[Peace-discuss] US-Funded Neo-Nazis in Ukraine Mentor US White Supremacists

[David Johnson]

" In May 2014, after the violent U.S. backed coup in Ukraine that ousted the
democratically elected President, 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. "

Is it any wonder why Crimea voted to succeed from Ukraine and become part of
Russia ?  Of course the western corporate owned media tries to imply that it
wasn't a free and fair referendum vote, but here are poll results conducted
after the referendum by Gallup and Pew polling companies and there is also
polling data going back to the early 2000's that shows that there was
majority support for this even then.......

>From Wikipedia ....." According to the
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallup_(company)> Gallup's survey performed
on April 21-27, 82.8% of Crimean people consider the referendum results
reflecting most Crimeans' views,
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Crimean_status_referendum#cite_note-Gall
up-160> [154] and 73.9% of Crimeans say Crimea's becoming part of Russia
will make life better for themselves and their families, while 5.5%
disagree.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Crimean_status_referendum#cite_note-Gall
up-160> [154]  According to survey carried out by
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pew_Research_Center> Pew Research Center in
April 2014, majority of Crimean residents say the referendum was free and
fair (91%) and that the government in Kyiv ought to recognize the results of
the vote (88%).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Crimean_status_referendum#cite_note-161>
[155] "

 

US-Funded Neo-Nazis in Ukraine Mentor US White Supremacists

November 17, 2018 *
<https://consortiumnews.com/2018/11/17/blowback-us-funded-ukraine-neo-nazis-
mentor-us-white-supremacists/#comments> 100 Comments 

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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

 <https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Max-Headshot.jpg>
https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Max-Headshot-130x130.j
pgLast month, an unsealed
<https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/421-robert-rundo-complaint/0f1e76cd
eef814133f24/optimized/full.pdf>  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
<https://thehill.com/policy/defense/380483-congress-bans-arms-to-controversi
al-ukrainian-militia-linked-to-neo-nazis> 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
<https://www.thedailybeast.com/is-america-training-neonazis-in-ukraine>
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.

 
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ont_of_building_with_swastika.jpg>
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nt_of_building_with_swastika-700x467.jpg

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
<https://korrespondent.net/ukraine/3685301-azovtsy-pryhrozyly-fyzycheskoi-ra
spravoi-nardepam> 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
<https://www.propublica.org/article/white-hate-group-campaign-of-menace-rise
-above-movement> 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  <https://youtu.be/EDClUlJ6lX0?t=400> assaulted their
outnumbered opponents, pummeling them into submission and even attacking a
local reporter. Afterwards, Orange County police
<https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/scuffles-pro-trump-rallies-held-6-arre
sted-california-clash-n738571> 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 " <https://rightbrandclothing.com/product-category/european-gear/>
European Brotherhood," stickers emphasizing a straight-edge "
<https://rightbrandclothing.com/product-category/activism/> nationalist
lifestyle," and
<https://rightbrandclothing.com/ethical-supply-chain-and-procurement/>
ethically sourced designer "
<https://rightbrandclothing.com/product-category/outerwear/> 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.

 
<https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/20171019-ram-masks-bo
rder-new-inline.jpg>
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der-new-inline-700x700.jpg

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
<https://nocara.blackblogs.org/2017/07/06/diy-division/> 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  <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fpt3ImXIImY&t=29s>
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:

 
<https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-1
4-at-6.58.18-PM.png>
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-at-6.58.18-PM-700x535.png

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:

 

 
<https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-1
4-at-6.59.38-PM.png>
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-at-6.59.38-PM-700x202.png

RAM's Gab account provides additional details of the group's
<https://gab.ai/RiseAboveMovement/posts/25056134> 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
<https://gab.ai/RiseAboveMovement/posts/24876630> 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
<https://www.rferl.org/a/azov-ukraine-s-most-prominent-ultranationalist-grou
p-sets-its-sights-on-u-s-europe/29600564.html> 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  <http://uktk.org/2nd-paneuropa-conference-was-held-in-kyiv/>
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

 
<https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Pravyi_Sektor_Right_S
ector_activists._Euromaidan_Kyiv_Ukraine._Events_of_February_22_2014.jpg>
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ctor_activists._Euromaidan_Kyiv_Ukraine._Events_of_February_22_2014-700x467.
jpg

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
<https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/world/europe/ukraines-ultranationalists-
do-well-in-elections.html> demanded an investigation of the
"Jewish-Muscovite mafia" that he saw controlling Ukraine - appeared on stage
at the square  <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPBRjtDxUVA> 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
<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/Europe/ukraine/11025137/Ukraine-
crisis-the-neo-Nazi-brigade-fighting-pro-Russian-separatists.html> wrote. "A
crusade against the Semite-led Untermenschen."

In May 2014, Right Sector and an assortment of far-right forces banded
together to
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2014/05/19/why-everythin
g-youve-read-about-ukraine-is-wrong/#4f3f355f510e> massacre their opponents
in Odessa, attacking a pro-separatist protest camp with iron pipes then
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKpJ1-ECpPg> 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
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV9J6sxCs5k> 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
<https://pando.com/2014/02/28/pierre-omidyar-co-funded-ukraine-revolution-gr
oups-with-us-government-documents-show/> Omidyar Network and
<https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/keep-spirit-maidan-alive>
Open Society Foundation plowed money into the opposition, providing it with
high-tech organizing capacity and establishing new media outlet
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2016/04/27/look-who-funds-ukraines-a
nti-putin-internet-tv/#616571cc7b5d> 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 "
<https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/03/putins-imaginary-nazis-1052
17_Page2.html> Putin's imaginary Nazis." Meanwhile, groups like the
Anti-Defamation League - which supposedly exist to battle anti-Semitism -
<https://www.alternet.org/world/how-israel-lobby-protected-ukrainian-neo-naz
is> 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
<https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/aryan-nations> logo
of the U.S.-based Aryan Nations.

