Tuesday, December 27, 2022

The United States Congress and its Inconsistent Approach to Ukraine

For those that are paying attention, it is pretty clear that those of us who live in the West are being subjected to war levels of propaganda when it comes to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine with the mainstream media carrying out their role as the "performing press poodles" for the anti-Putin and Russia/pro-Zelensky and Ukraine narrative.  That said, it doesn't take much of a search to find evidence Washington's previous narrative about Ukraine and, in particular, the nation's Azov Regiment aka the Azov Battalion, a far-right network which consists of military, paramilitary and political organizations.

  

As is typical of Washington, Congress has taken upon itself to rewrite history.  Here is a prime example; a letter from October 2019 from Democratic Representative Max Rose (New York 11) to then Secretary of State Michael Pompeo regarding the Azov Battalion and requesting its inclusion in the Foreign Terrorist Organization list as a violent white supremacist extremist group:

 


 

Here are the Congressional signatories of the letter:

 



 

A total of 40 Democrats requested that the Trump Administration list Ukraine's Azov Battalion as a terrorist organization, comparing it to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) stating that it "....openly welcomes neo-Nazis into its ranks...".  

 

Not surprisingly, right now, when you click on the original link to the letter, this is what you get:

 


Apparently, Washington’s ruling class seems unaware that the internet never forgets anything.n

 

Here's what the Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point had to say about the far-right movement/Azov Regiment in Ukraine in April 2020:

 

"In recent years, some Americans and Europeans drawn to various brands of far-right nationalism have looked to Ukraine as their field of dreams: a country with a well-established, trained, and equipped far-right militia—the Azov Regiment—that has been actively engaged in the conflict against Russian-backed separatists in Donbas. Most of these ‘foreign fighters’ appear to travel as individuals and at their own expense, according to the author’s review of many cases, but there is a broader relationship between the Ukrainian far-right, and especially its political flagship the National Corps,1 and a variety of far-right groups and individuals in the United States and Europe.

 

Far-right groups remain strong in Ukraine, with the ability to marshal thousands of supporters for protests and rallies, some of whom carry Nazi and white supremacist insignia. The author witnessed one such rally in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in October 2019. These groups have bitterly opposed any suggestion of compromise with Russia over Donbas through the Normandy negotiating process and were prominent at another rally witnessed by the author in Kyiv in the fall of 2019 to oppose concessions floated by President Volodymyr Zelensky....

 

Analysis of social media communications, court documents, travel histories, and other connections shows that a number of prominent individuals among far-right extremist groups in the United States and Europe have actively sought out relationships with representatives of the far-right in Ukraine, specifically the National Corps and its associated militia, the Azov Regiment....

 

In 2014, as pro-Russian groups began to seize parts of the Donbas, a neo-Nazi group that called itself Patriot of Ukraine formed a battalion to reinforce the beleaguered Ukrainian army. Few qualifications were required, and volunteers came from all walks of life. The group soon became better known as the Azov Regiment.

 

Since late 2014, with the gradual modernization of the Ukrainian armed forces and the attrition of the Donbas conflict, the Azov Regiment has become more formally organized, building on its formal affiliation with the Ukrainian National Guard.  This relationship gave it access to better weapons and training; Azov is equipped with tanks and other heavy armor. Azov Media now has 38,000 subscribers to its YouTube channel."

 

In the 2018 edition of the omnibus House spending bill, a provision was added that prevented United States arms from going to the Azov Battalion as shown in this article which appears on Congressman Ro Khanna's website:



..and on this tweet from March 1, 2018:

 


This begs the question.  With the Azov Regiment still very active in the ongoing battle against Russia in Ukraine, what has changed that would allow these same members of Congress to back sending basically unlimited arms to Ukraine since February 2022 which, in all likelihood have been and will continue to be delivered into the hands of what some members of Congress have already defined as a neo-Nazi group, one that 40 current and past Democratic members of the House demanded be declared a terrorist organization?

 

Washington has a pathological desire to see Vladimir Putin permanently relieved of his duties as President of Russia and an obsessional need to destroy Russia for once and for all particularly as the globe evolves into a multipolar reality.


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