NBC’s Richard Engel promotes Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov Battalion

World Socialist ^ | 16 Feb 22 | Thomas Scripps

[delta7]

In 2015-2016, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights connected Azov with war crimes, including mass looting, unlawful detention and torture.

Since Yanukovych’s ouster, the US and its allies have ensured that the Ukrainian regime, particularly its far-right paramilitaries, remain a significant and threatening force. Billions of dollars have been spent supporting the government and supplying and training its armed forces.

In April 2015, nearly 300 members of the US 173rd Airborne Brigade were sent to Ukraine to train Ukrainian soldiers, including members of the Azov Battalion. They were joined by British, Canadian and Polish soldiers in Operation Fearless Guardian.

That December, President Barack Obama signed into law the 2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act, deliberately omitting an amendment reading, “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to provide arms, training, or other assistance to the Azov Battalion.” The version with the amendment had been passed unanimously by the House of Representatives but not sent to the Senate after pressure from the Pentagon.

With the war drive against Russia again in full swing, the Azov fascists are now dutifully presented on America’s TV screens as the providers of “basic training for the whole family.”

Two essential facts of the Ukraine crisis are underscored by Engel’s report.

First, that Ukraine is being used as a breeding ground for fascist anti-Russian forces, potential provocateurs of a military confrontation in the Donbass, Crimea or across the Russian border. Azov’s founder and then-commander Biletsky denounced the September 2014 ceasefire with Donbass separatists, saying, “If it was a tactical move there is nothing wrong with it... if it’s an attempt to reach an agreement concerning Ukrainian soil with separatists then obviously it’s a betrayal.”

Second, not a single word or image presented by the corporate media in the imperialist countries can be believed. Its journalists are so embedded in the military-security apparatus and foreign policy establishment, especially in the United States, that they serve as a conduit for a state psy-ops operation levelled against the population.

The critical task for the international working class is to consciously reject the propaganda of its governments and take an independent political stand. It can do so by adopting the internationalist, socialist programme opposed to the imperialist powers war plans and the right-wing nationalist governments of Ukraine and Russia outlined every day by the World Socialist Web Site….

[delta7]

Both sides are corrupt, people suffer for their governments actions. Best advice, don’t support either side, starve them. Ukrainian and MSM propaganda is at it’s most deceptive level, Americans a bunch of chumps to believe anyone today. A regional conflict, not worth losing a generation of youngsters.

[LibFreeUSA]

Posting from the “World Socialist”? Really.

[Boogieman]

Yeah, I don’t think going to the “World Socialist” is the answer to your worries about propaganda.

[Zhang Fei]

Since only one side can win, starving both sides means Russia wins. Do you support a complete Soviet-era embargo on Russia if Russia conquers Ukraine?

We have a huge number of security relationships with corrupt countries. India is probably more corrupt than Ukraine. Despite superior human resources, India produces lower economic output per capita than Ukraine. Maybe we should starve India. Or maybe Russia should rule India.

Re anti-semitism in Ukraine, Zelensky's election is actually reflective of the relatively low level of prejudice against Jews there relative to Ukraine's neighbors:

Kiev's mayor, for instance, is an Orthodox Christian, but he is very Jewish-looking. That's something no Ukrainian would miss - it's like the difference between Al Pacino and Hugh Grant. Klitschko is halachically Jewish, which is to say he qualifies for Israeli citizenship via the Law of Return because his maternal grandmother is Jewish.

[frogjerk]

Sadly, this is where we are:

Second, not a single word or image presented by the corporate media... can be believed.

[throwthebumsout]

Aren’t China and Russia on the Human Rights Council?

[Yaelle]

The Jewish Ukrainians I know here know damn well there are OG Nazis protected and propped up in Ukraine.

[SpinyNorman]

Socialists are vermin, and with their communist kin, responsible for more human strife, poverty and murder than any other belief system.

But they’ll get it right this time! /sarc

[Zhang Fei]

[The Jewish Ukrainians I know here know damn well there are OG Nazis protected and propped up in Ukraine.]

---

LARPers are amusing, but no real threat. The MOT reporter obviously doesn’t see them as an issue. The big problem with Nazi Germany wasn’t the fact that it was Nazi but the fact that the party controlled Germany, the #2 industrial power after the US at the time. Those resources enabled it to fight almost every single major power to a draw.

In economic terms, relative to Germany, Ukraine is a nothing. Even if the tiny % of Nazis took power in Ukraine, its mosquito-sized economy would, at best, allow that faction the ability to stay in power, not engage in a European tour like Nazi Germany. Outside of the imaginary world, though, in the here and now, Ukraine has a Jewish president and a Jewish mayor in its capital. Which is to say both Russia and the US are more Nazi than Ukraine, since neither has ever had a Jewish national leader.

[higgmeister]

Yeah, I don’t think going to the “World Socialist” is the answer to your worries about propaganda.

Alles Klar Kommissar?

[Skywise]

The absolute hilarity of this is that the SJWs, just 3 weeks ago, got a guy cancelled for wanting to publish a neutral book by one of these azov commanders because he was a NAZI!

https://www.reddit.com/r/liberalgunowners/comments/sltls3/forgotten_weaponsheadstamp_controversy_summary/

[bigdaddy45]

Well many here hold the same opinion as the good folks at the “World Socialist”. These clearly are VERY confusing times.

[jarwulf]

This is really funny some Freepers are kneejerk against Ukraine because supposedly Biden wants to help them so they side with Socialists.

[MercyFlush]

Because news from the WORLD SOCIALIST WEBSITE is going to be even handed and unbiased?

At least put a disclaimer on this trash if you’re going to post it here.

[MercyFlush]

Any original Nazis would be in their 100’s at this point. What do you think they’re going to do? Throw their dentures at you?

[Boogieman]

The Falco version’s better :P

[Renfrew]

Any idea why Armenia is so anti-Semitic?

[Drew68]

[MGunny]

The Ukraine problem is the Ukraine’s problem. I’m tired of the bleeding heart leftists looking to get us sucked into another war! Thank the Lord Ukraine isn’t a NATO satellite!

[Zhang Fei]

[Any idea why Armenia is so anti-Semitic?]

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For some reason, Eastern Orthodoxy seems to have it in for Jews. While Hitler was born a Catholic and somehow developed unfathomable levels of animus for Jews, Orthodoxy has tended to be much more day-to-day anti-semitic. In Fiddler on the Roof, the Rabbi says: “May God bless and keep the Tsar ... far away from us”. That was due to the Tsar instigating any number of anti-semitic pogroms.

Prior to Hitler, anyone who suggested that Germany, home of Goethe, Beethoven, etc, would begin an attempt to eliminate Jews from the planet, would be considered a candidate for the funny farm. If there were a locale considered most likely to bury its Jewish population in a mass grave, it would be Russia, which acquired its Jewish population along with Poland during Catherine the Great’s rule.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogroms_in_the_Russian_Empire