{"id":251758,"date":"2022-04-03T09:45:43","date_gmt":"2022-04-03T09:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=251758"},"modified":"2022-04-05T06:55:14","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T06:55:14","slug":"western-media-clubs-together-to-white-wash-ukrainian-neo-nazis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=251758","title":{"rendered":"Western media clubs together to white-wash Ukrainian Neo-Nazis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nebojsa Malic — RT.com April 2, 2022<\/strong><\/h1>\n

During the last week of March, multiple major media outlets in the UK and the US ran stories about Ukraine\u2019s \u2018Azov Batalion\u2019, seeking to whitewash almost a decade of previous reporting that clearly identified the unit\u2019s Nazi sympathies and ethos. Supposedly acting independently, they nonetheless stuck to the same talking points and often the same verbiage, suggesting a concerted effort to spin the unit as heroic defenders of Ukraine against the alleged \u201creal\u201d fascists \u2013 the Russians.<\/p>\n

The latest wave of the lionization of Azov began sometime before the Russian military operation \u2013 notorious was the much-publicized image of an AK-47-wielding Ukrainian granny training to repel invaders in the regiment\u2019s camp. The last week of March, however, saw the puff pieces come in a tight group, like the bullet holes after an AK burst.<\/p>\n

The first of the bunch was a ten-minute video<\/a>, from Britain\u2019s state-broadcaster BBC, on March 27, in which presenter Ros Atkins sought to debunk Russian \u201cuntruths\u201d<\/em> about Nazis in Ukraine. How can Ukraine be \u201cheld hostage\u201d<\/em> by Nazis when its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is Jewish, Atkins argues, pointing to his 73% of the vote, at the last election, and triumphantly declaring that, \u201cNo far-right groups have any formal political power in Ukraine.\u201d<\/em> Remember that word, \u201cformal\u201d<\/em> \u2013 it does a lot of heavy lifting here.<\/p>\n

Atkins\u2019s piece set the tone for the articles that followed. Two days later, on March 29, the Financial Times<\/a> ran a story describing Azov as \u201ckey to the nationwide resistance effort.\u201d<\/em> While it acknowledges that Azov was created in 2014 \u201cby volunteers with nationalist and often far-right political leanings,\u201d<\/em> the FT shrugs off its Nazi connections.<\/p>\n

Thus, the Nazi symbols used by the unit itself are described as \u201cnow claimed as pagan symbols by some battalion members.\u201d<\/em> This is taken at face value, but is literally untrue. The \u201cBlack Sun\u201d (also known as the Sonnenrad) dates back to a mosaic commissioned in the 1930s by the Nazi SS head Heinrich Himmler, while the overlaid Wolfsangel rune \u2013 historical German, not Ukrainian heraldry \u2013\u00a0 was used by several Wehrmacht and SS regiments, as well as the Dutch Nazis, during WWII. More to the point, the symbols themselves were picked out by Azov founder Andriy Biletsky \u2013 a notorious white supremacist \u2013 as he himself told another outlet back in 2014.<\/p>\n

FT reporters actually get a quote from Biletsky \u2013 none of this sordid past is mentioned \u2013 but the key quote comes from one Anton Shekhovtsov, who claims that \u201cAzov depoliticized itself\u201d<\/em> and its \u201chistory linked to the far-right movement is pretty irrelevant today.\u201d<\/em> We\u2019re supposed to just take the word of a professional Ukrainian \u201cexpert on Russia\u2019s connections to Europe\u2019s far-right,\u201d<\/em> because, as Azov fighters themselves say, Russians are the real Nazis!<\/p>\n

The cherry on top of the cake is a request by one Azov fighter \u2013 identified only as Kalyna \u2013 \u201cnot to confuse the concepts of patriotism and Nazism.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, FT describes Stepan Bandera \u2013 the notorious Ukrainian nationalist who tried to collaborate with the Nazis and oversaw the mass murder of Poles and Russians \u2013 \u201ca nationalist leader who opposed both Nazi and Soviet efforts to prevent Ukraine\u2019s independence.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

That same day, March 29, CNN<\/a> ran their own version of the story. Zelensky is Jewish, check. Azov has a \u201chistory of neo-Nazi leanings, which have not been entirely extinguished by its integration into the Ukrainian military,\u200b\u201d<\/em> but is \u201can effective fighting force,\u201d<\/em> check. Azov\u2019s political wing only won 2.15% of the vote in 2019 \u2013 quoting a German researcher this time \u2013 check.<\/p>\n

