Changes

According to [[NBC News]] the '''Azov Battalion''' was “founded by an avowed [[white supremacist]] who claimed [[Ukraine]]’s national purpose was to rid the country of [[Jews]] and other inferior races.”<ref>https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/ukraine-has-nazi-problem-vladimir-putin-s-denazification-claim-war-ncna1290946</ref>  ''[[The Guardian]]''  reported in 2015, "while the Azov and other volunteer battalions might be Ukraine's most potent and reliable force on the battlefield against the [Donbas] separatists, they also pose the most serious threat to the Ukrainian government, and perhaps even the state."<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/10/azov-far-right-fighters-ukraine-neo-nazis</ref>  It's founder, [[Andriy Biletsky]] famously described the Azov Battalion's role in the [[Revolution of Dignity]], "we have fun killing."<ref>https://youtu.be/0C1O2WWqyPQ?t=1035</ref>

According to [[NBC News]] the '''Azov Battalion''' was “founded by an avowed [[white supremacist]] who claimed [[Ukraine]]’s national purpose was to rid the country of [[Jews]] and other inferior races.”<ref>https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/ukraine-has-nazi-problem-vladimir-putin-s-denazification-claim-war-ncna1290946</ref>  ''[[The Guardian]]''  reported in 2015, "while the Azov and other volunteer battalions might be Ukraine's most potent and reliable force on the battlefield against the [Donbas] separatists, they also pose the most serious threat to the Ukrainian government, and perhaps even the state."<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/10/azov-far-right-fighters-ukraine-neo-nazis</ref>  It's founder, [[Andriy Biletsky]] famously described the Azov Battalion's role in the [[Revolution of Dignity]], "we have fun killing."<ref>https://youtu.be/0C1O2WWqyPQ?t=1035</ref>

The [[New Zealand mosque shooting|Christchurch, New Zealand killer]] who murdered 51 [[Muslim]] worshippers in 2019 received training from the Azov Battalion and wore their insignia on his flak jacket during the shooting.<ref>https://thesoufancenter.org/intelbrief-the-transnational-network-that-nobody-is-talking-about/</ref><ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/world/asia/christchurch-mass-shooting-extremism.html</ref>  The Buffalo, New York supermarket shooter who killed 10 civilians in May 2022 likewise employed the Azov Battalion's Black Sun logo on the cover of his 180 page manifesto.<ref>https://www.scribd.com/document/574156945/Payton-Gendron-Manifesto#download</ref>

The [[New Zealand mosque shooting|Christchurch, New Zealand killer]] who murdered 51 [[Muslim]] worshippers in 2019 received training from the Azov Battalion and wore their insignia on his flak jacket during the shooting.<ref>https://thesoufancenter.org/intelbrief-the-transnational-network-that-nobody-is-talking-about/</ref><ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/world/asia/christchurch-mass-shooting-extremism.html</ref>  The Buffalo, New York supermarket shooter who killed 10 civilians in May 2022 likewise employed the Azov Battalion's Black Sun logo on the cover of his 180 page manifesto.<ref>https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1525601782197817344</ref> <ref>https://www.scribd.com/document/574156945/Payton-Gendron-Manifesto#download</ref>

After the incorporation of the Azov Battalion into the Ukrainian military, Azov leaders were dispersed throughout Ukrainian military and security services, and into its bureaucratic and political structure.

After the incorporation of the Azov Battalion into the Ukrainian military, Azov leaders were dispersed throughout Ukrainian military and security services, and into its bureaucratic and political structure.

On February 24, 2022 [[President Vladimir Putin]] of Russia announced [[Operation Denazification]] to clean out the fascist battalions which have waged war on the civilians of the [[Donbas]] Republics since 2014, killing at least 13,000.<ref>http://www.indiandefencereview.com/what-forced-a-russian-response-in-ukraine/</ref>  Azov Battalion members were added to Armed Forces of the Ukraine (AFU) units to function as political commissars during the 2022 [[Ukraine war]], executing Ukrainian soldiers who wanted to surrender to Russian forces.<ref>https://southfront.org/first-footage-from-illich-plant-in-mariupol-under-dpr-control-photos-video-18/</ref>  Azov members were accused by civilian survivors of committing heinous [[war crimes]] against civilians, including murder and the use of civilians, including children, as human shields.

On February 24, 2022 [[President Vladimir Putin]] of Russia announced [[Operation Denazification]] to clean out the fascist battalions which have waged war on the civilians of the [[Donbas]] Republics since 2014, killing at least 13,000.<ref>http://www.indiandefencereview.com/what-forced-a-russian-response-in-ukraine/</ref>  Azov Battalion members were added to Armed Forces of the Ukraine (AFU) units to function as political commissars during the 2022 [[Ukraine war]], executing Ukrainian soldiers who wanted to surrender to Russian forces.<ref>https://southfront.org/first-footage-from-illich-plant-in-mariupol-under-dpr-control-photos-video-18/</ref>  Azov members were accused by civilian survivors of committing heinous [[war crimes]] against civilians, including murder and the use of civilians, including children, as human shields.

