciated the distinctions between the two under the Soviet Union.
thank you wayne
Good points Wayne regarding Crimea seeding away from Ukraine & with the mess that these Far right lunatics & Nazi apologists have made of the Ukraine, what a good move that was by the Crimean’s to return to Russia! It never ceases to amaze me that Israel can illegally occupy the Golan Heights in Syria & annex & steal Syrian Land or that America can illegally partition up parts of Syria in a illegal Land grab in violation of International Law & Syrian Soveignty yet they have the barefaced cheek & hypocrisy to criticise Russia for reclaiming their own Lands! This mess in the Ukraine is another wonderful example of America’s stupidity & ignorance in supporting Neo Nazi’s & ISIS Terrorist’s because the blowback is going to boomerang right back to them on their own soil, just as the 9/11 attacks did? And these Ukrainian Far right groups are nothing more than disgusting Cowards, like their repugnant forebears who fought alongside the Nazi’s against Russia & the Western Allies! Millions of Russian’s & others died in WW2 so these Cowards can enjoy the freedoms they now enjoy & they are using their freedom to sow hatred, bigotry & their repellent ideology around the World. Well done America!
The September 11th “attacks” was a clear false flag event and not blowback. The most obvious proof of this is the near perfect controlled demolition of WTC7, which fell at the acceleration of gravity. Important additional insight into the background of this false flag is documented in Peter Lance’s book “Triple Cross”. Any objective researcher will find a mountain of evidence that proves, unequivocally, that the heinous crimes of September 11th were a false false flag event.
I think the policy of arming and training the far right in the Ukraine AND permitting U.S. citizens to travel there and train with them is part of a premeditated strategy of tension to keep the U.S. population divided and in fear, just as the creation of MS13 has been. The Deep State often uses criminal gangs in service of its goals.
The U.S. public is the most propagandized population in history and the corporate media plays right along.
That’s why we’re here, yes?
Be well.
Thank you Joe. The larger picture and insanity of the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” Philosophy, is and always has been totally without moral responsibility. Interestingly, it seems to be a fundamental aspect of post WWII organizing by our own OSS, who became the CIA in 1949. Alan Dulles was busy organizing this kind of activity before that war ended.
Thanks to you Joe and of course Max Blumenthal for addressing this subject. I’ll include a link to the early heritage of this bizarre and illegal concept here. Many thanks Consortium News.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russia-fsu/2014-08-18/why-ukraine-crisis-west-s-fault
It must be a terrible feeling to know you can’t compete with people that you believe are inferior. Nice to have some fellow losers to commiserate with, I suppose.
Readers should never forget the words of the great journalist and chronicler of Nazi Germany, William L Shirer, who said once he thought it quite possible America would be the first country to go fascist voluntarily.
You may be interested in another excellent article on a related topic, see:
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/donald-trump-america-181115101946588.html
Ah, America, land of liberty!
Is there anything you won’t do in your rabid efforts to dominate the planet?
Of course, when you think about it, these Ukrainian thugs are no worse than other outfits America heavily supports, from the mercenaries of Syria and the government of Saudi Arabia to the King of Bahrain and the government of Israel.
A couple of these last – Israel, Saudi Arabia – kill more innocent civilians than any terrorist organization could dream of doing.
And no one says a thing.
Max Blumenthal does a valuable service shining a light into the dark places of Nazi Fascism in the US. Anyone who thinks these groups are too small to be important, should recall how small the movement that gave us Hitler was in it’s beginnings.
Pro Nazi sentiment has never died in the US Oligarchy. The CIA is essentially a fascist organization pretending to be protectors of democracy. Worship of violence and authoritarianism is endemic to the American Spirit. All the better for being the world’s greatest bully, pretending to be the guardians of the highest values. Those in high places here are the evil scum of the universe.
(Thanks for the new font! So much better.)
The US is now funding a schism in the Orthodox church between Ukraine and Russia. The evil of the US knows no bounds.
Of course, “good ole Americans” like Mike Pence claim to be Christians, and many other US Christians blame the Russian Orthodox church for not being as modern as they are and ready to accept LGBTQ..
Not surprising that some Americans think that racial bigotry is okie dokie when both political parties in Washington, especially the one that bases its platform on membership in certain favored identity groups, practice it routinely against anyone or anything Russian or Iranian. They have a few other fall guys as well, but those are the two blamed for everything these days.
No question but that Ukraine is one of the most ethnically prejudiced and fascist regimes on the planet, though that doesn’t seem to bother Washington, as long as they are frenetically Russophobic. Neither does Israel’s rampant anti-Arab, anti-Persian and anti-Muslim Zionism bother the bigots in DC in the slightest.
