Ukraine's magical disappearing Nazis

Take a gander at Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral (ret’d) John Kirby, on the edge of a nervous breakdown as he discusses Russian depravity in Ukraine. Yup, the hardened military man has never before seen such heinous inhumanity. Maybe he should dust off his Abu Ghraib photo album. Kirby makes a point of dismissing the mentally unstable Putin’s claims that there are fascists in Ukraine. That’s become a standard trope throughout Western media. That’s why Globe & Mail “public editor” Sylvia Stead can dismiss Azov’s Nazi roots with the facile “we know there are no fascists in Ukraine because they elected a Jewish president.” That’s why today’s Sunday Star can bring us a 3/4 page story about the plight of the remnants of Azov trapped in Mariupol without even using the term “far right,” let alone “fascist” or “nazi.” The stench of Ukrainian fascism has been erased by an industrial-strength dose of the Washington-concocted disinfectant, “Nazi-be-gone.” But it was not always thus. Here’s a 2018 op-ed from Reuters; Ukraine's neo-Nazi problem. Note:If links not working,try Contrarian Ranter site at Substack. If google can't find it try Yahoo or Bing. Here’s a 2018 headline from The Nation; America's Collusion with Neo-Nazis. Here’s The Nation again, 2019; Neo-Nazis and the far-right are on the march in Ukraine. Here’s a 2019 photo-essay from The Guardian; Ultranationalism in Ukraine. Between 2014 and 2019, Amnesty International issued at least half a dozen reports documenting hate crimes by fascist elements in Ukraine, including attacks on ethnic minorities, LGBT groups, and political opponents. Several of those stories refer to the C14 group, which runs children’s summer camps in Ukraine. The “14” refers to the 14 words of the white supremacist slogan, “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” But now it’s 2022, and abracadabra, Nazis be gone! John Kirby can’t find any. Joe Biden can’t find any. Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian ultra-nationalist Chrystia Freeland can’t find any, and certainly no journalist working anywhere in mainstream Western media can find any. All that Nazi talk was just Russian propaganda! So let’s rustle up a few more billions in military aid for those plucky patriots of the Azov Battalion before it’s too late. They’re fighting for our shared values, after all!

Canada and Neo-Nazis

The Trudeau government yesterday welcomed the news that extreme-right personality Faith Goldy had been voted off Facebook Island. That's to be expected. After all, it would be hard to find a crew more outspoken in their anti-fascist virtue signalling than Justin's social justice warriors.

Meanwhile, the decision to extend Canada's military mission to Ukraine passed virtually unnoticed when it was announced last month. We're all-in to help the plucky Ukrainians ward off Putin's aggression, after all.

Whenever the fascist tendencies in Ukrainian politics become a topic of conversation, our media are quick to offer scathing denials from folks like Paul Grod and Lloyd Axworthy. Lies, slander, and Putinist propaganda; not a word of truth to it, they claim.

That's usually enough to stop the conversation in its tracks.

Yet the story never completely goes away. Here's an article from The Nation, which as far as I know is not one of Putin's disinformation outlets; Neo-Nazis and far right on the march in Ukraine. The writer obviously forgot to fact-check with Lloyd and Paul.

Here's a news story from Germany a couple of years back; The Brotherhood of Racists and Anti-Semites. According to the story, Ukraine is the go-to destination for young white-power aficionados across Europe hoping to get training and inspiration.

Our government spends our tax dollars training the Ukrainian military. Elements in the Ukrainian military then pass along that military training to violent extremists drawn to Ukraine from across Europe.

What they'll do with that training remains to be seen...


Your tax dollars at work!