So it does look like there may be at least a shred of truth to Putin's Neo-Nazi claim.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/10/azov-far-right-fighters-ukraine-neo-nazis
Edit, and maybe also the drug-addict one too:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/05/ukraine-president-takes-up-comedians-drug-test-challenge
The Ukrainian President is Jewish, and his great-grandfather and three great-uncles were murdered in the Holocaust. It would be like claiming that the US is run by neo-Nazis and our government should be overthrown because we have active domestic terrorist groups that march with swastikas and other symbols of white nationalism.
"In 1991, Svoboda was founded as the Social-National Party of Ukraine.[65] The party combined radical nationalism and neo-Nazi features.[66][67][68] It was renamed and rebranded 13 years later as All-Ukrainian Association Svoboda in 2004 under Oleh Tyahnybok. In 2016, The Nation reported that "in Ukrainian municipal elections held [in October 2015], the neo-Nazi Svoboda party won 10 percent of the vote in Kiev and placed second in Lviv. The Svoboda party's candidate actually won the mayoral election in the city of Konotop."[69] The Svoboda party mayor in Konotop reportedly has the number "14/88" displayed on his car and has refused to display the city's official flag because it contains a star of David, and has implied that Jews were responsible for the Holodomor.[66]
The topic of Ukrainian nationalism and its alleged relationship to neo-Nazism came to the fore in polemics about the more radical elements involved in the Euromaidan protests and subsequent Russo-Ukrainian War from 2013 onward.[68] Some Russian, Latin American, U.S. and Israeli media have attempted to portray the Ukrainian nationalists in the conflict as neo-Nazi.[70] The main Ukrainian organisations involved with a neo-Banderaite legacy are Right Sector,[71] Svoboda and Azov Battalion. The persons regarded as Ukraine's national heroes—Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevych or Dmytro Klyachkivsky of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)—at times supported and then opposed the presence of the Third Reich in Ukraine.[72][73] "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Nazism#Ukraine
"In the early 2010s Jewish organizations in and outside of Ukraine have accused the political party All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda" of open Nazi sympathies and being antisemitic.[25] In May 2013 the World Jewish Congress listed the party as neo-Nazi.[26] "Svoboda" itself has denied being antisemitic.[27] In the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary elections "Svoboda" won its first seats in the Ukrainian Parliament,[28] garnering 10.44% of the popular vote and the 4th most seats among national political parties.[29] In the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary elections the party got 6 parliamentary seats (it won 4.71% of the popular vote in this election).[30] In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election other parties joined Svoboda to form a united party list, these were the Governmental Initiative of Yarosh, Right Sector and National Corps.[31] But in the election this combination won 2.15% of the votes, less than half of the 5% election threshold, and thus no parliamentary seats via the national party list.[32] Svoboda itself did win one constituency seat, in Ivano-Frankivsk.[32][33]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_Ukraine
Bandera cultivated German military circles favorable to Ukrainian independence, and organized OUN expeditionary groups. When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, he prepared the 30 June 1941 Proclamation of Ukrainian statehood in Lviv, pledging to work with Nazi Germany.[4][5] For his refusal to rescind the decree, Bandera was arrested by the Gestapo, which put him under house arrest on 5 July 1941,[6] and later between 1942 and 1943[7] sent him to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.[8] In 1944, with Germany rapidly losing ground in the war in the face of the advancing Allied armies, Bandera was released in the hope that he would be instrumental in deterring the advancing Soviet forces. He set up the headquarters of the re-established Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council, which worked underground. He settled with his family in West Germany where he remained the leader of the OUN-B and worked with several anti-communist organizations such as the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations[9][10] as well as with the British intelligence agencies.[9] Fourteen years after the end of the war, Bandera was assassinated in 1959 by KGB agents in Munich.[11][12]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera
All European countries have neo nazi groups, in the same way the US deals with white supremacists everywhere. Russia by the way also has plenty of neo nazi's. Fortunately these groups are only small political minorities. By that logic Putin could invade every single country in Europe.
