Israel and Canada's Active Collaboration with Ukrainian Neo-Nazis

Back in the USSR focuses on why imperialist countries like Israel, Canada, and the US are actively supporting open fascists and Neo-Nazis in Ukraine with arms, training, and political cover.  

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You’re listening to Back in the USSR.  Comrades, I’d like to draw your attention to an article that

was published on July 4^th on the website Electronic Intifada, entitled “Israel is arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine”.  A title like that doesn’t pull any punches and the article certainly does not.  It’s author, investigative journalist Asa Winstanley, lays out the collaboration between the Apartheid State of Israel, which has recently massacred nearly 150 unarmed Palestinian protestors in Gaza, with the blatantly fascist Azov Battalion, which has terrorized Ukraine in recent years, particularly targeting Jews and Roma for violent attacks.  It is also an official part of the Ukrainian armed forces and, as such, is armed and supported by the United States, Canada, the UK, and Israel.  When reports emerged this year that Israeli “Tavor” rifles were being used by the Azov Battalion and that they had been “trained by Israelis”.  The head of the Israeli arms export agency declined to deny the reports, or to even discuss cancellation of the weapons licenses, citing “security” concerns.  Starting as a gang of fascist street thugs, the Azov Battalion is one of several far-right militias that have now been integrated as units of Ukraine’s National Guard since a pro-US coup in 2014 toppled pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych and installed a far-right regime in his place.  Today, Azov is run by Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s interior minister, who last year met with the Israeli interior minister Aryeh Deri to discuss “fruitful cooperation.” Recent postings on Azov websites document a June meeting with the Canadian military attaché, Colonel Brian Irwin.  According to Azov, the Canadians concluded the briefing by expressing “their hopes for further fruitful cooperation.” A spokesperson for the Canadian defense department later sent a statement, pathetically attempting to justify their active collaboration with open Nazis by claiming that their “training of Ukrainian Armed Forces through Operation Unifier incorporates strong human rights elements.” This is Max Blumenthal’s report in the Real News about the Electronic Intifada article:

Max Blumenthal – Israel is arming Ukraine’s blatantly neo-Nazi militia Azov Battalion

Marxman - The Fascist Boom

You’re listening to Back in the USSR.  Max Blumenthal certainly covered a lot of ground in that report, dealing with why imperialist countries like Israel, Canada, and the US are supporting open fascists in Ukraine with arms, training, and political cover.  And it’s worth noting, as Stephen Gowans did in an article back in January 2014, at the time of the far-right coup that brought the present Ukrainian government to power, why the American Empire has gone absolutely to the wall to incorporate that country into its sphere of influence and to put a reliably anti-Russian regime in power, even if it incorporates some of the worst neo-Nazi groups on the planet and puts them in positions of state power. For the West, integration of Ukraine into its orbit means:

• Expansion of Western business opportunities.

• Growing isolation of Russia, one of the few countries strong enough to challenge US hegemony.

• Influence over transit of Russian gas exports to Europe.

• Military strategic advantage.

Gowans compares and contrasts the 2013 Euromaidan protests in Ukraine with the 2011 Arab Spring protests in Egypt and the respective Western media and political responses to these events.  The deaths of a handful of rioters in downtown Kiev, and remember that Azov Battalion and other far-right groups had armed themselves and were engaged in active streetfighting against the Ukrainian police at the time, was treated with shock and outrage by the Western media and political elites.  By contrast, the deaths of literally hundreds, perhaps more than one thousand, completely unarmed demonstrators at the hands of the police in Egypt back in 2011, combined with the complete suspension of civil liberties, there was virtual silence from Western governments and the mainstream press, who really tried to ignore the whole thing until it became too big to ignore and then they tried to downplay it as best they could and engage in damage control.  And there’s no hypocrisy here.  The brutal military regime in Egypt was a staunch Western ally.  While the far less brutal pro-Russian government of Victor Yanukovych in Ukraine was not.  And the for the reasons listed above, it was actively targeted for destruction and overthrown with generous amounts of Western support for the reactionary nationalist forces seeking his ouster.  These political forces involved in this regime-change operation were, unsurprisingly, portrayed as “pro-democracy” forces by the West, just as the Syrian rebels were.  Of course it didn’t take long at all for their true political character to show through.  A few years back I interviewed journalist Joshua Tartakovsky on the show about what happened next after the coup.  This is what he had to say:

Joshua Tartakovsky – The Anti-Fascist Struggle in Ukraine

You’re listening to Back in the USSR.  I finally want to come back to Canada’s support for fascism in Ukraine, because it is very real and the government has repeatedly dismissed as “Russian propaganda” practically every criticism of this policy.  As I said earlier in the show, Canada is an integral part of the Western alliance that is propping up the far-right regime that came in after the 2014 US-backed coup.  Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland has been among the most active Western politicians supporting intervention in Ukraine, and, as I’ve talked about in previous shows, has actively misrepresented her own family history and her grandfather’s role as a Nazi propagandist in the 40s.  But she’s far from alone.  Not only does the Liberal Party and the sitting government support this policy, but there is essentially complete bi-partisan support.  Yves Engler pointed out on Dissident Voice just yesterday how the NDP has supported intervention in Ukraine and has been cozy with the cause of the Ukrainian far-right and the Ukrainian-Canadian far-right, with people like Olivia Chow speaking at their rallies in Toronto.  It’s absolutely disgusting seeing this cross the board support for neo-Nazis in mainstream Canadian politics, but it is the reality right now.  The American Empire has an agenda to use Ukraine as a strategic weapon against Russia and these far-right Ukrainian forces are coming to the fore, just as they did during the Cold War, because they’re seen as useful by the powers that be.  Here’s another report from Max Blumenthal which talks about how open Nazis have been recently welcomed on Capitol Hill:

Max Blumenthal – Ukrainian Fascist leader speaks in US Congress

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