Ukraine Crisis: Who Are the Russian Neo-Nazi Groups Fighting with Separatists?

ibtimes.co.uk ^ | September 1, 2014 | Gianluca Mezzofiore

[Tailgunner Joe]

The leader of Ukraine's Jewish communities has warned that Russian neo-Nazi organisations are increasingly active in the pro-Russian insurgency in east Ukraine.

Iosif Zisels, head of Vaad Ukraine, the Association of Jewish Organisations and Communities of Ukraine, has said that that Russia is "infected with the ideas of revanchism and that is very closely linked to fascism".

According to Zisels, neo-Nazi organisations – which have prospered in Russia for over 20 years, and fuel tensions in the country after the fall of the Soviet Union – are now operating in Ukraine after being active in Moldova and Georgia.

Zisels says the most powerful far-right unit is the Russian National Unity (RNU) movement, led by ultra-nationalist Aleksandr Barkashov.

Barkashov visited Ukraine twice this year, in March and May, and is currently based in Donetsk.

This paramilitary organisation, which advocates the expulsion of non-Russians from the country, was founded in 1990. Its red-and-white emblem resembles the swastika icon used by the German Nazi party in the 1930s and 1940s.

Barkashov's son is fighting in separatist groups in eastern Ukraine, says Zisels.

Among other Far Right groups alleged to be operating in the Ukraine is Aleksandr Dugin's Eurasian Youth Union, right-wing elements of The Other Russia dissident coalition, and the resurrected 'Black Hundreds'.

Zisels said the Russian neo-Nazis "do not have their own military units, but their members are included within other units".

Expansionist philosopher

Ultra-nationalist philosopher Dugin is a legendary figure in Russia.

A professor at Moscow state university, the founder of the Eurasian Youth Union is thought to have inspired President Putin's desire to annex of Crimea.

Dugin also publicly supports the rebels in Donetsk region, which he calls Novorossiya – 'New Russia' – and claims the separatist struggle there, which he calls "Russian Spring", has rekindled the "Russian spirit".

Dugin is also one of the greatest supporters of Igor Strelkov, the charismatic separatist leader who recently resigned from his ministry of defence post in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.

The bearded Dugin backed Russia during the 2008 war with Georgia, calling for a full-scale invasion of the ex-Soviet country to overthrow the then-president Mikhail Saakashvili. On that occasion, he said Russia should have seized Crimea "which is part of Russia anyway".

Strange bedfellows

The Other Russia coalition was established in July 2011 by writer and National Bolshevik Party leader Eduard Limonov. It is formed by a disparate group of political organisations, including liberals, communists, nationalists, human rights organisations, and elements of the Far Right.

Eduard Limonov, leader of the radical ultranationalist National Bolshevik Party, is one of Other Russia's leaders, alongside Garry Kasparov, the Russian chess Grand Master who founded the pro-democracy United Civil Front.

This unusual coalition of political movements is linked together by their opposition of Putin's rule.

Russian Neo-Nazis

The Black Hundreds leader, Anton Raevskii, attempted to create a subversive group in Odessa while taking part in Ukrainian separatist rallies back in March. This led to him being banished from Ukraine later that month.

Raevskii has denied being a neo-Nazi, claiming his organisation promotes "monarchy, empire and Eastern Orthodox Church", but photographs show he has Nazi-themed tattoos: including a large tattoo of Hitler on one his arm.

The organisation shares its name with pro-Czarist, ultranationalistic and anti-Semitic political groups from pre-Stalinist Russia.

Raevskii promotes The Black Hundreds through a YouTube channel.

[elhombrelibre]

I hate Illinois NAZIS and Russian ones.

[ncalburt]

Wait, All the KGB Putin groupies said the evil Nazi groups were Ukraine groups.

Were the Paulbot Putin groupies LYING to us!

Are the Putin fan club here Frauds ?..

Wow, I thought the Great uprising were comprised of sweet innocents locals that shot down 300 passenger jet by mistake.?..

Just shocking /S

[1rudeboy]

This thread is destined to skyrocket to ten replies, as opposed to the “Ukrainians are all Nazis” threads.

[Thunder90]

Strange bedfellows indeed. Especially when you have hardcore KPRF Communists and Ukrainian Commies fighting alongside the separatists in Ukraine as well.

[Tailgunner Joe]

Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.

[vladimir998]

“This thread is destined to skyrocket to ten replies, as opposed to the “Ukrainians are all Nazis” threads.”

Because the Putin lovers have an aversion to truth.

[Gay State Conservative]

What a silly...and deceptive...question.They're Russian soldiers.That's been proven beyond a whisper of a doubt.

[GeronL]

Russian Foreign Minister:

#Lavrov: We discussed the initiative of our President about creating space from Lisbon to Vladivostok

[GeronL]

Russia has also made a pact with Iran to get around sanctions

[Mike Darancette]

This thread is destined to skyrocket to ten replies, as opposed to the “Ukrainians are all Nazis” threads

Here's 11 then.

[jobim]

Disinformation by former KGB/Romania defector, details how anti-semitism has festered in Russia going back to the 1800s. The Nazis picked this up from them - not the other way around.

[sakic]

The anti-Semitism in Germany predates its counterpart in Russia by quite a bit of time.

[1rudeboy]

How much time?

[Tailgunner Joe]

Hitler’s anti-semitism was inspired by the Protocols of Zion, written by Russians.

[jobim]

From Disinformation by Ion Pacepe:

"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", which claimed that the Jews were plotting to take over the world, was a Russian forgery, compiled by a disinformation expert, Petr Ivanovich Rachovsky, who worked for the Okhrana (Dept for Protecting the Public Security and Order) in the days of the tsar. Rachovsky was assigned to France at the time of the 1897 Zionist Congress, and he had been inspired by the enormous wave of anti-Semitism whipped up by the Dreyfus Affair. Rachovsky lifted most of his text directly from an obscure, 1864 French satire called "Dialogue aux Enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu" (Dialogue in Hell between Machiavelli and Montesqueu), written by Maurice Joly and accusing Emperor Napoleon III of plotting to seize all the powers of French society. The Okhrana officer essentially substituted the words "the world for France" and "the Jews for Napoleon III." During the Russian Revolution of 1905, the Okhrana republished its forgery in Paris under the name of a mystic Russian priest, Sergius Nilus, as part of an antirevolutionary propaganda campaign....In 1978, when I broke with communism, the Securitate was spreading the "protocalls" around the Middle East as well.

What I meant to say is that in modern times the anti-Zionist movement seems to have developed in Russia on which the nazis built their agenda. But historically, of course, anti-Semitism had been around since the Crucifixion.

[jobim]

I posted my reply before I saw yours.

[ozzymandus]

You are historically ignorant.

[sakic]

Anti-Semitism existed since the crucifixion, but the biggest single impetus on the Nazi movement in Germany belongs to the teachings of Martin Luther.

Jews were already despised in Germany before Hitler. The Great Depression, in conjunction with the advent of Hitler, propelled it into the forefront.

While another poster called me historically ignorant, I am fairly certain that Luther predated The Protocols of Zion.

[Tailgunner Joe]

Nazi antisemitism had nothing to do with Christianity which Hitler rejected as a weak Jewish slave religion. Hitler's antisemitism was based on the theory that a Jewish-Masonic conspiracy was out to get Germany. He got that straight out of the Protocols. Nothing to do with the crucifixion of Jesus at all. Christianity was believed to be part of the conspiracy to make Germans weak and make them worship a Jewish God.