Social:Russian allegations of fascism against Ukraine

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Short description: Alleged transformation of Ukraine to a fascist state
Ukrainian nationalists march through Kyiv, holding a banner with Stepan Bandera's portrait, as well as the flags of the Right Sector and Svoboda. Russian propaganda creates the image of the Kyiv junta, which is associated with Stepan Bandera: Putin said that by annexing Crimea, he allegedly "saves the Crimean people from the new Ukrainian leaders who are Bandera's ideological successors."

Russian allegations of fascism against Ukraine, alongside pejorative terms Ukronazism,[1] and Kyiv junta, is a claim that Ukraine has been transformed into a fascist / Nazi country or "anti-Russia"; for example, Vladimir Putin has called Ukraine's government "a band of junkies and neo-Nazis".[2] The allegations has become one of the main sources of justification within the Russian Federation for Russian armed aggression in eastern Ukraine;[3] it is also the official Russian justification for their 2022 invasion of Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian War.

The allegation has been dismissed as baseless in the West: despute Ukraine having incorporated a far-right fringe (including the Azov Battalion) into their army proper and Ukrainian attitudes towards genocidal historical figures such as Stepan Bandera and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army have created controversy, it is alleged that no evidence suggests widespread support for such extreme-right nationalism in the government, military or electorate.[4][5][6]

Background

According to Anton Shekhovtsov, Russian propaganda has a very specific understanding of the word "fascism". He says that such "interpretation of "Nazism" is rooted in the Soviet way of understanding fascism: the term "fascism" was effectively a synonym of "anti-Sovietism." Now, the term "Nazi" as used by Russian propaganda is understood as "anti-Russian."[7] Nikita Bystrov notes, that although not every country with anti-Soviet government was described as "fascist" (the US and UK were described as "Anglo-Saxon imperialists" which support "fascist" regimes), Soviet propaganda turned the term "fascism" into a synonym of "very bad political regime (movement)", as many movements were described as "fascist": social-democrats ("social fascism"), Troskyists, neo-Nazis, nationalists, and Titoists. He also says that the criteria of "fascism" were physical elimination of pro-Soviet politicians, militarism, and foreign policy unfriendly to the USSR.[8]

Artem Krechetnikov wrote in 2014 that with the word "junta", Russian politicians and media follow the Soviet tradition of calling the "enemies" with "rude and offensive" words: Soviet newspapers, instead of just objective political journalism, published emotionally-oriented propaganda, that used various chliches: "fattened on people's blood warmongers" from the US, "Bonn puppets" from BRD, Western "lackeys" and "henchmen"; Israel became "a cancer that has taken root in the Arab land", Finland was "a flea that jumps and makes grimaces at our borders", etc.[9]

Ukraine after 2014 and "Ukronazism"

2014 Euromaidan supported by Ukrainian nationalists was described by Russian media as a fascist coup d'etat. Consequences of clashes between pro-Maidan and anti-Maidan demonstrators (for example, surrounding the Odessa Trade Unions building fire) were presented as physical terror against the anti-Maidanists.

Actual cases of human rights violations (documented in reports by UN Human Rights Council and Global Rights Compliance LLP) were used to make an image of a "Nazi" state. War crimes committed during the war in Donbas by Ukrainian volunteer battalions such as Azov, Aidar, Donbas, Dnipro-1, Kyiv-1 and Kyiv-2 were falsely presented as "genocide of Russians". Violations committed by militias (see Right Sector#Moral issues and crimes) were also presented as "terror" against dissenters. Because of official toleration Petro Poroshenko's government was presented as a "junta" that established a "dictatorship" in Ukraine.[3][10][11] News reports published by Russian media were often fake; the fake story of public crucifixion of a three-year-old boy performed by Ukrainian soldiers at "Lenin Square" in Sloviansk became one of the most well-known examples of Russian propaganda.

