I'd suggest you follow the links I gave you.
"In this first English-language book on the Azov movement, Michael Colborne explains how Azov came to be and continues to exploit Ukraine’s fractured social and political situation—including the only ongoing war on European soil – to build one of the most ambitious and dangerous far-right movements in the world. Michael Colborne ... has been part of the Bellingcat Monitoring Project team at the investigative journalism website Bellingcat, primarily researching Ukraine’s far right."
And by the way, what other country made a neo-Nazi brigade a part of its army?
"And they are putting their lives where their mouths are"
Not sure what's your point. Nazis were doing that too.
"After the first few years of its formation, only a small minority of members had far right connections. ... The Azov Battalion and the entire Azov movement are almost completely untainted by antisemitism."
Not that I'm defending Azov. Just that I don't think that this commenter's apparent concerns about Azov's political beliefs are what they seem. I don't think they really care as to whether Azov is now, or ever was neo-Nazi in any substantive sense. It's just a topic they like to through around to push people's emotional buttons, and distract from far more obvious and important issues.
Pretty much exactly like Putin is doing whenever he plays the Nazi card.
Of course its commanders are a minority.
"untainted by antisemitism"
So it's ok to hate other nationalities if it's not Jews?
No one idolizing Bandera and the likes of him cannot be untainted by Nazism.
"I don't think they really"
Pretending to read other person's mind and accuse them of insincerity based on that makes a poor argument.
"to push people's emotional buttons, and distract "
You mean people in Western countries might learn whom they are helping and ask questions like "why exactly have we been doing this"?
We know all about the topic. However, it's clear from the overall tone of how you communicate here (and your endless evasions when cornered on simple factual matters) that you are either not capable of, or are simply not interested in anything even remotely resembling a productive discussion about it.
You might be right, actually. Naive and brainwashed Americans supported criminal invasion of Iraq in 2003 on the false pretext. And reelected Bush afterwards. So don't underestimate the power of Western domestic propaganda.
That wouldn't be the first time when the West uses Nazis against Russia. I hope you just lied and used 'we' instead of 'I'.
The rest of your comment is expectedly lacking any specifics.
Literally all of them, including Russia of course(which has multiple).
You can possibly claim that it is PMC rather than direct Russian military, but then there is the recent ultimatum given to Wagner troops -- Join Russian military ranks or leave.
Was it all you had?
lol, I'm done.
Edit: Looked through comment history and it makes sense now.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30731180
You're a joke, and you should be ashamed of yourself.
Well, this sure looks like an evidence of Wagner's commander having a neo-Nazi tattoo [0][1]. Besides Utkin's personality there doesn't seem to be anything else.
I wanted to verify sources a bit further myself, but alas: https://i.imgur.com/YxG58lR.png
To be fair, it is silly to even separate them as they're all fighting hand in hand with regular Russian army with Russian army supplies, so for all intents and purposes they were both part of it.
But seeing as the person I was responding to is touting about "powerful Russian military" and "weak Europe" from the comforts of the western middle class, I don't really want to engage in discussion any further.
"so for all intents and purposes they were both part of it"
Not really. Rusich is a dirty secret just like Utkin's personality. They are not legitimized in any way. Azov with the Wolfsangel on their banner and Aidar are openly ultra-nationalist and touted by Kyev as heroes.
Russia and Russian Military have a long and proven track record of lying without any shame or remorse, so I don't really care what the "official" standing of these units is. They are fed by Russia, armed by Russia and controlled by Russia, everything else is "Пыль в глаза".
Without downplaying the troubling beginnings of Azov (who aren't the worst offenders by a mile if you look at 2014-2015, to be honest) -- it has little bearing in 2023.
Ukrainian army went a long way cleaning up their ranks and becoming a professional army since then, they had trials and punished their own soldiers for committing crimes in ATO, which Russian side not only did not do, but encouraged.
The World is holding Ukraine to an impossible standard right now, magnifying every individual case and person to paint the whole country in bad light while turning the blind eye to one to Russian atrocities (See HRW about Cluster munitions for Ukraine vs silence on Russia using all sorts of forbidden weaponry).
Zelensky let them all out when the war started[0], including the infamous Tornado battalion[1][2].
"have a long and proven track record of lying without any shame or remorse"
Just like the Ukraine or the US.
"which Russian side ... encouraged"
Another fine example of 'atrocity propaganda'[3] to mobilize public support in Western countries for the Ukrainian war.
"vs silence on Russia using all sorts of forbidden weaponry"
So why is the silence? That happens when things get investigated and no proof is found. I remember Ukrainian general claiming in 2014 that Russia used a tactical nuke in Donbass.
[0] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10559879/Zelensky-r...
[1] https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-tornado-battalion-rogue-para...
[2] https://focus-ua.translate.goog/uk/amp/ukraine/521825-osuzhd...
The audacity to compare Ukraine, which has incredible level of transparency during this invasion in every aspect, welcoming auditors and investigators from all over the world to Russia is very telling of your biases.
I am Russian, I am well aware of nuances, but to even begin to compare the two is insanity in 2023.
Seems like you're more then happy about Russian nazis but looking to very much focus on the other side.
> Another fine example of 'atrocity propaganda'[3] to mobilize public support in Western countries for the Ukrainian war.
There doesn't need to be propaganda when you are up against the monsters that rolled through Grozny and Aleppo.
The Russians are every bit the monsters that most people think they are.
> Just like the Ukraine or the US.
But the Russians lie a lot more. They have pretty much not stopped lying since this "we are not going to invade" war started and even just before it.
Typical Vatnik when they have no way to counter an argument, remember the Internet Research Agency says attack the person not the content.