Falsifying Putin’s Speech — Let’s Revisit Nazis in Ukraine

Today, Putin made a two-hour-long state of the nation speech to commemorate the upcoming one-year unfortunate anniversary of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

He restated his typical tropes; let me know if you want me to analyze some of them in a future blog post in the comments.

Here, I wanted to revisit his claims that he came to de-Nazify Ukraine as was reiterated during his speech today.

Yes, there are neo-Nazis in Ukraine, but to paint a complete picture we have to look at them comparatively with other countries — especially Russia.

Photo by Tong Su on Unsplash

So, let’s start here. Are there Nazis and neo-Nazis in Ukraine? Yes. But the same can be said about any European country, from Hungary, Austria, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere.

Are they a real threat to Ukrainian stability? No.

Paradoxically, neo-Nazis should be more of a concern in the rest of Europe. Let’s have a brief look at the most potent neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine.

Neo-Nazi Groups in Ukraine

Azov

Ukraine’s largest right-wing group, Azov, was founded, like other far-right militia groups in Ukraine, during the 2014 Maidan revolution.