(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The Russian invasion of Ukraine this spring has made the topic of anti-Semitism relevant. This is not least because Putin partly justified the invasion by wanting to fight Nazi groups in the country. This was perhaps especially true in the steel city of Mariupol, with a concentration of soldiers from the so-called Azov Battalion. But Nazism in Ukraine was quickly dismissed as fabrication and Russian propaganda.
In British Guardian writes Jason Stanley as early as February 26, just two days after Putin's speech and invasion, that "de-Nazifying" was nonsense. The fight against Nazism must also not be understood as a Russian fight against anti-Semitism. In Russia, fighting Nazism is first and foremost about emphasizing the importance of the Russians' own victory over Hitler during World War II, Stanley believes.
Stanley argues against the allegations that Ukraine have a Nazi problem with that president Zelensky himself is a Jew and comes from a family of Holocaust victims. That Ukraine's Nazi-inspired party on the far right received only 2 percent of the vote in the last election, points in the same direction, he believes. And besides, parties on the far right have had greater support in countries like France, he emphasizes, concluding that the claim that Ukraine has a Nazi problem is "absurd in its face!"
To Stanley's argument, US senior diplomat Chas Freeman shakes his head. In the interview with Aaron Matté on the website Grayzone on March 24, Freeman says that a secular Jew like Zelenskyj may well be Jewish by family and at the same time cooperate with anti-Semitic forces in the country.
They praise the mosque killings in Christchurch and make the Hitler salute so that no one will be in doubt about their values.
That fascism also exists in Ukraine, and that fascism in Europe has strong elements of anti-Semitic thinking, must not cover the fact that Nazism, for the Russians, is primarily perceived as a threat to Russia itself, Stanley points out.
Asgardrei
Stanley is convincing in his argument that Putin's demand to de-Nazify Ukraine is not a declaration of war on anti-Semites. But that does not mean that Ukraine does not have a problem with anti-Semitic groups per se.
In December 2019, the website Vice reported that "hundreds of extremist right-wing extremists will gather in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv this weekend for an annual music festival for 'militant black metal' – 'Asgardsrei' – which experts believe has become a gathering place for several international networks of neo-Nazis.
Vice reports on groups with violent and clearly anti-Semitic texts. One of the groups, Stutthof, is named after one of the Nazi concentration camps, while the French band Seigneur Voland sings "When the swastika lights up the night sky"! This was the fifth year that European neo-Nazis gathered in Kyiv. You do not need a magnifying glass to find anti-Semitism here, in other words.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz writes on December 12, 2019 that while most Nazi festivals are held in secret, Asgardsrei takes place in all openness in the fifth year, now with a dozen black metal groups. The lyrics are not only anti-Semitic, but often praise Hitler, other Nazis and violence. Haaretz writes:
"This year, the festival takes place in great openness, which worries observers of right-wing extremism – and everything is happening under the protection of the ever-widening wings of the Azov Battalion."
Azovs National Militia
Extra piquant in today's war scene is that the prominent Russian neo-Nazi Alexei Levkin has moved to Kyiv and become a "political ideologue" for Azov national militia, which is no longer a "voluntary group" of enthusiastic soldiers, but is integrated into the national army. Although Levkin has tried to tone down the Nazi element in the 2019 event, Haaretz says that there is no shortage of groups that clearly pay homage to their Nazi heritage, such as the group Wodulf with texts such as «Immortal loyalty to the swastika, blood and earth, the source of our strength». Finnish Goatmoan honored the Kyiv festival for the third time in 2019 with lyrics such as "Appetite for the Holocaust".
The name of Levkin's own band M8L8TH is revealing: It contains the neo-Nazi code for Hitler: the number 88. The group sings in "Echo of an Upcoming War" about fighting to "the damned Jew is crushed".
Leading human rights observers are more than concerned about Ukraine's smear of anti-Semitic thinking.
But perhaps the worst thing is that several of the bands actually live out their lyrics: murders of gays, Islamophobic demonstrations and explicit neo-Nazi flag citizens. They praise the mosque killings in Christchurch and salute Hitler so that no one will be in doubt about their values: white, male power, and will and ability to violence. In Kyiv's venerable old opera house, the municipality provides premises for a warm-up evening for the festival, where they invite to a «fight night».
A "heart of darkness"
Haaretz has used a lot of space on the Azov movement and calls it 23.02.19 a "heart of darkness" that dreams of ruling Ukraine.
Azov and another fascist group, National Corpus, have clear ties to Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, The Guardian reported on March 13, 2018. C14 with its leader Yevhen Karas is an open neo-Nazi group that held a public press conference in Kyiv in early February with content that must experienced before you think it's true (search 'Real Alex Rubu Karas' on Twitter). They have an agreement with the city authorities to patrol the streets to keep "calm and order".
The head of the National Corps, Andriy Biletsky, was the first leader of the Azov Battalion and founder of the Socialist Nationalist Assembly of Ukraine (!). He has open fascist views and was a member of the Ukrainian parliament from 2014 to 2019, according to Wikipedia.
Leading human rights observers are more than concerned about Ukraine's smear of anti-Semitic thinking. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Vienna is one of these. And on 14 June 2018, a comprehensive joint report by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House and Frontline Defenders strongly warned against the broad support of the Azov movement in Ukraine, with its outrageous, violent profile against the Roma population, LGBT people, various rights activists and women's groups.
"The authorities [in Ukraine] have done little to stop this, which has strengthened and encouraged the movement," said Human Rights Watch researcher Tanya Coop in the report.
Self-proclaimed Nazis
The American newspaper USA Today already warned on March 10, 2015 that the city of Mariupol has "a voluntary brigade of self-proclaimed Nazis who are fighting with the government army against the Russian-backed separatists".
It remains to be seen what role Azov and other fascist groups will play in Ukraine in the future.
USA Today reports that this Azov element in the army has met with opposition from the population due to abuse and violence against civilians. The newspaper interviews an Azov soldier who could proudly say that when the war in the southeast against the Russians is won, they will march on Kyiv to remove the government.
A UN report from 5 March 2015 states that "intelligence reports that arbitrary arrest, torture and abductions have been carried out mainly by armed gangs, but also by Ukrainian police".
With Russia's attack on February 24 this year, much has changed in the attitudes of the far right and the Azov movement in Ukraine, not least in the Western media. And the combat capability of the Azov soldiers is naturally appreciated by Ukraine's defense forces.
It will be interesting to see if abuses that were revealed after the Russian invasion, for example in the city of Butsja, can be traced back to those to the Russian soldiers that President Zelenskyj quickly designated, or to Azov soldiers in revenge hunt for traitors, as others claim.
In any case, it remains to be seen what role Azov and other fascist groups will play in Ukraine in the future. And in what direction anti-Semitism will develop. Will the glorification of violence and the culture of hatred be tamed or degenerated when, or if, these groups gain new formal positions and are taken into the heat of the international community? Maybe they will become more courageous and after the military effort against the Russians demand to have their hero status exchanged in a currency with greater power and influence?
In any case, it is not reassuring to know that the Azov Regiment, with its violent prehistory, has now been refilled with hundreds of advanced Javelin anti-tank missiles and hand-held Stinger surface-to-air missiles from NATO countries. In any case, it is the stage for a long war with poorly developed exit strategies or a willingness to make vital compromises – a war with many, many dead.
