radiofree.asia

Media whitewashing of neo-Nazis allowed UK politicians to parade them in parliament

We reported this week about a Labour Party MP proudly meeting a prominent neo-Nazi’s wife. But it turns out there was actually a “roundtable discussion in Parliament” with members of Ukraine’s far-right Azov Brigade. And this is exactly what happens when our lapdog establishment media outlets whitewash fascism on behalf of the corrupt political order they defend.

Azov neo-Nazis in the UK parliament

Labour MP Alex Sobel previously said it was his “honour” to meet Ukrainian campaigner Kateryna Prokopenko – the wife of Azov commander Denys Prokopenko. But Ukrainian-American journalist Lev Golinkin is just one critic who has been voicing concerns about this type of meeting. Because he has outlined Prokopenko’s membership of “the White Boys Club — a right-wing group of fans of the Dynamo Kyiv soccer team — which previously posted “phrases like ‘100% White’ and ‘88’ (code for ‘Heil Hitler’), praise for Holocaust perpetrators, and Waffen-SS insignia” on social media”.

As a Jewish person himself, Golinkin rightly sees the danger in platforming and empowering people with links to Azov – a movement whose founder Andriy Biletsky once said Ukraine’s purpose was to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against Semite-led Untermenschen [inferior races]”.

But fellow Labour MP Alistair Carns joined Sobel’s fawning over the Ukrainian far right by revealing the presence of actual Azov veterans in parliament:

One figure present was allegedly Azov instructor Valeriy Horishny, a longstanding adherent to far-right ideology.

Carns also suggested that Russian invaders had “illegally” captured Azov fighters. It’s unclear what he meant by that, as it is legal to hold prisoners of war providing they don’t face mistreatment in captivity.

The West’s dangerous whitewashing of the Ukrainian far right for Russia-bashing purposes

Russia has certainly committed crimes in Ukraine in what has been a devastating conflict that didn’t need to go on for so long. The war has hurt ordinary Ukrainians and Russians alike, but Western governments saw an opportunity to further their own interests by fuelling Ukraine’s resistance to the 2022 invasion. So as Golinkin has explained, despite the fact that “nearly every Western institution raised alarms about Azov” before 2022, the West gradually found ways to whitewash the group’s fascism and welcome it with open arms.

Academics produced in-depth reports about Azov, but in the case of Stanford university, research suddenly seemed to disappear when it became inconvenient context. Stanford had previously highlighted that:

The Azov Movement is a far-right nationalist network of military, paramilitary, and political organizations based in Ukraine.

And it described how:

It is notable for its recruitment of far-right foreign fighters from the U.S., Russia, and Europe, as well as extensive transnational ties with other far-right organizations.

But as Golinkin emphasised in 2023, Prokopenko is “the type of person who Western media says is an example of not a neo-Nazi”, but:

He’s been photographed numerous times with a Totenkopf, which is one of the most common neo-Nazi symbols in the world. And he was part of Azov’s beginning — he was part of Azov’s beginning from 2014, from when it was still just a battalion form of a neo-Nazi gang.

He criticised US establishment voices for calling Trump supporters fascists while at the same time “whitewashing neo-Nazis” from Ukraine:

it’s insane that we are doing this… because they’re our neo-Nazis, and we’re celebrating them…

He added:

Azov has remained a hub for neo-Nazis to come over, and they can get battlefield experience…

how many world countries have actual neo-Nazi units? So, Azov has used this war to their advantage. They’ve used it brilliantly.

The media’s role in glorifying the Azov Battalion

Golinkin continued by insisting that:

the same media who spent seven years tracking Azov and tracking its neo-Nazi nature, suddenly, at the beginning of this invasion, suddenly turned around and said that, all of a sudden, this organization stopped being far-right… It’s just an incredible feat of whitewashing, which is denying reality, with Western media across the board suddenly saying, based on nothing, based on propaganda, that this entire group that attracted neo-Nazis from all over the world, that we’ve reported on, has suddenly stopped, stopped being neo-Nazis, and now they’re OK.

He also argued that:

the message that we are sending is that if you are the right type of neo-Nazi, we will arm you, we will train you, we will take you to Congress, we will celebrate you across our media, you will be our hero.

That’s exactly what’s happening in the UK too. Dominant European nations are intent on pushing Ukraine to continue its unwinnable war that many Ukrainians don’t want but are being forced to fight. And they’re empowering the far right in the process.

Featured image via screengrab

By Ed Sykes

This post was originally published on Canary.