Covering Up the Far Right in Ukraine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B41Ux-2xP8

Generally speaking Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! is so hostile to Russia that she has been more than a little susceptible to the official narrative provided by the American government with regard to not just the invasion and the nature of the fighting – but its context as well.

 

For Goodman, Putin is the embodiment of evil because of his suppression of free speech and human rights – particularly when it comes to the various feminist and Sodomite causes that Goodman thinks important.

She also fell into this with Syria – more or less parroting the DNC line. And yet I will give her credit – she's big enough of a journalist to let some of the other voices speak even if they disagree with her – and on her show no less. She pauses (one must presume) because there are serious voices on the Left that questioned the narratives surrounding the Syrian War, the White Helmets and the like.

And now to her credit she's giving a platform to some on the Left that question that narrative regarding Ukraine – and just what the Zelenskiy government (and the post-2014 government) is really all about.

The Nation headline properly sums it up – Western Media is whitewashing the Azov Battalion.

And so if Zelenskiy is not the liberal (in the classical sense) that he's made out to be – then just what is this all about and why is the West so keen to support him?

Again, the narrative is that Putin engaged in 'naked aggression' – he just invaded Ukraine because he wanted to or because he's dreaming of reconstituting the Soviet Union – or maybe the Tsarist Empire. These are absurdities as are the notions floated by some on the Right that Putin is still a communist. Even Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary-General of NATO admitted as much – though it was probably an unintentional admission. In other words he hadn't really thought through what he was saying and didn't realize that such an admission (that Putin attacked Ukraine because of NATO expansion) effectively contradicts the official Western narrative. For Stoltenberg it's safe to say it was his finest hour.

For Putin, this is about his nation's security and he's reading the situation through the lens of history. From his standpoint, the West is once more moving against Russia, some of the same historical forces that have ravaged his country in the past and for the same reasons. Russia will never forget the nearly 30 million dead from World War II and despite NATO's claims to be a defensive alliance, Russia knows better – as does much of the world.

Ukraine is their proxy or beachhead for NATO expansion and the tug-of-war over the country has been going on for over twenty years – but reached a new and intensified stage in 2014 with the Maidan Coup. All of this must be understood before one can hope to understand why Putin recklessly and foolishly invaded in February 2022.

This video needs to be seen by a wider audience. The fascists of the Azov Battalion are the ideological heirs of Ukraine's fascist movements of the World War II period. Fascism lay dormant during the Cold War in the Soviet sector but was revived in the 1990's. These groups have changed names and gone through various permutations but it's ultimately the same people and ideology. This is so stunning when one grasps what has been happening and how it has been kept from the American public. Needless to say it could only happen with the deliberate and determined help of the media.

And this story is related to the September 2023 standing ovation given to a former Waffen-SS soldier in the Canadian Parliament as well as the surge in activities among the Far Right and Neo-Nazis in the United States.

Golinkin's statement is pretty telling – it's safe to report on Neo-Nazis just about anywhere, but not Ukraine. Why? Because they're 'our' Neo-Nazis as he puts it – the West's. And therefore they are legitimate – and should be reckoned as freedom fighters.

And he's also right to mention the fact that there are Neo-Nazis in the ranks of Wagner as well. Putin and his cronies are not angels but no one pretends they are. But in the West, Zelenskiy and the Ukrainian military are presented as virtuous liberals standing for freedom. That's just not the case.

I hate to make a statement like this because it could be misunderstood and open a can of worms but watching these events over the past decade or so with Ukraine and some of the political and geopolitical wranglings – it makes one start to further question some of the narratives connected to WWII. At the very least it leads me to question the narratives in the lead up to the actual fighting.

And it's not just that groups like Azov are whitewashed – they're actively promoted and are making the rounds in the United States. Once again, the media is playing a big part in all of this.

And with the media there are key figures in academia – Timothy Snyder and Anne Applebaum immediately come to mind.

And there are the celebrities as well - figures like Sean Penn and John Stewart.

And the war has its champions in the US Congress as well – some who seem to be fully on board with the narratives and the campaign.

How informed are all these people? That's hard to say. I don't doubt that some are sincere – especially when it comes to the figures in the entertainment industry. Of course history shows that such figures are not above taking payment for a cause.

When it comes to figures in academia (or in the case of someone like Applebaum) she's directly invested in the geopolitics and is more an agent/actor than an indifferent scholar. When it comes to Timothy Snyder, what can we say? Every war seems to generate such figures, the key academic to write 'the' book and make the rounds in official circles in order to sell the line. The reward might not be outright cash but there are other ways such academics are rewarded.

As far as the Congress, they are motivated by many different concerns but at the end of the day they are all about retaining office, attaining higher office, and doing the bidding of those who are lining their pockets. But even this is confusing as the money flowing from private actors and corporations is often shrouded in mystery – the true source and motivation not always being known.

Regardless, the campaign is impressive and when exposed as fraudulent (as is the case here) then it necessarily leads us to ask another series of questions regarding the nature of this war and the way it's being presented. There's a lot here and if more people were aware of the situation – like with the Azov Battalion for example, it might change things.

I believe some Right-wing outlets that are still committed to the Blue Team agenda – war with China being the primary focus with Beijing as the primary threat, have given air to some of these stories about Azov and Zelenskiy and it has contributed to the waning support for the war in Ukraine, especially within Republican circles. There are others (a minority) that not only believe the US should be fighting China but also believe Ukraine is a big mistake, that Russia is a natural ally in the 'Clash of Civilisations' and that the West needs Russia in order to fight a world war against not just China but the forces of Islam as well.

Regardless of how this is presented or understood, the whole fascist connection with Azov is misrepresented as the people at FOX, Newsmax, and other outlets will simply put an anti-Democratic spin on the story accompanied with the standard tortured logic that argues the Democrats are fascists and so therefore it's logical they would support Nazis in Ukraine.

This reasoning is completely flawed but I don't doubt for a moment that it can gain tremendous traction in some quarters of the American Right.

The actual truth regarding American politics and fascism is that it has always been the GOP that has forged such relationships and has been keen to support these groups. The fascists (whatever their stripe) are strongly anti-communist and therefore their key point of identity overlaps with one of the foundational planks of the post-war Republican Party. They are (it might be said) natural allies and this is certainly true in more recent times as the GOP has continued to move to the Right and now openly embraces not only outright fascists on the American fringe but they've even begun to mainstream some of this ideology within their thinking and style – Donald Trump being exhibit A.