[[File:Buffalo shooter manifesto.jpg|right|350px|thumb|Cover page of the Buffalo, New York shooter's manifesto with Azov Nazi 'Black Sun' logo.<ref>https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1525601782197817344</ref> The shooter murdered 10 people at a [[Buffalo, New York]] supermarket on May 14, 2022.<ref>https://creativedestructionmedia.com/analysis/2022/05/14/buffalo-shooter-references-ukrainian-azov-battalion-nazi-symbols-hated-those-opposing-us-involvement-in-ukraine-conflict/</ref>]]

|[[File:Buffalo shooter manifesto.jpg|300px]]

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|colspan="3"|<hr/>(left) Black Sun logo worn by Christchurch mosque shooter;<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/03/16/accused-new-zealand-shooter-an-all-white-europe-that-never-existed/</ref> (right) Black Sun logo on the cover page of the Buffalo, New York supermarket shooter.<ref>https://creativedestructionmedia.com/analysis/2022/05/14/buffalo-shooter-references-ukrainian-azov-battalion-nazi-symbols-hated-those-opposing-us-involvement-in-ukraine-conflict/</ref>

==Anti-Semitism==

==Anti-Semitism==

The Azov Battalion's [[anti-Semitism]] stems from the great famines of the 1920s and 1930s in the Ukraine and the rest of the country, resulting from [[Stalin]]’s confiscation of crops to finance the modernization of the [[Red Army]]. This [[genocide]]—known in the Ukraine as the [[Holodomor]], though it hit [[Kazakhstan]] and the Volga region harder than it did Ukraine—was perpetrated by the [[NKVD]] (the forerunner of the [[KGB]]), whose some of its upper echelons of leadership were mainly composed of [[Jews]]. This is why, today, Ukrainian extremists are using this in order to be asking [[Israel]] to "apologize" for the crimes of [[communism]], as the ''Jerusalem Post'' notes.<ref>https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/far-right-protesters-in-ukraine-demand-israel-apologize-for-communism-654711</ref> Though Stalin had no Jewish links and rather persecuted Jews<ref>Vaksberg, A. (1997). [https://books.google.com/books?id=bcRtAAAAMAAJ Stalin Against the Jews]. (n.p.): Random House Value Publishing.</ref><ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/24660789 Anti-jewish Policy Of The Ussr In The Last Decade Of Stalin's Rule And Its Impact On The East European Countries With Special Reference To Poland]. Bozena Szaynok. Vol. 29, No. 2/4, THE SOVIET GLOBAL IMPACT: 1945-1991 (SUMMER-FALL-WINTER 2002 / ÉTÉ-AUTOMNE-HIVER 2002), pp. 301-315 (15 pages)</ref> and he was the one overseeing all decisions. Nor is there a connection between those Communists and The state of Israel established by a variety of backgrounds and ideologies.

The Azov Battalion's [[anti-Semitism]] stems from the great famines of the 1920s and 1930s in the Ukraine and the rest of the country, resulting from [[Stalin]]’s confiscation of crops to finance the modernization of the [[Red Army]]. This [[genocide]]—known in the Ukraine as the [[Holodomor]], though it hit [[Kazakhstan]] and the Volga region harder than it did Ukraine—was perpetrated by the [[NKVD]] (the forerunner of the [[KGB]]), whose some of its upper echelons of leadership were mainly composed of [[Jews]]. This is why, today, Ukrainian extremists are using this in order to be asking [[Israel]] to "apologize" for the crimes of [[communism]], as the ''Jerusalem Post'' notes.<ref>https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/far-right-protesters-in-ukraine-demand-israel-apologize-for-communism-654711</ref> Though Stalin had no Jewish links and rather persecuted Jews<ref>Vaksberg, A. (1997). [https://books.google.com/books?id=bcRtAAAAMAAJ Stalin Against the Jews]. (n.p.): Random House Value Publishing.</ref><ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/24660789 Anti-jewish Policy Of The Ussr In The Last Decade Of Stalin's Rule And Its Impact On The East European Countries With Special Reference To Poland]. Bozena Szaynok. Vol. 29, No. 2/4, THE SOVIET GLOBAL IMPACT: 1945-1991 (SUMMER-FALL-WINTER 2002 / ÉTÉ-AUTOMNE-HIVER 2002), pp. 301-315 (15 pages)</ref> and he was the one overseeing all decisions. Nor is there a connection between those Communists and The state of Israel established by a variety of backgrounds and ideologies.

==Rebranding Nazism==

==Rebranding Nazism==

 

Roddy Keenan writing in ''The Saker'' observed, "‘Scratch a [[liberal]] and a [[fascist]] bleeds’, I was once told many years ago."  Keenan continued, "One only has to look at the manner in which the Azov Battalion, a fully-fledged Ukrainian Nazi militia, with significant influence, has been whitewashed in the space of ten weeks. Whereas prior to February 24th 2022, they were recognized as a neo-Nazi battalion, these fascists are now being portrayed as valiant defenders of an oppressed people, fighting bravely against insurmountable odds."   

Roddy Keenan writing in ''The Saker'' observed, "‘Scratch a [[liberal]] and a [[fascist]] bleeds’, I was once told many years ago."  Keenan continued, "One only has to look at the manner in which the Azov Battalion, a fully-fledged Ukrainian Nazi militia, with significant influence, has been whitewashed in the space of ten weeks. Whereas prior to February 24th 2022, they were recognized as a neo-Nazi battalion, these fascists are now being portrayed as valiant defenders of an oppressed people, fighting bravely against insurmountable odds."