The ideology of "junta" became associated with Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych who are known in Russia as "Nazi collaborators". Putin welcomed the annexation of Crimea by declaring that he "was saving them from the new Ukrainian leaders who are the ideological heirs of Bandera, Hitler's accomplice during World War II."[12] and a war criminal. Pro-Russian activists claimed: "Those people in Kyiv are Bandera-following Nazi collaborators."[13] Ukrainians living in Russia complained of being labelled "Banderites", even when they were from parts of Ukraine where Bandera has no popular support.[14] Groups who idolize Bandera took part in the Euromaidan protests but were a minority element.[15]

On April 25 of 2014, Putin commented the beginning of the Ukrainian anti-Terrorist operation in Ukraine with words "punitive operation". He said of the new Ukrainian government: "This is a junta, a clique of some kind. If the regime in Kyiv began to use the army inside the country, then this is a very serious crime against its own people." Since then, Russian media and officials call the Ukrainian government a "junta".[9]

Ukraine after 2019

In the 2019 parliamentary elections in Ukraine, the far-right Svoboda party won 2.15% of the vote, missing the five-percent hurdle required for official party status, despite that all three other right-wing extremist parties (including National Corps, the political wing of the Azov regiment) joined it in an electoral alliance. The election result was thus lower than that of pro-Russian parties such as the Opposition Platform — For Life, which achieved 13.05%.[16] Despite that, Russian officials continue to say that Ukraine is a "fascist" state.

In April 2019, the Ukrainian parliament approved a new Law on Supporting the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language (see Language policy in Ukraine). On 16 June 2019, the law entered into force. The law made the availability of Ukrainian compulsory (totally or within certain quotas) in the work of some public authorities, in the electoral procedures and political campaigning, in pre-school, school and university education, in scientific, cultural and sporting activities, in book publishing and book distribution, in printed mass media, television and radio broadcasting, in economic and social life (commercial advertising, public events), in hospitals and nursing homes, and in the activities of political parties and other legal entities (e.g. non-governmental organizations) registered in Ukraine.[17] In Russia, the law's scope was exaggerated and it was regarded as an act of oppression of Russian-speaking part of Ukraine. Franz Klintsevich, a member of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security, wrote on Facebook: "By adopting a law on the exclusive use of the Ukrainian language in all spheres, openly discriminating against the Russian-speaking population and speakers of other languages, the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada dealt a blow to the territorial integrity of the country with their own hands."[18]

On July 1 of 2021, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a bill "On the Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine", which was put forward by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The law defines the rights of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine, which include only Crimean Tatars, Crimean Karaites and Krymchaks. Russians or other nationalities do not fall under this definition, although Ukrainians are not mentioned in this law either. Vladimir Putin compared it to the "theory and practice of Nazi Germany.": "It boggles the mind: Russian people have lived here from time immemorial and now they are declared non-indigenous. In its consequences, this is comparable to the use of some kind of weapon of mass destruction, this is a serious matter."[19] In response, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said on the second day that the bill "fully complies with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the relevant provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine," and called the Russian president's words "arbitrary interpretation." The Foreign Ministry also reminded in an interview with Putin about the fate of Ukrainians in Russia. According to Minister Kuleba, the repressive policy towards Ukrainian public organizations in Russia continues. Kuleba noted that in 2010 the Russian Supreme Court abolished the Federal National-Cultural Autonomy of Ukrainians in Russia. In May 2012, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation liquidated the Association of Ukrainians of Russia and removed it from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. In 2017, the Moscow authorities liquidated the Library of Ukrainian Literature. In July 2019, the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation recognized the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) as an "undesirable organization" in the territory of the Russian Federation.[20] In the law itself, an indigenous people is considered an ethnic minority that has formed on the territory of Ukraine, is the bearer of a distinctive culture and, most importantly, does not have its own state education outside the country. That is why Hungarians, Romanians, Belarusians, Jews and any other peoples with titular, "mother" states, were not included in the list of Ukrainian "indigenous" peoples.[21]

On September 22, 2021, deputies of the Verkhovna Rada adopted the Law of Ukraine on Prevention and Counteraction to Anti-Semitism in Ukraine. 283 people's deputies voted in favor of the decision at the plenary session.[22] On February 15, 2022, MPs supported the law establishing criminal liability for anti-Semitism by amending the Criminal Code of Ukraine. In particular, anti-Semitism is punishable by a fine of 200 to 500 non-taxable minimum incomes (₴3,400-8,500) or restriction of liberty for up to 5 years, deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to 3 years or without such. The same acts, combined with violence, deception or threats, as well as committed by an official are punishable by a fine of ₴8,500-17,000 or imprisonment - 2-5 years, with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to 3 years or without such. Acts committed by an organized group of persons or caused serious consequences are punishable by imprisonment for a term of 5 to 8 years.[23]

