When Vladimir Putin decided to invade a sovereign country, disregarding all international, legal and moral laws, violating them, he used three main justifications
-That When the Soviet union decided to declare its end and dismantle, (despite the fact that it dismantled as a result of crumbling – unable to carry on) , the west gave it assurance and promised not to approach its borders, not to expand, but within time it expanded one expansion after another, and eastern countries who were once part of the Warsaw pact headed by the Soviet Union, joined the Nato, and now Ukraine has not accepted to give guarantees that it will not join The NATO pact
-That there is a Russian minority living in Ukraine, (22% of Ukraine citizens are Russian and they are concentrated in certain areas in Ukraine) and that Kiev is mistreating them, and that these areas Russia considers Russian lands, and that those areas have the right for self-determination,
-And that The current Ukrainian current government is run by Nazis, who are hostile to both Russia and Russian citizens of Ukraine, and that Moscow feels it has not only the right but even the obligation and duty to once become the champion of battling Nazism, just like the soviet union, Russian propaganda has also focused on the fact that during the second world war the Ukrainian Svobada had cooperated and collaborated with the German Nazi invaders of the Soviet Union
As for the first part, it is obvious that this claim has no legal or moral claims, Ukraine is an independent sovereign state, and has the right to join whatever pact it choose to do so, and this is a dangerous un-precedent excuse and justification, and accepting it will mean that in the future any country is entitled to invade any other sovereign country, justifying that it will join any alliance or pact
As for the second reason, it Moscow considers that the territories Russia considers historically part of its territories, and it did occupy Crimea in 2014 organizing a referendum there, and that they were annexed to Ukraine as part of a mistreat wrong illegal measure by the Soviet union, and they t the Russians in Ukraine have the right for self-determination, why it sees all these principles acceptable for them yet condemns Artsakh Armenian from doing the same, declaring Armenians and Armenia as occupiers
Now for the Third part, and that the Kremlin as the carrier of Soviet legacy, and it’s inherit, is the torch holder of a sacred duty and mission to “fight Nazis” and this is also extremely dangerous, because it can find nationalists in any country, and invade it,
As a reminder, I want to remind that during Ukrainian elections, the nationalists achieved results were very poor:
In the 2019 parliamentary elections, they got 2.19% of the votes
https://www.ui.se/globalassets/ui.se-eng/publications/ui-publications/2020/ui-brief-no.-3-2020.pdf
At the national level, radical right-wing parties in Ukraine have fared miserably in all presidential and almost all parliamentary elections
2019 (parliamentary) 2.15 (VOS)**
** The 2019 Svoboda list was a unified bloc of most of the relevant Ukrainian far-right political parties, but was officially registered only as a VOS list.
“A Disappointing Result
In the end, Svoboda’s party list received just 2.25 percent of the vote – half of what it received in 2014 and a quarter of what it won in 2012. It did not pass the election threshold
Other national-radical parties failed to win seats in the Verkhovna Rada. Therefore, the election results clearly demonstrate the decline of Ukraine’s right-wing political forces. Indeed, the far right’s political prospects, which are gradually becoming clearer following the parliamentary elections, are hardly impressive. In a post-election analysis, Right Sector leader Andrii Tarasenko lamented the situation and said that only some citizens should vote.17 “
Putin’s Western allies
But what is more interesting is the fact that Putin’s best allies in the west are in fact the far right, the ultra –nationalists, the fascist groups, the extreme right…
In France, the far right political force, headed by Marine Le Pen (daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen) took a loan from a Russian bank,
National Front’s Russian loans cause uproar in European Parliament
The French National Front has stirred controversy both in France and in the European Parliament for taking significant loans from a Russian bank. The affair reveals Marine Le Pen’s willingness to cosy up to Russia, a country she sees as a model to be emulated. EURACTIV France reports. ….
“We turned to Russia as a last resort, after having tried in France, Switzerland and the Middle East. We did not go to a state-owned bank because we knew that would make it a state matter,” the MEP said.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1007/s12290-015-0359-1
An unholy alliance: the European far right and Putin’s Russia Antonis Klapsis The Author(s) 2015.
This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com European far-right parties have developed close relations with Russia, based both on ideology and strategy. These parties see in President Vladimir Putin the model of a strong, conservative leader who defends traditional values and opposes decadent West. Since most far-right parties are at the same time antiAmerican and against European integration, they also see a close relationship with Russia as a necessary foothold in order to achieve the gradual dissociation of their countries from Euro-Atlantic Institutions. The Kremlin views these parties as possibly being useful to expand Russia’s geopolitical influence. This unholy alliance should be emphasised and condemned more often in Europe.