Yet they get into a lather when the small nations of Eastern Europe, especially those in the Visegrad countries (plus Austria, Slovenia and Croatia) constituting most of the Intermarium that the author alluded to, which happen to have both small populations and low birthrates, reasonably fear that their native populations will be swamped out within a couple of generations if they are forced by the EU to take in significant numbers of Islamic migrants from the lands thrown into turmoil by the U.S.-instigated wars throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Hungary’s Viktor Orban is vilified in the West as some sort of new Hitler (must be Putin’s twin brother) for implementing on a much smaller scale what Donald Trump is trying to institutionalise in the enormously larger United States.
Rather than force all these sociological “side effects” to its catastrophic wars on its putative “allies,” perhaps Washington should finally see the light and do the right thing by winding down the carnage and aiding the resettlement and rebuilding of the war-torn countries by their displaced citizens. But they won’t–they have overtly refused, at least until none of America’s debts can be paid with devalued petrodollars, because that would let Russia off the hook, whom Washington wants to see crushed as badly as der Fuehrer did–I think it’s trying to complete his mission. Plus the glorious new war against Iran would have to be cancelled. They used to say, “all roads lead to Rome.” They oughta re-write that for the modern world as, “all strife traces from Washington.”
Excellent comments Realist.
Like our ‘Big Pharma Over Medicated Society’ we in the West would rather beat the hell out of the symptom rather than cure the cause, is our American hegemonic trademark. Similar to tightening the screw so tight the fragile glass begins to crack so you fix it with a hammer. It appears our leaders love spreading their chaos. None of this shows signs of ever ending well, but yet we overdose the symptom to the extreme that the side affect is what finally kills us. In the end it only matters how it shows on a profit and loss sheet.
An excellent contribution-thanks realist.
The USA has steadfastly refused to rebuild their devastated victims’ lands even when UN legal demands clearly demanded it eg Nicaragua.
Short sited or planned.
Excellent reporting, Max! I’m curious. Is there any connection with present or former Eric Prince mercenary soldiers, or soldiers from other private mercenary organizations, with these fascist movements?
This fascist trend should go well with Operation Timber Sycamore, where the U.S. armed the terrorist jihadist. When will our American leaders learn, that if you play with fire you will get burned. The rise of the Nazi is one more reason that we Americans should focus on this type of news as Max Blumenthal reports. Furthermore the American Jewish who do not support the Israeli apartheid state should join good thinking Americans to put down this disgusting happening. So thank you Victoria Nuland, Geoffrey Pratt, and the rest of this sick and insane DC bunch, because without you where would our Homeland Security budget be?
Think it can’t happen here…. the Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter lived 4 blocks from me. Btw these racist don’t vote, they just hate. And ‘no’ I didn’t know him, but I know of others … sick birds all of them.
And especially a warm thank you goes out to Max Blumenthal for his courageous reporting. Bless you Max. Joe
Thank you Joe. The larger picture and insanity of the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” Philosophy, is and always has been totally without moral responsibility. Interestingly, it seems to be a fundamental aspect of post WWII organizing by our own OSS, who became the CIA in 1949. Alan Dulles was busy organizing this kind of activity before that war ended.
Thanks to you Joe and of course Max Blumenthal for addressing this subject. I’ll include a link to the early heritage of this bizarre and illegal concept here. Many thanks Consortium News.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russia-fsu/2014-08-18/why-ukraine-crisis-west-s-fault
Thanks Bob reading John Mearsheimer well defined portrayal of what led up to the fall of the Ukraine as we once knew it, is reminiscent of reading Robert Parry’s many articles on this subject. If you recall Parry was deeply into this U.S. led NATO aggression. Through the MSM of the West the tables were turned to point the finger to instead Russian aggression. Putin is never shown in light of his policy achievements nor are his speeches calling out to the world for sensible detente where needed, but instead Putin is demonized to no end.
Little is remembered, or even known by those in the West of another time where American and British capitalism hugged the very nature of Nazism, while the Russians were then too the target of this type of Western aggression. Who’s needs history when dreams of profit cloud their eyes?
Thanks Bob reading John Mearsheimer well defined portrayal of what led up to the fall of the Ukraine as we once knew it, is reminiscent of reading Robert Parry’s many articles on this subject. If you recall Parry was deeply into this U.S. led NATO aggression. Through the MSM of the West the tables were turned to point the finger to instead Russian aggression. Putin is never shown in light of his policy achievements nor are his speeches calling out to the world for sensible detente where needed ever covered, but instead Putin is demonized to no end.
Little is remembered, or even known by those in the West of another time where American and British capitalism hugged the very nature of Nazism, while the Russians even back then were too the target of this type of Western aggression. Who’s needs history when dreams of speculative profit should cloud their eyes?
So with his son Hunter sitting on the BOD of the largest gas producing company in Ukriane, does Joe Biden accept that he supports these neo-nazis protecting the gas fields of Donets and Azov?
Of course Joe accepts it. He has always been a member of the corporate wing of the Democratic Party. That’s how he got to be VP. To quote the always funny Sarah Palin “How’s that hopey-changey thing workin’ out for ya?”