Neo nazis are not in Russian parliament. If you have a different info please let me know. Six seats in parliament -that's significant, do you know how many people have to vote in order to get one seat in Ukrainian Parliament? Do you know anyone in the US Congress who's is openly a Neo-Nazi?
And with regards to the Republics in Eastern Ukraine, under international law they had no right to declare themselves independent in the first place, so Ukraine had every right to try to gain control over their territory again. Imagine what would happen if an American state would declare themselves independent, unilaterally. Actually, we've seen what happened. The American president did exactly what the president of Ukraine is doing now. Trying to control their own territory again.
So, bombing civilians for 8 years you call "try to gain control over their territory again." No, I understand your logic. Ukraine is only interested in the territory and doesn't care about the citizens living on those territories, they stopped paying pensions, mail services are not provided by the Ukraine, ah and don't forget building a dam to block the water supply to farmers and civilians. But the civilians haven't left, so bombing and attacking them should work. That's all within the rights of any democratic government, correct? The rest of the world in different circumstances would call that a genocide but since we are talking about Ukraine now, that isn't called a genocide.
Please remind me when the American president was killing Americans who decided not to vote for him and become independent. Are you talking about Japanese Americans during the world war II? Well, that's different, those Japanese Americans didn't want independence, no - not sure what you've been told.
At this point I'm not really sure if you are trolling or not, but just in case you are serious.
You say 6 members of Parliament in Ukraine have neo nazi sympathies. I don't have time to fact check that, but Wikipedia tells me the Ukrainian Parliament is called Verkhovna Rada and there are currently no parties that hold 6 seats. If you know the name of the neo nazi party I'd like to hear it. It's terrible that neo nazi's exist at all but 6/450 is actually an incredibly low amount for Europe. There are more in my Parliament (in the Netherlands) even though we only have 150 MPs. There are neo nazi's in almost every European Parliament, unfortunately.
There are indeed no neo nazi's in the Russian Parliament. Nor is the leader of the opposition, Alexei Navalny (currently imprisoned for political crimes and subjected to torture there) or for that matter, any opposition parties at all. Since Russia does not have free elections, the vast majority of seats is held by Putin's parties, the others go to other pro-Kremlin parties.
Obviously I was referring to the American Civil War. Yes, a President did sent the army to attack rebelling States and unfortunately civilians were also hurt. This is exactly what happened in Ukraine. Some political leaders of some parts of the country decided on an illegal secession (that's what it was, under the criteria set in international law these areas did not have the right to declare themselves independent from the mother country, just like the Confederate states did not) and we can't expect the lawful government of the Ukraine to give up on their valid territorial claim just because unfortunately innocent people die. If Russia truly cared about civilian lives in East Ukraine they would have urged the leaders there to give up on their illegal claim.
Does all of this mean Ukraine is a perfect country? No, it doesn't. It's a little less corrupt than Russia and ruled by a rivallling bunch of oligarchs instead of one faction of oligarchs. Does Ukraine meet the minimum standards for rule of law that EU membership requires? Absolutely not. There's a reason they're not members yet and it's mainly because their democracy is not strong enough yet.
I do think the current situation might create a momentum for reform and building back better. I really hope that in the future Ukraine will become a strong, democratic state.
I hope that Russians will come out of this situation better, too, but I not sure about it. This is looking more and more like it's going to be Putin's Waterloo. Even in Russia, a country with very little political freedom, protests happen openly and are widespread. Famous Russians speak out against Putin. But Putin has rotted Russian's civil society to the core. There is no real opposition, no one with any power who wasn't handpicked by Putin and his cronies. If/when someone finally puts a bullet in his head let's hope not another autocrat will grab the power.
It seems very likely that Putin will end like any other autocrat. First they are popular, then they enrich themselves, eventually they get mad, then they get killed. Putin is in the "mad" stage, it's only a matter of time before he will get killed. Likely at the hands of his cronies to try and save their own neck.
Topic: Ukraine (Read 559837 times)