The Russian state orchestrated direct public incitement to genocide against the Ukrainian people, a distinct crime under Article III of the United Nations Genocide Convention, according to a May 2022 report by thirty genocide scholars and lawyers (the report also found an intentional pattern of atrocities and a serious risk of genocide in Ukraine).[24][25] The specific elements of incitement include denial of Ukrainian identity, accusation in a mirror, "denazification" and dehumanization, construction of Ukrainians as an existential threat, and conditioning the Russian audience to commit or condone atrocities.[25]

The regime

The essence of the alleged "dictatorial" regime has been described in detail in Vladimir Putin's speeches "Address concerning the events in Ukraine" and "On conducting a special military operation" ("electoral and other political procedures just serve as a cover, a screen for the redistribution of power and property between various oligarchic clans"; "nationalists who have seized power have unleashed a persecution, a real terror campaign against those who opposed their anti-constitutional actions"[26]) and in Timofei Sergeitsev's article "What Russia should do with Ukraine" with genocidal connotations against Ukrainians, he wrote:[27]

The current nazified Ukraine is characterized by its formlessness and ambivalence, which allow it to disguise Nazism as the aspiration to "independence" and the "European" (Western, pro-American) path of "development" (in reality, to degradation) and claim that "there is no Nazism" in Ukraine, "only few sporadic incidents." Indeed, there isn’t a main Nazi party, no Führer, no full-fledged racial laws (only a cutdown version in the form of repressions against the Russian language). As a result — no opposition or resistance against the regime. However, all listed above doesn’t make Ukrainian Nazism a "light version" of the German Nazism of the first half of the 20th century. Quite the opposite: since Ukrainian Nazism is free from such "genre" norms and limitations (which are essentially a product of political technologies), it can spread freely just like a basis for any Nazism — both European and, in its most developed form, the American racism.

Criticism

Ukraine ranks 97th out of 180th on the 2021 World Press Freedom Index (106th in 2022), while Russia ranks 150th (155th in 2022). In 2013, Ukraine was on the 126th place and (Russia on 148th) on the 129th in 2015 (Russia on 152nd).[28]

Usually it is being said that the claim is unfounded because Ukrainian society is multiethnic and democratically minded and because Zelensky is democratically elected and because he is Jewish and has said that members of his family were killed during World War II. There is also no evidence of mass killings or ethnic purges taking place in Ukraine.[5]

After reading Sergeitsev's article, Timothy Snyder has noted that Russian propaganda uses a special definition of the word "Nazi": "a Nazi is a Ukrainian who refuses to admit being a Russian". In his opinion, the article reveals the genocidal intent of Russia.[29] Later, he wrote in his article "We Should Say It. Russia Is Fascist": "Fascists calling other people 'fascists' is fascism taken to its illogical extreme as a cult of unreason. It is a final point where hate speech inverts reality and propaganda is pure insistence. It is the apogee of will over thought. Calling others fascists while being a fascist is the essential Putinist practice".[30]

Allan Ripp writes on NBC News that although Ukraine "has a Nazi problem", as "neo-Nazis are part of some of Ukraine's growing ranks of volunteer battalions" and as Bandera and the others are not treated in Ukrainian society as they should, "none of this disturbing context justifies the misery that has befallen Ukrainians over the past several weeks — and it’s unlikely that Putin was motivated by any of it when he launched his invasion. Indeed, thanks to Putin, Jews living in Odessa, Kharkiv and other eastern cities are under extreme duress."[5]

Artem Krechetnikov from BBC News Russian wrote on April 25 of 2014 that just as the Ukrainian side can't call the separatists "terrorists", Russian officials don't have any objective reasons to call Ukrainian government "junta", and if Kremlin officials call that way any government with questionable legitimacy or democratic standards, they should consider "juntas" the Government of China and Syrian Assad government. He also wrote that the "war of words" may turn into an actual war.[9]

Following the start of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, a large number of scholars of self-proclaimed genocide, fascism and World War II (including Evgeny Finkel, Timothy D. Snyder and Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe) published a letter on The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles declaring Russian allegations as "propaganda", stating: "There is no Nazi government for Moscow to root out in Kyiv. There has been no genocide of the Russian people in Ukraine. And Russian troops are not on a liberation mission. After the bloody 20th century, we should all have built enough discernment to know that war is not peace, slavery is not freedom, and ignorance offers strength only to autocratic megalomaniacs who seek to exploit it for their personal agendas".[6]

