Westerners don't get it. They didn't see citizens in Crimea and Donbas walking around in their "fuck me, Putin" shorts and their "imperialism now" borscht stained t-shirts.
They're nazis because the NATO helped them not be colonized and drained of resources by Russia. Not wanting to have your hospitals and schools bombed, makes you a nazi obviously.
I think the Russian conception of Nazi is literally someone who threatens Russia. The rest of the world focuses on the totalitarian ideologies and anti semitism, Russia largely focuses on just that they were against Russia.
Don't be silly, Wagner's people were in Ukraine way before the Russian "special military operation" started... there were actual (Russian) nazis in Ukraine... and look, a year and a half later, Russia finally managed to kill their leaders!
Ya, Russians would have to rub their two vodka soaked braincells together real hard to realize no entire country has been ran by true Nazis in a while.....
Asking honestly: How would you characterize the Azov Brigade and the Social National Assembly? Do you think the presence of these groups might contribute to the perception of Nazis in the Ukrainian ranks?
Meanwhile, Dmitry Utkin, founder and real leader of Russian "Wagner" PMC, and active in invading Ukraine since 2014, had SS insignia tattooed on both sides of his neck and a big Nazi eagle tattooed on his chest.
SNA was apparently dissolved in 2015. So, you know, it's unfortunate they were a thing in the first place, but it happens in volatile times.
Azov was definitely quite Nazi for quite a while, but apparently they've depoliticized in measurable ways, with both inclusive messaging from their leadership and practical steps like adding background checks to weed out racists while welcoming more Jewish members.
Overall, the "perception of Nazis in the Ukrainian ranks" is mostly a Russian propaganda myth, used to rationalize sending actual Nazis to "denazify" and murder people in a peaceful country that has at most maybe like, 1 far-right politician in its parliament of 450. Ukraine can deal with the kids getting edgy about politics after they deal with the killers occupying their land.
Certainly, and I'd characterize it like this. If a bunch of Nazis want to go fight my enemy, I'm not going to stop them. No matter what happened, I win out.
Yeah. Best case, they'll die in battle and there'll be fewer of them to deal with once the dust has settled. Worse case, they're fighting the enemy, making the fight easier for the rest.
And at the end of the day, we can still prosecute them for hate crimes. They can get a slightly more comfortable pillow in their cells in recognition of their service.
Well first of the Azov brigade was taken apart, subsumed by the military, and had it's neo Nazi core group removed. If you want to mention them you need to remember Ukraine 2023 is not Ukraine 2018. Second, the political wing is a minority in the government much like the Freedom Caucus in the US, the Golden Dawn in Greece, and the current majority in Italy. Having dumb people in your country does not make you fascist. It's an entire ideology that does not co-exist with democracy.
I mean presence of Nazis in society does not mean the society as a whole is Nazi - else literally every country on the planet is Nazi.
Now the presence of Nazis is a problem but there is a difference between a relatively small group who are nowhere near the reigns of power (as is Ukraine's case) and literally being the state (as is Russia's case).
In my experience it's more like "My wife's been getting closer to the most powerful man in town, because I keep threatening to punch her in the face. This dude sometimes does bad things and he made us wear masks because of a so-called pandemic, so I had no choice other than repeatedly punching her in the face. So he's obviously responsible for this whole mess, I'm a good guy really! Also my wife is a Nazi."