Examining the Kremlin’s and Far-Right Parties Cooperation
Kremlin’s growing cooperation with the far-right parties across Europe contradicts its vocal antifascist stance, as well as its public disregard for right-wing political forces in the Ukrainian state apparatus. According to the Political Capital Institute, 15 European far-right parties have openly expressed their sympathy towards Russians (see Table). Combining the pro-Russian radical left and right parties in Europe would result in approximately 20% of the European Parliament political parties’ potential support towards Russian policies.[2]
In recent years, there have been numerous cases of the Kremlin’s and European far-rights parties’ cooperation in tackling different policy areas. As stated above, the Hungarian populist party; Jobbik, highlights the increasing partnership between the two. Jobbik is known for its anti-Semitic rhetoric and concerns regarding the Israeli ‘colonization’ of Hungary. …. In the Ukraine crisis, Jobbik openly supported the Russian side, calling the referendum in Crimea ‘exemplary’.[5] Finally, the party was suspected of receiving financial assistance from Moscow, as seen in the case against MEP Bela Kovacs; who was accused over his cooperation with Russian intelligence.[6]
Moscow’s ties with French extreme-right National Front are also growing stronger. It was recently confirmed that Le Pen’s party would receive a €40m loan from a bank with links to the Kremlin. …. Le Pen herself visited Moscow for high-level meetings with State Duma leader, Sergei Naryshkin and Deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Rogozin … The party stands against NATO and the EU. It wishes to replace the organization with a pan-European partnership, which would include Russia and be driven by a trilateral Paris-Berlin-Moscow alliance. In this respect, it is not surprising that the party recognized the results of the Crimea referendum.[8]
Other Kremlin’s partners include the Greek Golden Dawn party, whose members use Nazi symbols and emphasize street fighting. The party has openly expressed its support and cooperation with Moscow; and especially with Russia’s extreme right, from which it received substantial financial funds. Finally, WikiLeaks revealed that the Bulgarian Ataka party has close ties with the Russian embassy. …..
Radio Bulgaria reported that Ataka’s parliamentary group ‘has insisted that Bulgaria should recognize the results from the referendum for Crimea’s joining to the Russian Federation.’ While, party leader, Volen Siderov, has repeatedly urged Bulgaria to veto EU sanctions targeted at the Russian economy.[9] In addition, all four parties sent their representatives as election monitors to the Crimea referendum (as well as, the Austrian Freedom Party; the Belgian Vlaams Belang party; Italy’s Forza Italia and Lega Nord; and Poland’s Self-Defence),
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2014/11/25/far-right-europe-has-a-crush-on-moscow-a41721
Far-Right Europe Has a Crush on Moscow
Kremlin — with its vocal anti-fascist stance and its public disregard for right-wing politics — has been cozying up to Europe’s far-right parties, including those of France, Hungary, Bulgaria and Greece. Le Pen and a number other leaders of right-wing parties, including Gabor Vona of Hungary’s Jobbik and Volen Siderov of Bulgaria’s Ataka, have visited Russia and met with high-ranking officials in recent years. Far-right parties in 15 out of 21 European Union member states have openly professed sympathy toward Russia, according to the Budapest-based Political Capital Institute.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/europe-s-far-right-enjoys-backing-russia-s-putin-n718926
Europe’s Far-Right Enjoys Backing from Russia’s Putin
But like Donald Trump, many European far-right leaders have publicly praised Putin, even as the Russian leader’s ambitions in Eastern Europe threaten decades of European peace. Nigel Farage, one of Britain’s loudest voices in favor of the UK’s exit from the European Union, was among the first to praise Putin after the latter annexed Crimea from Ukraine.
https://journals.lka.lt/journal/lasr/article/175/file/pdf
Alliance between Putin and European Far-Right
The study traces the development occurred in the alliance between Putin’s Russia and the European
far-right parties since the European Parliamentary election held in May 2019
https://warontherocks.com/2022/03/how-are-putins-far-right-fans-in-the-west-reacting-to-his-war/
American neo-Nazis and ideologues have also found support for their cause from Russia. The Base is one such. It is a U.S.-based neo-Nazi militant organization with chapters across the world — it has been listed as a terrorist group by several countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, and has found a home in Russia. Since 2020, the American founder of the group, Rinaldo Nazzaro, has been directing the group from St. Petersburg, where the Russian government has turned a blind eye to his activities on their soil.
