73 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)
View submission: Ukrainian thoughts on Azov
American here who has studied this situation some as well and yes, I've seen the video done by Beau of the 5th Column.
Here's what I can piece together.
During the period leading up to the revolt of 2014, a whole bunch of different political ideologies came together to confront basically a Russian puppet government supported by the Russian mafia. One of those ideologies was basically fascist; they were a very small part of the overall mix but a very loud one and, let's be honest, a tough one.
Among the Sea of various flags of the protesters in 2014, a few of those flags were from these...well, kinda-sorta Nazi-ish. A FEW.
Military minded members of that movement got clumped together into the AZOV battalion. At peak strength they had 2500 members. Since 2014 the fascist element has been diluted with new recruits that are strongly Ukrainian nationalistic and anti-Russian but not full on fascists. Hard to tell exactly what the mix is now. As of a week ago they had about 900 or so active fighters last I heard. No idea what percentage today could be described as fascist or quasi Nazi.
The political movement tied to AZOV gets less than 2% of the popular vote and hold no seats in the national legislature.
None of this is grounds to label the Ukrainian Nation or politics "Nazi". For Putin to make that claim while being photographed with the head of Wagner *who is known to have SS tattoos* is utter madness.
As to that Russian Mafia thing: my family has been at war with American politicians corrupted by Russian mob bosses *who have also tampered in Ukrainian politics*:
My wife has survived at least five assassination attempts that we know of since early 2007. I met her in 2012 when I was hired as her bodyguard and research assistant in a US election monitoring project.
Our home was firebombed in late 2013, three days before we got married.
You're at war with the Russian Mafia.
Putin is the Godfather.
Comment by Standard-Childhood84 at 20/03/2022 at 15:21 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
My lord that is terrifiying. I am so glad you and your wife survived. People like you are needed by this world so much right now.
Comment by TonyFMontana at 27/03/2022 at 22:17 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Wow , that was very interesting. Hope you and family are safe. Russian mafia is that strong in US?