Russia’s Shadow Plan Toppled Nazi Germany Into Ukraine Before Vladimir Putin’s War

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he invaded Ukraine to “denuclearize” the country and “protect the people” from “bullying and genocide”. The Russians also seem to believe him; about 68% said the purpose of the invasion was in self-defense, while 21% said it involved denazation. Although some have been careful to admit that Ukraine did indeed have a problem with Nazi Germany, most of the West has reacted to such claims with a glare, rightly arguing that the so-called denuclearization Putin’s culture is nothing more than an excuse for a blatant grab-and-go land.

But there is one clear point that has been largely overlooked in the discussion of Nazism in Ukraine: the fact that the country’s Nazi problem can be traced back to Russia.

Moscow recently released a shady video of FSB forces allegedly “thwarting” an assassination plot by neo-Nazis in Ukraine. The so-called assassin’s lair has a lot of “evidence” that seems to have been planted, like a new Nazi t-shirt and Sims games, which appear to be a mistake by Russian agents, who was instructed to bring the Sim card into the apartment. but instead planted video games.

Another item that was “discovered” was a book with handwritten notes, signed with “unreadable signatures”, indicating that the FSB had mistakenly signed the words after being asked to leave an illegible signature. . Like everything else, the book may be a tree, but the signature isn’t as stupid as it looks.

That phrase has special significance among the radical nationalist community in Russia. It is even the title of an extremely offensive cartoon about a rat (metaphorically Jewish) getting a job at an office using a reference with a single letter. sign is hard to read. Leonid Volkov, chief of staff to opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Written on Twitter that the phrase is also associated with Vasily Fedorovich, the author of the 2011 fascist manifesto and the makings of the “White Laces” hate crime. As Die Welt reported in 2008: “Ukrainian hate groups are said to be inspired by their counterparts in Russia… Russian skinheads help local groups, sharing tips and video clips about how to attack and torture the victim and how to safely leave the crime scene.”

There are many other forms of extreme nationalist inspiration that have flooded into Ukraine from Russia over the years, including neo-Nazi football fan groups, mixed martial arts (MMA) and underground bands. . Russian neo-Nazi football thug and MMA far-right figure Denis Nikitin has lived in Ukraine for many years, where he has hosted MMA matches in Kyiv, and is accused of using MMA as a recruiting tool. neo-fascist grave. Another avenue for Russian neo-Nazis to meet and recruit Ukrainians was the music scene, including Russian metal band M8L8TX (Hitler’s Hammer), which regularly toured the Kharkiv region. “When you talk to the Nazis themselves,” it turns out that they regularly attended those concerts, says independent journalist Leonid Ragozin.

Alexey Sazonov / AFP via Getty

The Russian government is also believed to have played a direct role in sending neo-Nazi mercenaries to Ukraine. That includes Dmitry Demushkin, who stated that in February 2014, then-Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin offered to make him mayor of a city in the Donbas if he agreed to lead his followers. his fighting in Ukraine. A year later, Wagner-affiliated mercenary and neo-Nazi Alexei Milchakov also claimed that he, his Russian neo-Nazi counterpart Yan Petrovsky, and others had been paid by the Russian government to do so. mercenary work in Ukraine, where he founded the new Nazi Rusich Mercenary Group and caused a stir when he cut off the ears of the corpses of his enemies.

To be fair, Ukraine has a fascist history of its own. The Founding Fathers were Nazi collaborators: Stepan Bandera was the leader of the far-right Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), Roman Shukhevych was the captain of Germany’s auxiliary police. Nazi, and Yaroslav Stetsko once said that he was in favor of “the extermination of the Jews”.

Remnants of that kind of historic anti-Semitism remain to this day: There has been a recent spike in anti-Semitism in Ukraine over the past few years, including a march of New Nazi Germany in Kyiv in May 2021. But to the extent such problems persist, there has been a targeted effort to solve them — including as early as February of this year, when the government was Ukraine passes legislation criminalizing anti-Semitism.

Genya Savilov / AFP via Getty

Then there was the Ukrainian Azov Battalion, whose founding leader once said that Ukraine’s aim was to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade… against Untermenschen do Semite leader [subhumans]. But if Azov is an anti-nationalist group, and the radical nationalist influence comes from Russia, then why is Azov anti-Russian?

Igor Eidman, Russian sociologist and political commentator, wrote in September 2020. “Throughout the years in Russia there have been mass beatings of people with the ‘wrong’ skin color or eye shape. ‘. mandarins, mandarins, oligarchs”.

That was until 2007, when “the Nazi golem began to spiral out of control of its creator. The Nazis actually turned to mass terrorism, destabilizing the country. They started blowing up and destroying the market,” Eidman wrote. As a result, the Russian authorities decided to shut down their pet fascist project during the Euromaidan uprising in Ukraine, because “the Kremlin decided that nationalists could become a force to be reckoned with. fighting against the protests not only in Kyiv but also in Moscow. So in 2014 they tried to move them to the slaughterhouse in Donbas. And those who refused were jailed.”

This is in agreement with the statements of Demushkin, Milchakov and others.

Eidman concluded that virtually all of the Russian nationalist extremist leaders suddenly became enemies of the state and were imprisoned between 2014 and 2015. Many later fled to Ukraine. Alexander Parinov, wanted for planning the murder of a lawyer and journalist, is believed to be a member of Azov. Sergey Korotkikh, founder of Russia’s largest nationalist extremist group, the National Socialist Socialists, is The current a leading Azov member. Roman Zheleznov of the far-right Restrukt movement, which hunts down gays in Russia, also serves in Azov. Alexei Korshunov, a member of the Russian Nationalist New Anti-Fascist Organization (BORN), which is responsible for many murders, is suspected of murdering anti-French activist Ivan Khutorkoi. and fled to Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.

Yuriy Dyachyshyn / AFP via Getty

So Russia has helped promote and encourage radical ethnic groups to destabilize Ukraine, but when the Kremlin realized these very groups could be the destabilizing force in Moscow and repressing them, many fled to neighboring Ukraine. The end result is that you now have anti-Russian neo-Nazis in Russian Ukraine.

“The Kremlin recognizes that the far right can pose a threat to political stability, not just for African migrant workers and students,” said Alexander Verkhovsky, director of the SOVA Center of the private organization Russia, which focuses on post-Soviet Russian nationalism and racism, told the Daily Beast. “There have been waves of repression. My hypothesis is that our administration has some fear regarding the people participating in the war [in Ukraine] and came back very disappointed. “

Verkhovsky said that although Russia had influence on Ukrainian groups, they did not create them. He added: “Many Russian neo-fascists, other extremist leaders and activists, including militias, have fled to Ukraine over various years. “Some of them, but not all, became part of the neo-Nazi Ukrainian army. But all of Ukraine’s neo-Nazi groups were created by Ukrainians”.

Political betrayal is only part of the problem. There is also a profound ideological rift. “Our extremists are white racists above all else,” Verkhovsky said, adding, “Putin is seen as an enemy because he invites millions of non-Slavic people from other countries, This is considered an invasion. So he was seen as a traitor to the nation.”

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This explains why, in a 2014 report by Guardians, an Azov boxer is quoted as saying, “I have nothing against Russian nationalists, or a great Russia. But Putin is not even Russian. Putin is a Jew. “

In a nutshell, this is how you end up with Putin declaring that he wants to denuclearize Ukraine and get rid of the country’s Jewish president, while there are also Russian neo-Nazis in Ukraine claiming Putin is Jewish. Whatever the case, Putin’s statement is clearly a case of the Nazi kettle calling the Nazi pot black.