They too mention Biletsky, but say he allegedly spoke of wanting to \u201clead the White races of the world in a final crusade\u201d<\/em> \u2013 leaving out the part that says \u201cagainst the Semite-led Untermenschen<\/a>.\u201d<\/em> They then quote Azov denying he ever said so, and anyway they have \u201cnothing to do with his political activities and the National Corps party\u201d<\/em> \u2013 even though CNN itself describes it as Azov\u2019s \u201cpolitical wing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

CNN also dredged up a 2019 quote from Arsen Avakov \u2013 police minister in the post-Maidan government \u2013 in which he claims that accusations of Nazi ties are \u201ca deliberate attempt to discredit\u201d Azov and the Ukrainian military. This is the same Avakov whom Ukraine’s chief rabbi, Yaakov Bleich, criticized<\/a> in November 2014, saying he \u201c<\/em>continues<\/em><\/strong> to appoint people of questionable repute and ideologies tainted with fascism and right-wing extremism\u201d<\/em> [emphasis added].<\/p>\n

Last but not least, there\u2019s the Times of London<\/a> on March 30. Its story opens with the emotional description of a funeral for an Azov soldier killed in the fighting outside of Kiev.<\/p>\n

They too dismiss Nazi iconography as maybe rooted in Ukraine\u2019s \u201coriginal pagan faith,\u201d<\/em> though they admit to \u201cAzov\u2019s trademark Wolfsangel, also used by Nazi Germany.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are patriots but we are not Nazis,\u201d<\/em> is a quote attributed to Azov officer Yevgenii Vradnik, and gives the the story its title. Towards the end, the Times quotes an Azov commander in Mariupol, who accuses the Russians of being \u201cthe real Nazis of the 21st century.\u201d<\/em> Check and check.<\/p>\n

As an aside, Azov members are apparently really good at sticking to the message \u2013 and knowing their audience and which buttons to push. For example, the Times piece repeatedly mentions their praise of the British NLAW anti-tank rockets.<\/p>\n

Contrast this to the some of the \u0441overage Azov got in the West before 2022. Back in January 2021, TIME<\/a> magazine called them a militia that had \u201ctrained and inspired white supremacists from around the world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAzov is much more than a militia. It has its own political party; two publishing houses; summer camps for children; and a vigilante force known as the National Militia, which patrols the streets of Ukrainian cities alongside the police,\u201d<\/em> the TIME article says, noting that \u201cit also has a military wing with at least two training bases and a vast arsenal of weapons, from drones and armored vehicles to artillery pieces.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

They also paraphrase the words of Azov\u2019s \u201chead of international outreach\u201d<\/em> Olena Semenyaka, who told them during a 2019 tour of the Cossack House that the group\u2019s mission was to \u201cform a coalition of far-right groups across the Western world, with the ultimate aim of taking power throughout Europe.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Before the events of 2014, Biletsky led a \u201cneo-Nazi terrorist group\u201d<\/em> called Patriot of Ukraine, whose \u201cmanifesto seemed to pluck its narrative straight from Nazi ideology,\u201d<\/em> says TIME. In an interview after the coup, he told the magazine he picked out Azov\u2019s insignia. No mention of \u201cpagan\u201d<\/em> symbols, either, only a reference to the Black Sun and Wolfsangel being \u201cused by Germans\u201d<\/em> in WWII.<\/p>\n

Even Bellingcat, that \u201copen-source intelligence collective\u201d<\/em> apparently serving as a conduit for the British intelligence agenda, has raised red flags about Azov. Here they are in October 2019<\/a>, complaining about how the militants browbeat Zelensky into not withdrawing from the Donbass as required by the Minsk agreements.<\/p>\n

Though the \u201cfar-right groups\u201d<\/em> have \u201cnegligible popular support and virtually nonexistent electoral power\u201d<\/em> \u2013 remember Atkins\u2019s talking point earlier? \u2013 they \u201ccontinue to have success mainstreaming themselves in Ukrainian politics and society,\u201d<\/em> said Bellingcat.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t exactly the first time the corporate and state media in the West have run cover for a group they themselves had until recently described \u2013 correctly \u2013 as extremist. For example, just last year, the US public television sought to whitewash Al-Qaeda<\/a> affiliates in Syria \u2013 the Al-Nusra Front, later \u201crebranded\u201d<\/em> as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham \u2013 as \u201cmoderate rebels.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Politics and war make for strange bedfellows, sure, but if your bedfellows are open admirers of Adolf Hitler and Stepan Bandera, perhaps it\u2019s time to revisit that 2012 BBC Three comedy sketch<\/a> and ask, \u201cAre we the baddies?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Multiple outlets use the same talking points, quotes, and \u2018experts\u2019 to whitewash Ukraine\u2019s notorious \u201cAzov\u201d regiment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":167878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-The_Media","category-ukraine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=251758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251759,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251758\/revisions\/251759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/167878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=251758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=251758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=251758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}