Writing on NBC News, Jonathan Allen stated that "While it's true that the Ukrainian National Guard is home to the Azov Battalion — a force populated by neo-Nazis — there is no evidence to suggest widespread support for such extreme-right nationalism in the government, military or electorate. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish; three of his family members were killed in the Holocaust".[4]

Many scholars have also pointed out that, while denouncing "Ukrainian fascism", Russia has also employed large numbers of so-called far-right militias in support of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic. Members and former members of the National Bolshevik Party, The Other Russia, Russian National Unity (RNU), Eurasian Youth Union, the National Liberation Movement, the Russian Imperial Movement and Cossack groups participated in starting branches for the recruitment of the separatists.[31][32][33][34] A former RNU member, Pavel Gubarev, was founder of the Donbas People's Militia and first "governor" of the Donetsk People's Republic.[31][35] RNU is particularly linked to the Russian Orthodox Army,[31] one of a number of separatist units described as "pro-Tsarist" and "extremist" Orthodox nationalists.[36][31] The Rusich Company is part of the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary group in Ukraine which has been linked to far-right extremism.[37][38]

After the start of the invasion, Boris Kagarlitsky's online newspaper Rabkor published "A Letter from a Kyiv Socialist", in which the anonymous author wrote that by following Georgi Dimitrov's definition of Fascism as "the open, terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic, and most imperialist elements of finance capital", it can be concluded that Ukrainian state is not Fascist, as it the finance capital can't estabilish an "open dictatorship" because (unlike in Russia) it "has been in a state of internal fierce struggle for the last 30 years", and an oligarchic democracy is the only legal way to "fight for the feeding-trough". The author also wrote that the right radicals are not a real power in Ukrainian politics, but rather a tool of MVS and SBU: for example Arsen Avakov used Ukrainian Neo-Nazis in anti-Poroshenko propaganda in 2019. Political assassinations and intimidation, according to the author, have been practising long before the "Nazi" 2014 Euromaidan, and not only in Ukraine, but in any post-Soviet country (including Russia).[39]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Russian state media: 'Ukronazism' greater threat to world than Hitler". https://www.jpost.com/international/article-703184. 
  2. ↑ Haltiwanger, Jake Epstein, John. "Putin falsely describes Ukraine's government as a 'band of drug addicts and neo-Nazis' in latest propaganda blitz as Russian troops fight to take Kyiv". https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-calls-ukraine-government-drug-addicts-neo-nazi-disinformation-2022-2. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Один из главных аргументов пропаганды — в Донбассе восемь лет убивали людей и никто этого не замечал. Используется даже слово «геноцид» Разбираем его с журналистом Павлом Каныгиным". https://meduza.io/feature/2022/03/02/odin-iz-glavnyh-argumentov-propagandy-v-donbasse-vosem-let-ubivali-lyudey-i-nikto-etogo-ne-zamechal-ispolzuetsya-dazhe-slovo-genotsid. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Allen, Jonathan (24 February 2022). "Putin says he is fighting a resurgence of Nazism. That's not true." (in en). https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/blog/russia-ukraine-conflict-live-updates-n1289655. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Opinion | Ukraine's Nazi problem is real, even if Putin's 'denazification' claim isn't". https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/ukraine-has-nazi-problem-vladimir-putin-s-denazification-claim-war-ncna1290946. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Finkel, Evgeny (2022-02-27). "Statement on the War in Ukraine by Scholars of Genocide, Nazism and World War II" (in en-US). https://jewishjournal.com/news/worldwide/345515/statement-on-the-war-in-ukraine-by-scholars-of-genocide-nazism-and-world-war-ii/. 
  7. ↑ "The Shocking Inspiration for Putin's Atrocities in Ukraine". Haaretz. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/the-shocking-inspiration-for-russia-s-atrocities-in-ukraine-1.10736790. 
