Some of us have being saying since early 2022 – see Yes, Ukraine IS in the grip of Nazis – that Zelensky has been a captive of far right and viciously antisemitic “nationalists” since the day he took office in 2019, after five years of civil war, with a mandate to ease tensions with Russia and move forward on Minsk. 1
Indeed, between 2014 and 2020, Western and Israeli ‘quality’ media – the BBC and Politico and Jerusalem Post to name but a few – voiced frequent concern over post Maidan Ukraine’s lurch to the right. Yet this ceased to exercise those media from 2021 to the past few weeks. Not only had Ukraine’s fascists done a media vanishing act worthy of Lord Lucan. The few observers not afflicted by selective amnesia 2 were called out by the propaganda blitzed many as apologists for “Putin’s land grab”.
Now those media have, with Ukraine’s impending defeat no longer plausibly deniable, regained their powers of recall. A country which, on Boris Johnson’s assurance – Boris Johnson FFS! 3 – that better terms could be had by prolonging the war, walked away from an April 2022 peace deal that would have left it territorially intact (and hundreds of thousands still drawing breath instead of pushing up daisies thanks to Bakhmut, Adviivka and the other cauldrons time forgot) must sooner rather than later sue on bended knees for peace. Now that this truth may be aired – in whispered obfuscation or tones less muted – in upmarket Western organs, the existence of that far right may once more be mentioned in polite discourse.
As a roadblock to negotiations.
Over to Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate of the Grayzone, who in a sprightly eight minutes fifteen explore this miraculous resurrection of the soul of Stepan Bandera.
* * *
- The agreements in Minsk, capital of Belarus, were that the principle of self determination be implemented in the case of a state, having seceded from a larger state but housing large concentrations of ethnic groupings culturally and linguistically bound to the latter. In sum, The Donbas and other parts of east Ukraine should, like South Ossetia in Georgia, have a say in their governance. The issue had been made all the more pressing by the US orchestrated Maidan coup of early 2014, and consequent upsurge of virulently Banderite Ukraine nationalism which, in the eight years preceding Russia’s intervention of February 2022, shelled and bombed Donetsk and other Russophile cities to make the east a Slavic Gaza. (Albeit on a lesser scale. A mere 14,000 officially dead, said the UN before adding – sound familiar? – that “actual numbers are likely considerably higher”.)
- To make sense of such selective amnesia we should keep in mind that while our media do lie actively when the interests of power require it, they prefer to mislead by omission. Out of sight and out of mind, as the saying goes. If it ain’t in the papers it ain’t real. Thus is truth skewed and meaningless consent – in this case for a proxy war aimed however foolishly at weakening Russia – manufactured.
- Johnson’s role in Ukraine’s needless suffering – all it had to do was forswear NATO and honour Minsk – leaves him a rival to Tony Blair for sheer volume of blood on his hands. This is a man famous for his ability to walk away from every mess – children fathered or a trainwreck Brexit – with a whistle and a swagger. Yet even he may be having sleepless nights over his role as Washington’s messenger boy in Istanbul, April 2022. When guilt cannot be assuaged by undoing what cannot be undone, a common option is to double down on the same. That might explain Boris’s ridiculous three point plan for Ukraine to snatch victory from the yawning jaws of defeat, as set out last month in The Spectator – see Brian Berletic’s characteristically incisive 19 minute takedown.
As this 2019 article from The Nation details:
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/
When I first came across this article in mid-March 2022 the many links contained in the article – from UN Reports, the Jerusalem Post, Amnesty International, Human rights Watch etc – provided a treasure trove of Western based and controlled organisations concerned analysis of the role of the neo-Nazi right in Ukraine.
Accessing it last year in order to bookmark the links on Zotero most of the links had disappeared from the article. Though, a cursory trawl on a couple of them this morning seem to be working (perhaps the memory hole occasionally operates both ways and things which disappeared return?).
If those links are all still working, they provide a fascinating insight into this phenomena.
The other aspect which is not being talked about – the other shoe which is yet to drop so to speak – is this part of the FT article from Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Merezhko:
“They are a major political and military force that should be reckoned with when peace talks start in earnest. If peace is finally reached, these professional soldiers and especially drone operators will fill up the ranks of organised crime in Europe and beyond.”
Though I’m not too sure about that future tense as there are already a great many Ukrainians who have relocated across Europe. Whilst I’ve not seen anything above the radar in terms of the UK I have seen a number of articles on the Strategic Culture Foundation from Declan Hayes on the problems of relocating large numbers of Ukrainian’s into small communities in the Republic of Ireland which seem to mirror the kind of problems highlighted in this video……
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pbNH9zaQEM&ab_channel=NickJohnson
…..featured in one of Simplicius the thinker’s recent ‘Dark Futura’ posts.
Point being that Merezhko in the FT article is acting as the canary in the mineshaft in regard to yet another aspect of the blowback from Project Ukraine. In this instance, the better than even chances of the ranks of our own far right being added to by organised far right militias with actual combat experience, weapons training, organisational coherence and effectiveness, and associated contacts.
Thanks for the link to the Nation piece, Dave. I checked its links and they work too. Chilling stuff.
On your other point, that the soon to be unemployed Banderites of the Azov and C14 will sell their skills to the highest bidders in the criminal underworld, ’twas ever thus.
I remember the piece from the BBC where Ros Atkins talks straight to camera of Putins false Nazi claims just after the invasion https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-60853404. It stuck with me because of having read pieces such as the one you posted saying the opposite Interesting then that both pieces are still up. BBC cognitive dissonance?
Thanks for this BBC gem, Gerald. If I’ve time I might do a post on it – two howlers in the first 45 seconds. First, the idea that Zelensky’s Jewishness means the far right can’t have clout is childish. That far right made him an offer, Godfather style, he couldn’t refuse – as is well documented. Second, his high share of the vote in 2019 reflects the fact he had huge support from Russian speaking oblasts he sold down the river out of fear of said far right! And now? He can’t call an election, though his term expired five months ago. He’d lose big time and, while he might like nothing better than to slip away like a thief in the night to some luxury haven, dark forces may well be telling him that while his legitimacy is past its sell-by date, his usefulness as a puppet is not.
And my, doesn’t that
head prefectBBC presenter look full of himself.On the subject of the BBC (but not the Ukraine), there was a nauseating ‘interview’ (i.e. statement, a couple of days ago on ‘Today’ with the Israeli Ambassador, who was allowed to voice numerous blatantly prejudiced and one sided views, victim blaming, whining and outright lies with out interruption or question, then or afterwards.
It was a truly disgusting performance.
Why am I not surprised, Jams?