Why is mainstream media covering up US backing neo-Nazis in Ukraine? (Part 1)
Author’s note: This is the first of a three-part series
Several close observers of recent developments in Ukraine have remarked at the situation in which the prominent presence and role of neo-Nazi extremists in the new Ukrainian government in Kyiv continues to be denied by Western governments despite the glaring evidence that has come from several independent sources, including the fact of appointments to sensitive cabinet ministries such as Defense, National Security, Economy, Justice and Education.
Efforts by independent sources in the so-called “alternative media” to challenge mainstream news sources for failing to expose the glaring fact of the dominating presence of representatives of neo-fascist extremist groups in the Kyiv government and the major role they played in the so-called Euro-Maidan protests have been muffled by opponents branding them Kremlin apologists.
Attempts by the Russian government to point to the long-term threat, both to Russia and the West, of propelling Ukrainian ultranationalist groups to power have been brushed aside as “Kremlin propaganda.”
The reason why the prominence of neo-fascist ideologues in the Ukrainian government should be of concern is the historical precedent where Western governments have later had to suffer the “blowback” of their policy penchant for supporting violent extremist groups when it seemed convenient to “national interest.”
We don’t have to look too far for examples of such unwise foreign policy decisions that have boomeranged adversely: the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan; Saddam Hussein in Iraq; FIS (Islamic Salvation Front) which later metamorphosed into GIA in Algeria; anti-Gaddafi rebels groups in Libya, and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
The list, practically endless, illustrates the propensity of the US government to fall into the same pattern of geostrategic policy error in which it focuses single-mindedly on a present goal to the detriment of long-term interests.
As the US government cements its commitment to a government with well established links to violent far-right neo-Nazi groups, the mainstream media should be reporting the facts and warning about future “blowback” the US could suffer.
Instead, the mainstream media is helping the Obama administration to cover up the dirty secrets of its unholy alliance with neo-fascist groups in Ukraine.
Despite the evidence that the Euro-Maidan movement was successfully hijacked by neo-fascist groups, the Obama administration continues to deny it because it is focused on the short term goal of luring Ukraine into the West’s sphere of influence. But it’s efforts to suggest that neo-Nazi groups have played only a fringe role in the Euro-Maidan protests have only be partly successful.
For instance, the BBC News video above deviates from the deliberate cover-up policy of the mainstream media in the West by reporting on the very visible presence of neo-Nazi militias in the Euro-Maidan uprising.
Although, the US accuses the Russian government of “propaganda,” the prominence of neo-fascist groups in Ukrainian’s new government is well established.
A brief look at the constitution of the government dispels all doubts.
Beside ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna Party, the two other major parties represented in the new government are the Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU), otherwise known as All-Ukrainian Union “Svoboda” (Freedom), and Pravy Sektor (“Right Sector”).
Svoboda, an ultra-nationalist group, is an “anti-Russian, anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi” party that has been described as an “an extremist, right-wing nationalist organization which emphasizes its identification with the ideology of German National Socialism.”
The leader of Svoboda, Oleh Tyahnybok, has openly called for liberation of Ukraine from what he described as “Muscovite-Jewish mafia.”
In Tyahnybok’s opinion, the Nazi death camp guard, John Demjanjuk, who was convicted in 2010 of involvement in the death of about 30,000 people at the Sobibor camp, was a national hero “fighting for the truth.”
Svoboda’s favored symbolism is the wolf’s angel rune, a form of the swastika, used by members of the Waffen-SS.
Tyahnybok’s deputy, Yuriy Mykhalchyshyn, according to Per Anders Rudling, an expert in neo-fascist groups, identifies himself openly as a “socialist nationalist” and a fan of Joseph Goebbels.
He founded a think tank he named the “the Joseph Goebbels Political Research Center,” but changed the name, apparently after wise counsel prevailed.
Svoboda makes no effort to hide its neo-Nazi ideological commitment, so the US State Department cannot claim to be ignorant of the fact.
Recently, about 15,000 members of the group staged a mass torch-light event to mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of the Ukrainian neo-fascist leader Stepan Bandera, a World War II Nazi collaborator, who led the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).
Bandera, celebrated as national hero by Ukrainian neo-fascists, had led forces which participated in ethnic cleansing pogroms in which about 90,000 Poles were killed.
Svoboda was assigned six key cabinet posts in the present government, including Defense, National Security, Economy, Justice and Education.
The new Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, Andriy Parubiy, is one of the founding members of Svoboda.
His deputy, Dmytro Yarosh, is the leader of Pravy Sektor, a coalition of Ukrainian neo-Nazi militia groups that spearheaded the protests.
Yarosh supervised neo-Nazi streetfighters during the protests.
The highest ranking member of the new government who could be positively identified as a right wing extremist is the Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Sych, a member of Svoboba who, according to Michael Hughes, writing in the Huffington Post, believes women should “lead the kind of lifestyle to avoid the risk of rape, including refraining from drinking alcohol and being in controversial company.”
He also promotes legislation to ban “all abortions, even for pregnancies that occurred during rape.”
Other Svoboda appointees are:
Ihor Tenyukh, the interim Defense Minister, is a member of Svoboda’s political council.
Andriy Mokhnyk, a Svoboda member, was appointed Minister of Ecology. He has links with the Italian neo-fascists Forza Nuovo.
Ihor Shvaika, member of Svoboda, was appointed Minister of Agriculture.
Oleh Makhnitsky is the Prosecutor General in the new government, and a member of Svoboda.
Serhiy Kvit, a Svoboda leader, was appointed to head the Ministry of Education.
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