Here's the thing about Ukraine's "Nazi problem", which I'm seeing brought up by right-wing Putin sympathizers:
There is a paramilitary group in eastern Ukraine called the Azov Battalion which is neo-Nazi and is definitely worthy of condemnation. Here is an article about them:
The regiment, which has been accused of neo-Nazi ties, has since been absorbed in the national army.
www.aljazeera.com
According to a Ukrainian friend of mine, in terms of mainstream political parties, the closest to neo-Nazis are Svoboda, and they didn't even gain enough votes for parliamentary representation apparently.
That being said, Russia is one to talk since they also have a Nazi problem. Just see the marches of "Russia for Russians", Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and neo-Nazi gangs. These groups openly attacked LGBT people, Jewish people and immigrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Ukraine certainly has a Nazi problem, so bad they elected a Jewish president. Ukraine actually has one of the higher proportions of Jewish people for a country- somewhere between 0.5 and 1% of the population.
But yes, if we want to talk about Nazism, which is in part synonymous with anti-semitism, let’s look at Russian History. Ukraine had an quite a large Jewish population around the turn of the 20th century.
Due to the programs of the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War and the anti-Semitic pro-Soviet leadership leading up to that, many tens of thousands of Jews were killed and hundreds of thousands from Ukraine, Poland, etc fled the Soviet Union as their countries became part of it.
Then of course the Nazis invaded and murdered a million Jews and many others fled after the war. Not long after WWII 70% of the Jewish population was dead or had exiled themselves.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the majority of the remaining Jews left Ukraine, especially considering state sponsored antisemitism didn’t leave immediately with the Soviet Union.
The 2014 invasion of Crimea further encouraged Jews to leave. And thanks to Putin, reportedly now hundreds of thousands of Jews have been forced to flee once again.
Let alone the similarities of Hitler and Putin in terms of starting horrific wars for their own egotistic ambitions and having little to no regard for human life, the reality is every time the Soviets (which I’d argue includes Putin given his desire to rebuild the block) gets involved things don’t go well for the Jewish population.
The reality is there are literally neo-Nazis and anti-semites all over the world. They’re here in the US, they’re in Canada, all across Europe. In fact, I think there was just a neo-nazi parade in Hungary— I guess they’re next on Russia’s chopping block. Not that these people can’t be dangerous, but they’re such a small faction of society they have very little power to execute any political influence.
I really have to wonder what the general public in Russia is thinking. Obviously younger people have much more access to information than the older generations. But surely in the back of many of the more brainwashed people they must have some recognition things don’t add up. A Neo-Nazi regime with a Jewish President? Almost the entire would sanctioning them, including Switzerland, the country known for their lack of foreign interventions.
I think one of the more brilliant moves by Ukraine in terms of psyops was to directly address the mothers of Russian soldiers and setup the hotline for them to call to inquire about the status of their sons. When you rile up the emotions of parents have for their children, no amount Russian propaganda is going to convince them otherwise.
I don't care what network they are from, the put their lives on the line to cover these things. Nothing but respect for every one of them.
news.sky.com
