In a rare move, Ukrainian President Zelensky condemns a march in Kyiv that lauded the Waffen-SS and calls on the National Police to hold those responsible accountable for violating a relatively new law against glorifying totalitarian regimes. president.gov.ua/ru/news/shodo-…
The march was relatively small, with just ~200 ppl. It doesn't mean Kyiv is overrun with Nazis, as the Kremlin might light you to think. But these marches have been allowed for years, & participants include military vets & members of groups who claim to not be Nazi sympathizers.
Here's a good @zaborona_media article about the march, which took place on Wednesday. You can see flags of several Ukrainian far-right paramilitary units. Also leading the group was Yevhen Karas of the neo-Nazi (although he denies it is) group C14. zaborona.com/ru/poteryannye…
I called Zelensky's condemnation rare not because he hasn't spoken out about the far-right (although he hasn't said much). But because neither his predecessor Poroshenko nor top government or law enforcement officials typically condemn actions of Ukrainian far-right extremists.
Does Zelensky's call for law enforcement to find out who was behind the SS march and hold them accountable under the law signal a shift in policy? Only time will tell. Nevertheless, condemnation is the right move here.

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More from @ChristopherJM

30 Apr
NEW: Details Of A Fateful Call Between Rudy Giuliani And The Ukrainians Have Been Secret For Years. @BuzzFeedNews Has The Full Transcript.

Giuliani, in his own words, pressuring Ukrainian President Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak on July 22, 2019:
buzzfeednews.com/article/christ…
A select few quotes from the call, which led to the infamous Trump-Zelensky call 3 days later, have been published before. But in full, you can really see how Giuliani pushed Ukraine to open investigations that would favor Trump.
“I have no interest in anybody not telling the truth or exaggerating,” Giuliani says in part of the call. “All we need from the president is to say: ‘I’m gonna put an honest prosecutor in charge, he’s gonna investigate and dig up the evidence that presently exists..."
Read 6 tweets
15 Apr
Meanwhile, intelligence agency leaders are testifying in a House Intel Committee hearing on global threats.
c-span.org/video/?510634-…

FBI Director Wray discussed domestic extremism and the "salad bar" ideology, or ideology hopping, of extremists.
Wray, on anarchist violent extremists/antifa (Republicans brought it up), says when it comes to them sometimes there's tendency to view how structured & organized something is as a proxy for how seriously threatening something is. "Those two things don't necessarily conflate."
Wray did say, however, that anarchist violent extremism is a threat, and he's not minimizing the threat they pose. He added that the number of investigations in the area has "dramatically increased" on his watch.
Read 6 tweets
15 Apr
NEW: US sanctions "known Russian agent" Konstantin Kilimnik, Paul Manafort's man in Kyiv, for attempting to influence the 2020 election. He's wanted by the FBI, which is offering a reward of up to $250,000 for info leading to his arrest. He's currently in/near Moscow.
Here's some of my reporting and interviews with Kilimnik over the years: rferl.org/a/paul-manafor…
And this, with audio: rferl.org/a/person-a-in-…
Read 5 tweets
13 Apr
"Extremists who espouse an often overlapping mix of white supremacist, neo-Nazi, and exclusionary cultural-nationalist beliefs have the most persistent transnational connections," says @ODNIgov. "The threat from this diffuse movement...has increased since 2015."
@ODNIgov Violent extremists were responsible for 26
lethal attacks that killed more than 141 people and for dozens of disrupted plots in the West since 2015. While the extremists often see themselves as part of a global movement, most attacks were carried out by individuals, small cells.
"Australia, Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom consider white racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, including Neo-Nazi groups, to be the fastest growing terrorist threat they face." - @ODNIgov
Read 4 tweets
12 Apr
Last week @RepSlotkin sent a letter to @SecBlinken asking @StateDept to designate foreign white supremacist groups "Foreign Terrorist Organizations." Among them, Ukraine's "Azov Battalion," which is now Azov Regiment & officially part of Nat'l Guard. I have the letter & her list: Image
@RepSlotkin @SecBlinken @StateDept I've done extensive reporting on the Azov Battalion/Regiment, and the broader Azov movement. Here's my 2018 report on it Azov "going global" and attracting Americans and Europeans. rferl.org/a/azov-ukraine…
Azov might be a National Guard regiment, but Americans are still coming to Kyiv to try to link up with it and its far-right extremist veterans. As I reported in October, 2 US men tied to Atomwaffen Division were deported after trying to connect with Azov: buzzfeednews.com/article/christ…
Read 6 tweets
9 Apr
NEW: For years I've researched men who go to fight with Ukraine's far-right units. This story of a US Army vet charged with killing a Florida couple and an examination of his exploits provides a stark example of the impact of one American’s radicalization buzzfeednews.com/article/christ…
Since Russia invaded the Donbas and sparked a war in 2014, Ukraine has attracted Americans who want to fight alongside far-right paramilitary forces. Now people are beginning to ask: What happens when radicalized soldiers like Craig Lang return home? buzzfeednews.com/article/christ…
Lang deserted the Army & later traveled to Ukraine to fight with Right Sector, an extremist paramilitary force that welcomed volunteers. By the time he returned to America, he had grown increasingly radicalized & relished violence, fellow fighters & friends told me. 📸Timo Vogt
Read 22 tweets

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