  8. ↑ Петрович, Быстров Никита (May 2, 2008). "Газета «Правда» и закрепление идеологемы «Фашизм» в массовом сознании: (пропагандистская кампания против И. Броз Тито 1948-1953 гг. )". Вестник РГГУ. Серия: Литературоведение. Языкознание. Культурология (11): 150–159. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/gazeta-pravda-i-zakreplenie-ideologemy-fashizm-v-massovom-soznanii-propagandistskaya-kampaniya-protiv-i-broz-tito-1948-1953-gg-1. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Krechetnikov, Artem (2014-04-25). ""Хунта" и "террористы": война слов Москвы и Киева" (in ru). https://www.bbc.com/russian/blogs/2014/04/140425_blog_krechetnikov_harsh_speech. 
  10. ↑ "Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine 16 August to 15 November 2016". 2016. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Countries/UA/UAReport16th_EN.pdf. 
  11. ↑ Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld | Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions on his mission to Ukraine". https://www.refworld.org/docid/57616a9d4.html. 
  12. ↑ "BBCUkrainian.com Преса Виборча: Для поляків – бандит, а для українців – герой" (in uk). http://www.bbc.co.uk/ukrainian/pressreview/story/2009/08/090803_vyborcza_bandera_oh.shtml. 
  13. ↑ "BBCUkrainian.com Преса Виборча: Для поляків – бандит, а для українців – герой" (in uk). http://www.bbc.co.uk/ukrainian/pressreview/story/2009/08/090803_vyborcza_bandera_oh.shtml. 
  14. ↑ Russia's Ukrainian minority under pressure, Al Jazeera English (25 April 2014)
    A ghost of World War II history haunts Ukraine’s standoff with Russia, Washington Post (25 March 2014)
  15. ↑ Ukraine crisis: Does Russia have a case?, BBC News (5 March 2014)
  16. ↑ "Результаты внеочередных выборов народных депутатов Украины 2019" (in ru). http://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/articles/2019/07/21/7221526/. 
  17. ↑ "Venice Commission :: Council of Europe". https://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/?pdf=CDL-AD(2019)032-e. 
  18. ↑ ""Веками украинцы пытались добиться права на свой собственный язык"". April 25, 2019. https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3955153. 
  19. ↑ "Why Ukraine's legislation on 'indigenous peoples' doesn't include Russians". https://meduza.io/en/cards/why-ukraine-s-legislation-on-indigenous-peoples-doesn-t-include-russians. 
  20. ↑ "Чому росіяни – не корінний народ України? Пояснює міністр та представник корінного народу" (in uk). https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/vidpovid-putinu-pro-korinni-narody/31301332.html. Retrieved 2022-05-14. 
  21. ↑ "The Rada passed an indigenous law that outraged Putin" (in uk). BBC News Ukraine. https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/news-57679034. Retrieved 2022-05-14. 
  22. ↑ Welle (www.dw.com), Deutsche. "The Verkhovna Rada passed a law to prevent anti-Semitism DW | 09/22/2021" (in uk-UA). https://www.dw.com/uk/verkhovna-rada-ukhvalyla-zakon-pro-zapobihannia-antysemityzmu/a-59260771. 
  23. ↑ "Рада ввела кримінальну відповідальність за антисемітизм" (in uk). https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2022/02/15/7324056/. 
  24. ↑ Borger, Julian (2022-05-27). "Russia is guilty of inciting genocide in Ukraine, expert report concludes" (in en). https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/27/russia-guilty-inciting-genocide-ukraine-expert-report. 
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Diamond, Yonah; Packer, John; Rosenberg, Erin Farrel (May 2022). "An Independent Legal Analysis of the Russian Federation's Breaches of the Genocide Convention in Ukraine and the Duty to Prevent". https://www.raoulwallenbergcentre.org/images/reports/An-Independent-Legal-Analysis-of-the-Russian-Federations-Breaches-of-the-Genocide-Convention-in-Ukraine-and-the-Duty-to-Prevent-2.pdf. 
  26. ↑ "Address by the President of the Russian Federation". http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/67828. 
  27. ↑ Kravchenko, Mariia (April 11, 2022). "What should Russia do with Ukraine? [Translation of a propaganda article by a Russian journalist"]. https://medium.com/@kravchenko_mm/what-should-russia-do-with-ukraine-translation-of-a-propaganda-article-by-a-russian-journalist-a3e92e3cb64. 
  28. ↑ "Index | RSF". https://rsf.org/en/index. 
  29. ↑ "Russia's genocide handbook - The evidence of atrocity and of intent mounts". Thinking about... - Opening the future by understanding the past (Substack). 2022-04-08. https://snyder.substack.com/p/russias-genocide-handbook. 
