Does Ukraine have a Nazi problem or not

T. Belman.  I am not convinced.

GALINA WROTE AGAIN TO ME:

Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Reuven Azman responded to Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin, who called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “a disgrace to the Jewish people.”

He said that, together with the whole world, he was proud of the President of Ukraine, who is making every effort to protect the Ukrainian people in the face of Russian full-scale aggression.

He said this in a comment to an UNIAN correspondent. “I can personally say that I am proud of President Zelensky, that he did not run away and is doing everything to help the Ukrainian people. And not only me. I think that the whole world is proud of him,”

He also stressed that there are no neo-Nazis in Ukraine. “There are decent people in Ukraine who defend their homeland,”

Authentic Putin quotes

“I have many Jewish friends since childhood. They say that Zelensky is not a Jew, this is a disgrace to the Jewish people. These are not jokes, not irony. After all, neo-Nazis, Hitler’s successors, were erected on the podium as heroes of Ukraine,” the Russian dictator said on economic forum in St. Petersburg.

Journalists also publish another quote from Putin: “I don’t give any assessments to my colleagues, I never say anything about Zelensky, but it’s puzzling how you can support neo-Nazi rabble.”

Let me remind you that last spring, in an interview, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov compared Zelensky with Hitler. Then he said that Hitler had “Jewish blood”, and also accused the Jews themselves of anti-Semitism.

Earlier this year, Lavrov compared the actions of the United States of America and the EU countries with the actions of Hitler, and the Russians with the Jews.

The European Jewish Congress called his comparison shameful and called for an apology for this misrepresentation.

Ted, you can read it all here. Everything in the article is correct. I checked on the Russian text.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/06/16/world/russia-ukraine-news

Putin again falsely claims that Nazis control Ukraine. NYT

In a speech to Russia’s signature annual economic forum, President Vladimir V. Putin largely ignored the war in Ukraine, but then during a question-and-answer session, he doubled down on his false accusation that Ukraine has been riddled with Nazi sympathizers since World War II.

Asked about the recently launched Ukrainian counteroffensive, Mr. Putin said that Ukrainian troops had reached the first line of Russian defenses in some places but maintained they had suffered much higher losses than Russia. He said Ukraine’s forces had “no chance.”

Mr. Putin has repeatedly, and falsely, described Ukraine as a Nazi state and used that claim to justify his illegal invasion. When he was asked on Friday about his goal of “denazification,” he relied on similar stereotypes and false allegations.

First, he took aim at President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who is Jewish. “I have had many Jewish friends since childhood,” Mr. Putin said. “They say Zelensky is not a Jew. He is a disgrace to the Jewish people.”

Mr. Putin then presented gruesome, black-and-white pictures of war victims filmed during World War II, claiming that Ukrainian nationalists sought then to create an ethnically pure nation. Mr. Putin tried to make the link to that earlier period by again claiming that Ukrainians still revered Stepan Bandera, a polemical World War II leader accused of collaborating with the Nazis to free the country from Soviet control.

While some Ukrainian military units had their roots in far-right groups, they are considered a fringe movement, which the government in Kyiv has worked for years through legislation and military restructuring to contain. There has been no evidence of widespread Nazi sympathy in modern Ukraine.

Mr. Putin, in his remarks about the war, echoed his statements at a news conference last Tuesday, when he suggested that nothing had changed in Russia’s goals and that setbacks were being addressed.

He accused Western nations of taking “drastic measures” to ensure Russia’s defeat by giving weapons to Kyiv, but said an increase in Russian defense production would help counter the deliveries.

Speaking for more than an hour on economic matters before he was asked the first question, Mr. Putin barely mentioned the war, referring to it only indirectly in terms of the economic challenges brought by Western sanctions that he suggested were ultimately making Russia stronger. “The very fabric of economic life was being rewoven,” he said.

Overall, he painted a rosy picture of the Russian economy, suggesting that it was continuing to grow despite the sanctions, and that indexes like unemployment and inflation were low.

The speech underscored Mr. Putin’s commitment to capitalism, even as he beat a favorite drum in saying that the West could no longer dictate how the world’s nations interact economically. “What we need to do is to stimulate growth, removing barriers in the way of business growth,” he said. Mr. Putin arrived an hour late to begin his speech.

Although the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum was initially conceived as a way to present Russian technology and investment opportunities to Western business leaders, sanctions and the war meant virtually none came this year.

Mr. Putin said that with some exceptions, foreign companies that left someday would be allowed back.

“We will create the necessary conditions for them to work in Russia,” he said. Russia would also continue as a leading exporter of wheat in order to insure the world’s food security.

Alina Lobzina and Oleg Matsnev contributed reporting.

June 17, 2023 | 7 Comments »

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7 Comments / 7 Comments

  1. @REBEL
    @talex
    @Vivarto
    All very important points to consider.