To this end, individuals and groups in the far-right extremist space in the United States have long shown support for Putin. Notorious white supremacist Matthew Heimbach — a key organizer of the 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville — has previously hailed Putin as the “the leader of the free world.”
Among certain elements of the American political right, Putin has reached the level of an icon. At an America First Political Action Conference in late February in Orlando, FL, attended by two Republican members of Congress, the audience broke out into a chant cheering on Putin.
With Friends Like These: The Kremlin’s Far-Right and Populist Connections in Italy and Austria
The long-standing ties between European far-right and populist figures and Russian right-wing elites have only intensified in the past decade.24 Aleksandr Dugin, an esoteric patriarch of the modern Russian right, forged connections to Italian and other European far-right intellectuals in the late 1980s and early 1990s. More recently, a younger guard of Russian conservatives, including the pro-Orthodox business leader Konstantin Malofeev, have joined Dugin in courting Europe’s far-right.
…………
The Italian and Austrian far-right, however, provided an oasis of pro-Russian sentiment. These political figures energetically condemned sanctions, supported Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, and denounced the EU, NATO, and other Western institutions ………….
Russian officials had hosted Lega members in Crimea, Putin had met with Salvini in Moscow, and Russian state-owned media were lavishing attention on sympathetic Italian and Austrian far-right figures who lamented the West’s anti-Russian policies.28 Formal cooperation agreements between Russia’s ruling United Russia party and both Lega and the FPÖ soon followed………..
In power, both the Italian and Austrian far-right showed an openness to corruption that Russia could exploit. The Kremlin’s financial ties to far-right and populist parties and politicians elsewhere in Europe, including in France and Germany, are well documented.
The European far right sees in Russian President Vladimir Putin the model of a strong, conservative leader who defends traditional values and opposes the decadent West
An Unholy Alliance – The European Far Right and Putin’s Russia Antonis Klapsis
European far-right parties, regardless of whether they are classified as populist, radical, extremist or even almost openly neo-Nazi. What the study examines are not the differences among them, but rather their astonishingly similar stance towards Putin’s Russia. The FN, Job- bik, UKIP, Golden Dawn, the Freedom Party of Austria (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ), Attack (Ataka) from Bulgaria and the North League (Lega Nord, LN) from Italy are the most prominent examples. However, they are not the only ones that are taken into account, as there are frequent references to others, such as the British National Party (BNP), the Flemish Interest (Vlaams Belang, VB) from Belgium, New Force (Forza Nuova) from Italy, the National Democratic Party (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands, NPD) from Germany, and the People’s Party – Our Slovakia (Ľudová Strana Naše Slovensko, L’SNS). As is obvious, this constellation of far-right parties covers a wide geographical spectrum, thus giving the phenomenon a pan-European dimension.
Online, armies of left- and right-wing accounts find fault with Ukraine’s politics, policies, and president. In Congress, seven of the most fervent conservative Trump supporters voted alongside progressive champions Reps. Ilhan Omar and Cori Bush against banning Russian fossil fuels; even more surprisingly, Omar and Bush are joined by so-called squad members Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib as well as the far-right fringe of the Republican Party in opposing the U.S. government seizing Russian oligarchs’ assets.
https://ecfr.eu/article/commentary_putins_friends_in_europe7153/
Putin’s friends in Europe
Alignment with Russia
To what extent do the insurgent parties align with Russia? A majority of the 45 insurgent parties identified by ECFR were favourably inclined towards Russia and sympathised with Russian positions. The most pro-Russian of these parties (of a significant size) on the far right are: the AfD, FPÖ, Greece’s Golden Dawn, Hungary’s Jobbik, France’s Front National, Italy’s Northern League, the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), and Belgium’s Vlaams Belang (VB). On the far left, the most pro-Russian parties are Cyprus’s AKEL, Germany’s Die Linke, the Czech Republic’s KSCM, Podemos in Spain, and Syriza. The Italian Five Star Movement and the Human Shield Party in Croatia also belong to the pro-Russian camp.