  30. ↑ Snyder, Timothy (19 May 2022). "We Should Say It. Russia Is Fascist.". New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/opinion/russia-fascism-ukraine-putin.html. 
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 31.3 Likhachev, Vyacheslav (July 2016). "The Far Right in the Conflict between Russia and Ukraine". Russie.NEI.Visions in English. pp. 18–28. https://www.ifri.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/rnv95_uk_likhachev_far-right_radicals_final.pdf. 
  32. ↑ Yudina, Natalia (2015). "Russian nationalists fight Ukrainian war", in: Journal on Baltic Security, Volume 1, Issue 1 (de Gruyter). pp.47–69. doi:10.1515/jobs-2016-0012.
  33. ↑ Laruelle, Marlene (26 June 2014). "Is anyone in charge of Russian nationalists fighting in Ukraine?". The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/06/26/is-anyone-in-charge-of-russian-nationalists-fighting-in-ukraine/. "Many mercenaries are related, directly or indirectly, to the Russian National Unity (RNU) movement of Alexander Barkashov ... The RNU is supposedly closely associated to members of the self-proclaimed government of Donetsk and in particular of Dmitri Boitsov, leader of the Orthodox Donbass organization ... The volunteers come from several other Russian nationalist groups: the Eurasianist Youth inspired by the Fascist and neo-Eurasianist geopolitician Alexander Dugin; the now-banned Movement Against Illegal Immigration led by Alexander Belov; the group ‘Sputnik and Pogrom’; the national-socialist Slavic Union of Dmitri Demushkin; several small groups inspired by monarchism such as the Russian Imperial Movement" 
  34. ↑ Saunders, Robert (2019). Historical Dictionary of the Russian Federation. Rowman & Littlefield Publishing. pp. 581–582. "Russian National Unity (RNU), banned ultranationalist political party ... a number of RNU members joined separatist forces in the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Lugansk" 
  35. ↑ Snyder, Timothy. Far-Right Forces are Influencing Russia's Actions in Crimea. The New Republic. 17 March 2014.
  36. ↑ Kuzio, Taras (2015). Ukraine: Democratization, Corruption, and the New Russian Imperialism. ABC-CLIO. pp. 110–111. "the Russian Orthodox Army, one of a number of separatist units fighting for the “Orthodox faith,” revival of the Tsarist Empire, and the Russkii Mir. Igor Girkin (Strelkov [Shooter]), who led the Russian capture of Slovyansk in April 2014, was an example of the Russian nationalists who have sympathies to pro-Tsarist and extremist Orthodox groups in Russia. ... the Russian Imperial Movement ... has recruited thousands of volunteers to fight with the separatists. ... such as the Russian Party of National Unity who use a modified swastika as their party symbol and Dugin's Eurasianist movement. The paramilitaries of both of these ... are fighting alongside separatists." 
  37. ↑ Townsend, Mark (20 March 2022). "Russian mercenaries in Ukraine linked to far-right extremists". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/20/russian-mercenaries-in-ukraine-linked-to-far-right-extremists. "Russian mercenaries fighting in Ukraine, including the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group, have been linked to far-right extremism ... Much of the extremist content, posted on Telegram and the Russian social media platform VKontakte (VK), relates to a far-right unit within the Wagner Group called Rusich ... One post on the messaging app Telegram, dated 15 March, shows the flag of the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM), a white-supremacist paramilitary ... Another recent VK posting lists Rusich as part of a coalition of separatist groups and militias including the extreme far-right group, Russian National Unity." 
  38. ↑ Šmíd, Tomáš & Šmídová, Alexandra. (2021). Anti-government Non-state Armed Actors in the Conflict in Eastern Ukraine. Czech Journal of International Relations, Volume 56, Issue 2. pp.48-49. Quote: "Another group of Russian citizens who became involved in the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine were members of the so-called right-wing units of the Russian Spring."
  39. ↑ "Письмо киевлянина-социалиста –". http://rabkor.ru/columns/debates/2022/04/01/letter_from_a_socialist_from_kiev. 




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