The Whitewashing of Neo-Nazis: Lev Golinkin & Ben Makuch on How Far Right Is Exploiting Ukraine War
The Whitewashing of Neo-Nazis: Lev Golinkin & Ben Makuch on How Far Right Is Exploiting Ukraine War
The Whitewashing of Neo-Nazis: Lev Golinkin & Ben Makuch on How Far Right Is Exploiting Ukraine War
We end today’s show with the first — we are going to talk today about what’s happening in Ukraine. We’re joined right now by two people, by a journalist who’s written extensively in The Intercept, a reporter who’s looked at the role of neo-Nazis in the war. The Ukrainian-born journalist Lev Golinkin is also with us. He recently wrote a piece for The Nation headlined “The Western Media Is Whitewashing the Azov Battalion.” The piece looks at the neo-Nazi roots of one of Ukraine’s most heralded paramilitary forces. Earlier this month, Turkey released five former Azov commanders who were being held in Turkey. They flew back on a plane with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Meanwhile, The Intercept recently detailed how an anti-Putin Russian militia that carried out attacks inside Russia in May is led by a neo-Nazi who’s maintained links with American neo-Nazis. That piece was written by Ben Makuch, a national security reporter who used to work as a correspondent for Vice News Tonight. Ben has also just written a new piece for The Intercept about an American Army vet, wanted for murder in the United States, who escaped to Ukraine to fight with the Right Sector, an ultranationalist Ukrainian militia. We’re going to get to that in a moment.
It always bothers me how neatly these talking points fold in to Russia’s propaganda blitz that “Ukraine = neo-Nazis” that they used to justify the invasion. (Spoiler alert; they’re not.)
I’m not sure what the utility of exploring this is even if it’s true. Does the existence of problematic Ukrainians or Americans justify Putin’s war of aggression? Does it mean Ukraine should not be able to defend itself?
Ultimately Ukraine has more pressing problems at this moment. And discussions like this that seem to justify Russian aggression suck air out of the room that could be used to talk about real, larger problems.
No one said all of Ukraine are neo-Nazis, and no one is truing to justify anything Russia is doing.
And as much as I agree that the war is a bigger problem, arming neo-Nazis and giving them legitimacy is extremely bad.
Ukraine needs to be able to function as a state after the war, and honestly ignoring these types of issues, not to mention the various weird laws they passed since the war started, doesn’t make very confident in their future.
Oh I entirely disagree; I think comments like this are already falling into the trap.
Purity testing Ukraine and its armed forces is the point. Zero neo-Nazis is not a standard we’ve asked of any other armed forces on the planet, including our own — and we are currently at peace so it seems like something that would be easy for us to achieve. Asking Ukraine to both fight for its life and also perform rigorous ideological testing of its armed forces seems… well, pretty helpful for Russia, honestly.
And for what? Certainly there must be one or two neo-Nazis in there. But there isn’t anywhere near enough to call the entire kit and kaboodle neo-Nazi, or to justify the amount of time and effort involved. Or the slew of Putin-aligned articles like this where useful idiots “just ask questions” about neo-Nazis in Ukraine.
Ultimately we have to ask if we are willing to accept some amount of negative externalities in Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine. Asking Ukraine to commit collective suicide because they don’t pass an arbitrary purity test is too much of an ask. If a few isolated neo-Nazis are empowered as a result of Russia’s war of aggression, that is because of Russia forcing Ukraine into this situation, not because Ukraine is secretly super duper pro-neo-Nazi.
Imagine this was the invasion of Afghanistan by Russia in the 1980s - knowing what you know now about 9-11 would you be just as cavalier about accountability with who the United States were training and supplying?
Putin is an autocrat and Wagner are fascists, but the journalists featured here don't have any influence in the east. They are doing the right thing by demanding Ukraine be held accountable. Both the journalists have clearly stated whose 'side' they're on, and repudiated Putin's claims. This is no place for Soviet whataboutism.
Mark my words: The next wave of mass shooters and white supremacist terrorists are being trained with American taxpayer money. If they're so hard up for support, why don't they permit anarchist battalions? There are veterans with years of military experience in Kobanî who were eager to fight the invasion, and the Ukrainian MOD delayed and stymied their participation. Yet they're bending over backwards for people who want to cleanse their society of gay people and minority ethnic groups. Anarchists and communists have already given their lives in the defense of Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not a fascist, but wouldn't it be a great propaganda coup against Putin's narrative for Ukraine to fight alongside a modern Abraham Lincoln brigade?
Wow... that doesn't make any sense.
First, even a passing comparison between Afghanistan and Ukraine is absurd. Just take a quick look at Wikipedia's demographics page (or like, Britannica, etc.?) for both of them.
Second, the crux of the issue isn't that these journalists aren't on "our side," it's that we've been literally bombarded with these sorts of articles since day one, usually something like: "Sure Ukraine has the lowest rate of antisemitism in Eastern Europe, and its far-right political parties have less seats proportionally than the AfD or RN, but here are some marginal dudes who are undoubtedly nazis, localized entirely in places that have no political power." A lot of these articles are predicated on the patronizing idea that Ukrainian society has no agency and that (justified) American political anxieties about the far-right can be neatly mapped onto Ukraine. I mean, just look at this quote from the article:
LEV GOLINKIN: Yeah. It’s pretty insane that every time Marjorie Taylor Greene sneezes, it’s the second coming of Hitler, and yet here we have two brigades — brigades — of neo-Nazis, and we’re perfectly fine with it.There isn't an Enabling Act lurking somewhere in the ~4% of far-right Ukrainian voters, just waiting to pounce when us soft Westerners let our guards down. Nor is there some far-right putsch hiding in the perhaps 10k (if you squeeze it) far-right-aligned soldiers out of the 700k soldiers in the army. Because Azov isn't some rogue militia farming poppy to buy RPGs, it now answers to an elected government with effective control of the armed forces. In a liberalizing society. That launched a revolution against an authoritarian government. Specifically so that it could join the EU.
Lastly, there literally are anarchists groups fighting for Ukraine, just not as a government-sanctioned militia. Most of them take inspiration from Nestor Makhno! As for the Kobanî, just look at their Wikipedia sidebar. Ukraine is fighting for its life and Turkey's a strategic ally! Knowing how they go apeshit over every issue related to: burning Qurans, Aegean islands with Greeks on them, and the YPG especially, you can't reasonably blame Ukraine for refusing their support.