Nazism in Russia
Although Russia claims it has invaded Ukraine to De-Nazify it, it has its own Nazi stories,
https://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/articles/2022/opinion/russias-long-history-of-neo-nazis
Russia’s long history of neo-Nazis
What has received less coverage is the Putin regime’s own record of collaboration with far-right extremists. Even as Russian diplomats condemned “fascists” in the Baltic states and Kremlin propagandists railed against imaginary “Ukronazis” in power in Kyiv, the Russian state was cultivating its own homegrown Nazis.
Generation 3.0: far right ideology in the changing Russia
European ultranationalists have been providing support for Russian foreign policy actions aimed at re-integration of former Soviet republics into the Kremlin’s sphere of influence. For many radicals in Europe Russia and Vladimir Putin appear to be the only remaining custodian of conservatism, Christian values and self-sufficient foreign policy. Moreover, given the great role of anti-Americanism (and anti-NATO moods) in Europe, radical forces admire V. Putin for being able to openly challenge the unipolar post-Cold War world dominated by the US. ……… It appears however, that the strong desire to derive support from the side of European nationalists may have resulted in a number of miscalculations. For instance, the first International Russian Conservative Forum that took place in Saint Petersburg on March 22 2015 attracted open neo-Nazis and criminals
https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-neo-nazis-fighting-ukraine/31871760.html
Who Are The Neo-Nazis Fighting For Russia In Ukraine?
two nattily dressed Russian men — waistcoats, pocket squares, silk ties – sipping American whiskey in brandy snifters and discussing killing Ukrainians.
“I’m a Nazi. I’m a Nazi,” said one of the men, Aleksei Milchakov, who was the main focus of the video published on a Russian nationalist YouTube channel. “I’m not going to go deep and say, I’m a nationalist, a patriot, an imperialist, and so forth. I’ll say it outright: I’m a Nazi.”
A neo-Nazi paramilitary group linked to the Kremlin has asked its members to submit intelligence on border and military activity in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, raising concerns over whether far-right Russian groups are planning an attack on Nato countries.
The official Telegram channel for “Task Force Rusich” – currently fighting in Ukraine on behalf of the Kremlin and linked to the notorious Wagner Group
Decrying Nazism – even when it’s not there – has been Russia’s ‘Invade country for free’ card
Poland should be “in first place in the queue for denazification after Ukraine,” he said.
Just days earlier, pro-Putin Moscow city assembly member, Sergey Savostyanov, asserted that after Ukraine, Russia needs to drive alleged Nazis from power in six more countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Moldova and Kazakhstan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV4v31azgQM
The Rise Of Neo-Nazism In Russia (2004)
https://www.voanews.com/a/how-russia-uses-neo-nazi-groups-to-spread-chaos/6629981.html
How Russia Uses Neo-Nazi Groups to Spread Chaos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQc6mJ7u8gQ
Putin’s Secret Neo-Nazi Armies | Decade of Hate
In the early 00s, a wave of revolutions swept across countries in the former Soviet Union, calling for democratic reform and changing of political leadership.
Fearing a similar uprising could start in Russia, Putin’s Kremlin clandestinely fostered relationships with far-right groups and ultra-nationalists in a policy that has been dubbed “managed nationalism”.
These groups proved vital in turning Russia into the authoritarian regime that we see today.
However, these relationships also proved useful in Russia exerting its power abroad, and have cultivated groups that will now fight abroad, and train foreign white supremacists – all with deadly consequences.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8LlRk5NC3E
Ruscism or why russians are the new Nazi. Russian fascism / Runazi
The common feature of totalitarian regimes is the state’s unlimited control over media. Every outlet, state-owned or private works for the state cause.
The state isolates citizens from alternative information sources to control the agenda and form their worldview to keep them in line.
We can see the same thing in Putin’s russia – independent media are oppressed, while social media are being shut down or used for the benefit of propaganda.
https://jamestown.org/program/the-involvement-of-russian-ultra-nationalists-in-the-donbas-conflict/
The Involvement of Russian Ultra-Nationalists in the Donbas Conflict
The Russian Far Right’s involvement in the Ukraine crisis and its growing ties to the Kremlin also provide a warning of how volatile the current situation is inside Russia itself. If such trends continue, the next Kremlin occupant could very well be openly sympathetic to the Russian neo-Nazi movement, and such an outcome would truly be a dire situation for the country, Eurasia and the world (see EDM, February 13, 2012).
https://jamestown.org/russian-neo-nazis-mark-hitlers-birthday-with-violence/
Russian Neo-Nazis Mark Hitler’s Birthday With Violence
Peter Manoukian
Lebanese Armenian Blogger