 <https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/azov-logo.jpg>
https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/azov-logo.jpg

Azov logo.

On the frontlines of eastern Ukrainian flashpoints, Azov did battle with
Russian-speaking separatists and set up
<https://apimagesblog.com/blog/2018/11/12/training-kids-to-kill-at-ukrainian
-nationalist-camp?fbclid=IwAR06RbA953kix1k0z43HoEXuUsvLfFdpeIeBVOp0oprf7qCiB
Z_sX4w-sH8&format=amp&fbclid=IwAR3KL60H8Qk_5bsFpNxuZ5RkRaJWr1w83YeDTvfdX8nrc
X2cPACoNAQeusA&__twitter_impression=true> 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
<https://grayzoneproject.com/2018/04/07/the-us-is-arming-and-assisting-neo-n
azis-in-ukraine-while-congress-debates-prohibition/> 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
<https://www.truthdig.com/articles/russiagate-helped-secure-dangerous-arms-d
eal/> 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.

 
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nesbe-d8kqpvj.png>
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esbe-d8kqpvj-400x380.png

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
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkbIsD6qOdA> 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  <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmLLIQu13HA> welcomed
Islamist fighters from Chechnya to continue their long war against Russia in
a new theater. A sniper from Sweden with "
<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28329329> typical neo-Nazi views,"
Mikael Skillt, has been assigned to oversee an entire Azov regiment. And
neo-Nazis from
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/brazilian-neo-nazis-recruited-to-fight-ukrain
ian-civil-war/> 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 "
<https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/euro-2016-gregoire-moutauxwas-ready-
to-strike-with-rocket-launchers-and-tnt_uk_57557120e4b040e3e819d26f?guccount
er=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_cs=suRrI
HBDZ7lxwmZ4Z0Xftw> 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
<https://youtu.be/x5Uf7aooxvE?t=103> 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  <https://twitter.com/ajplus/status/1008599442059071489> lethal
<http://www.romea.cz/en/news/world/ukraine-video-of-pogrom-against-roma-show
s-neo-nazis-chasing-children-throwing-rocks-at-them-and-using-tear-gas>
pogroms against the local Roma population,
<https://www.facebook.com/c14.news.reserve/posts/293883858129069?__xts__%5b0
%5d=68.ARAcsasR3FgycmQMe_NT5q8CXgeiPnZY2E4fe0-K7ykdDDIXpj0jz8Ylh5rXmSTwvtIES
S-cJexrjSWJ4JbKOyuh_ShmJ2gMHejv1hJQ9EHfSkqWTlSZcEPoUYv4OC4khblyWNQZSLn5aJ_7O
m2ezEFGhjyTmQcWYa9zZE67yrlmjeeTP0q1H9Bk1usw2zsv_6IMXrh7LIHhlebSazqRVQXBmD91X
ylmvbagd5nOkgaG9UhbXtv1o2rGLEXkzTO0Nu0zkqy_72x3LeCv34n__WjpY6Ei6DDifNldop9mB
eIsfv5fqoXqQgEpWp85lWp6VPOSn4VgAuGdm2OjJlcdtc0&__tn__=-R> vandalized the
offices of insufficiently pliant politicians,
<https://www.unian.info/society/10159451-clashes-erupt-in-kharkiv-city-counc
il-as-activists-storm-in-photo-video.html> stormed city council meetings,
and even  <https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1015279752180051969>
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
<https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/cabinet-appoints-troyan-deputy-in
terior-minister-ukraine.html> Deputy Minister of Interior).

 <https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/America-House.jpg>
https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/America-House-700x394.
jpg

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 -
<https://grayzoneproject.com/2018/10/30/c14-ukrainian-nazi-kiev-police-ameri
ca-house/> 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
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjK1yv-1IO8> 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  <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bcaJqH6XBg>
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  <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsV8tA4rxy4> laid out the
fascist grand strategy in Kiev at a December 2016 gathering of Black Metal
fans from across Europe called the "
<http://www.neuropaimperium.com/pan-european-pact-of-steel-was-sealed-in-kyi
v-asgardsrei-v-pre-festival-conference-report-2/> 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.

 <https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Semanya.jpg>
https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Semanya-700x394.jpg

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
<https://www.facebook.com/pg/IntermariumSUPPORT/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1
230509816972781> 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
<http://thenewnationalism.com/2017/07/05/__trashed/> 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,
<http://neweasterneurope.eu/2017/05/26/a-far-right-hijack-of-intermarium/>
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
<https://www.facebook.com/interregnum.intermarium/> 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
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKqYSY4Rl_w&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3Ut
HWitmXHlzsDqUF3s-eg5ONsvS3hIayxufhs6mT8533NzCt1TBtdfso> 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
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1520&v=tRkbiezOOWs> exclaimed
during a break-out session. "I'm very impressed with what I've seen here. I
want to come back and learn more."

__________________

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
<https://www.mintpressnews.com/us-backed-fascist-azov-battalion-in-ukraine-i
s-training-and-radicalizing-american-white-supremacists/251951/> article was
originally published on Mint Press News.

Max Blumenthal is the founder and editor of  <https://grayzoneproject.com/>
GrayzoneProject.com, the co-host of the podcast
<https://soundcloud.com/moderaterebels> Moderate Rebels, the author of
several books, and producer of full-length documentaries including the
recently released  <https://killinggaza.com/> Killing Gaza. Follow him on
Twitter at  <https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal> @MaxBlumenthal.

 

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