    When Ukraine is finally rumped into Galicia or whatever larger slice of the pie it might control when the US finally allows them to negotiate their adjusted border, the number of Russians within their borders will be relatively much less, and the number of Nazis will be measurably much greater, making their Nazi problem an even more important dilemma under which all minorities will have to find their own escape. When this comes to be, the foolish Rabbi Azman will find that even giving such false testimonies to stroke the egos of the despots that even now rule over him will provide a poor recompense for finding safety anywhere else. Of course, it is easy enough to sit back and warn the minorities of Ukraine to get out while you still can, but it should be recalled that Ukraine has closed her borders so that they might press more and more of its civilians into bloody trenches which are having an devastatingly unknown effect upon the already well dwindled population of what was once Ukraine – and this is the very real consequence which comes from either ignoring or hiding the very real Nazi problem which was granted an unrepresentative influence over Ukraine following the US coup.

  2. Ukraine has nazi problem. It does not mean all Ukrainians, it means a very large and influential part of them. If one does not want to see it or wants to belittle, it does not mean that the problem does not exist. And for the West it is OK as long as this nazi influence OPENLY only russophobe. Very well covered this nazi sympathies with a puppet Jew. The President.

  3. Galina hates Russians so is happy to ally herself with with anyone fighting them- no matter they are neo-Nazis, fake Jews like Zelensky or intimidated Jews like the Rabbi from Ukraine.
    No facts or evidence can dissuade her.
    It’s like trying to have a discussion with “progressive”
    liberals.

  4. The Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Reuven Azman
    is a shameless liar.
    He knows well that there are statues of Bandera in many Ukrainian cities.
    So are many streets, schools and sport stations are called after this Nazi colaborater. In schools children are singing
    “Bandera is our fatther
    Ukraine our mother….”

    Now what would this this Rabbi say if in Berlin there was a Hitler street, or if there were statues of Hitler in many major German cities.
    What would he say if children in German school sang
    “Hitler is our father
    Germany our mother…”
    Shame on this cowardly rabbi.

    Also, the NYT artile consistently refers to Putin an the dictator.
    In reality, by comparison Zielenky’s regime is much more dictatorial.
    There is more place for opposition in Russia than in Ukraine.
    There is also more press and media freedom in Russia than in Ukraine.

    I read many Russian blogs that are critical of the leadership.
    I am not aware of sigle Ukrainian media outlet that dares to criticize the Ukrainian junta.

    Also, Galina, is reporting incorrectly about Lavrov,
    He correctly stated that there are Nazi forces in Ukraine.
    When the journalist objected that Zielensky is a Jew, Lavrov made the point that being Jewish does not mean that he connet be a Nazi. Then he mistakenly claimed that Hitler had some Jewish blood.
    Most likely Hitler did not, but it is plenty of antisemites did have Jewish ancestors.
    So his point is correct, that having Jewish blood does to mean that one cannot be a Nazi.

    Also, comparing Ukrainian Russophobia with Jew-hatred has a lot of merit.
    Indeed the current anti-Russian hatred is very simmilar to the antisemitism of former years. It is the same hatred, redirected against a differen target.
    And it is racial, they call Russians “Aziates”, and “Mongols”.

    Just imagine a bunch of Jew haters in main plaza of a big city jumping up and down and chanting

    “Those who don’t jump, they are Kikes.”

    Imagine being a Jew in such place.

    Now how is it better if they chant,
    Those who don’t jump, they are “Moscals”…

    I don’t know why Galina is denying the obvious truth, Ukraine has big Nazi problmem.

    And after the dust settles and Ukrainias reasize that their Jewish president has sacrificed hunderds of thousands of youg Ukrainians, while he amassed billions of Dollars and his children were safely in foreign countries, then Ukrainikan will go back to ther traditional Jew-hatred.
    I think the Rabbi should think about it, and get his butt safely ouf of Ukraine before it is too late…

  5. Godwin’s Law:

    the longer an online discussion about politics lingers, the more likely it is that someone will make a comparison to Hitler or the Nazis.

    Corollary:

    If Ukraine didn’t hace Nazis at the beginning of this thread, it certainly will by the end of it.

  6. He also stressed that there are no neo-Nazis in Ukraine. “There are decent people in Ukraine who defend their homeland,”

    No neo nazi’s in Ukraine? This silly statement doesn’t pass the laugh test in any nation in Eastern Europe, much less Ukraine where the neo Nazi Azov was incorporated into the armed forces where it remained as an elite force. This was recognized by both the Western media and the US congress before such political inconveniences were later ignored and covered up by both. If this had actually been true, I would suggest history would have played a very different course than we have seen develop over the past years. Unfortunately, it isn’t true, despite the fact that the neocon discourse filling the official Western narratives would have us believe otherwise.