@MMBaranova · 19/05/2022 23:08
Thank you for the video related to the Azov battalion headquarters. I agree with what you say that Ukraine should have tried to suppress them rather than try to integrate them into the militia. I wonder if the Ukraine government thought banning them would make them more attractive?
I thought the video did seem convincing over all, especially Nikita who was telling about them in a straightforward manner that didn’t seem follow the exaggerated Putin narrative of the Nazis in Ukraine rather than Azov as part of a general problem of youth who don’t have many prospects, being attracted to become part of what is almost like a religion. I think he pointed out too that this is in other parts of the world.
Who was the man with the perfect American accent who found the US sniper bullets? He seemed to be hyping wherever he could especially in that scene. He also had tried to say the Azov group had stolen that building where Nikita pointed out they may have bought it. As he excitedly voiced his ‘come over here and see this’ about finding the sniper bullets, I wondered why in a war wouldn’t someone be a sniper? And we know bullets could be American surely.
Are Azov pursuing Nazi like acts in this war rather than being simply
nationalists fighting for their country, do you know? This symbolism is polluting whatever the answer though.
It seems the Wagner group in Russia is not unlike them, and I read something about RIM (Russian Imperial Movement) which Russia tolerates. It seems their influence with US white supremacists is valued by Russia in that this helps destabilise America. It is ironic that these people in the US are pro-Putin.
Meanwhile it seems RIM Russians were tolerated by Putin and used to fight against Ukrainians prior to this phase of war:
Russian strategy plays into its tolerance for RIM in two different ways. First, the Kremlin has an incentive to turn a blind eye to the group because of RIM’s role in helping to recruit Russians to fight in eastern Ukraine (it’s worth noting, however, that the conflict has also attracted white supremacist foreign fighters to fight with Ukrainians against Russia)
(from this 2020 article):
Russia’s Role in transnational white supremacist extremism:
www.justsecurity.org/68420/confronting-russias-role-in-transnational-white-supremacist-extremism/
Wagner Group:
www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/putin-nazi-pretext-russia-war-ukraine-belied-white-supremacy-ties-rcna23043