Thread. Re Protasevich and Azov. Here's what's out there to be analyzed against other evidence, commentary: 1st photo is Protasevich, 2nd photo is the cover of Azov's "Black Sun" publication July 2015 issue #15. 3rd photo is what @azure says: "0.70 confidence" (that's high-ish).
There's less confidence from Azure when Azov's "Black Sun" cover photo is compared to other photos of Protasevich. For example, it's "0.62" with this photo.
IMPORTANT: The "Black Sun" Issue #15 cover was posted earlier today in comments on a neo-Nazi Telegram. I assumed it could be fake, but there is, in fact, a July 2015 post on Azov's now-dormant VK page featuring the cover, the issue itself is downloadable archive.ph/mYUOU
The photo on the cover of the "Black Sun" #15 was obviously edited, put through a filter, but the manipulations applied to the photo seem to be consistent with how "Black Sun" other cover photos were handled at the time. Check other covers from the period.
Additionally, claims are being made in Ukraine (no I'm not talking about that pro-Lukashenko late 2020 Telegram) that Protasevich was with Azov as a journalist. So far, AFAIK, no claims or evidence that Protasevich fought with Azov.
I'll finish this thread with what I started it with: It's out there, others will bring it up. I started out assuming the photo was fake, and @Azure told me what you can see in front of you. I'm not making claims, I used Azure to scrutinize a claim that was made.
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In the Azov Regiment’s magazine“Black sun”, fighters, AR figures contemporaneously wrote that the launch of a political wing was meant to allow the Regiment to influence politics. Far-right Azov movement has specialized branches with specific functions. AR - military, NC-politics
That being said, current leadership of the Regiment is very much part of Biletsky era “old guard”. Prokopenko, Palamar, Berkal are old school Azov types not “new blood”. Azov ran its own (!) recruitment, education systems allowing it to preserve its unique identity, standing.
Notably Biletsky’s role in the development of the Azov Regiment, protecting it (from the government of Ukraine at that!) post his formal departure for politics has been acknowledged by Kalyna, Berkal, others. AR continues to be tied to far-right National Corps, larger Azov mov-t.
The center where Azov Regiment fighters trained - including, per new findings, with Canadian instructors - apparently also received some U.S. backing, per this 2019 Pentagon letter to Senator Risch foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…
New findings ⬆️on Azov Regiment's access to Canadian military trainers, my earlier findings on AR access to other NGU training centers [
Instructors of the Azov Regiment [=National Guard of Ukraine unit & mil wing of the internationally active far-right Azov movement] were trained in the [Canada-backed] NGU center and then taught dozens of Azov fighters a course developed by NGU and Canada military -per NGU, Azov
Per statements, btw Aug-Oct 2021, 33 Azov fighters completed a 10-week course "developed with [Canada's] Operation Unifier', and instructors from Azov's Yevhen Konovalets Military School [YKMS] were trained for the task in the [Canada-backed] NGU center in Zolochiv.
Statements DON'T claim that Canada military was involved in training Azov/YKMS instructors, fighters, decisions to train them. But, NGU's Zolochiv Center is backed by Canada, US. Per 2020 Regimental Journal of The Royal Canadian Regiment, Canadian trainers worked out of Zolochiv.
Slapdash coverage of efforts to train civilians in Ukraine for war is a disservice to that country & others. Internationally active far right piggyback on the government's efforts to grow their own ranks & appeal as media fail to ID organizers of various events in reports /1
The Azov movement is of course an example, as its role in widely covered events [see @I_Katchanovski about Kharkiv 1/5/2022 rally] incl. mil trainings in various cities is not disclosed by some media. BUT Azov is not the only INTERNATIONALLY ACTIVE group taking advantage /2
In 230 000+ Ivano-Frankivsk, far-right "Sokil" [youth wing of Svoboda party, city's mayor is a Svoboda member] trains [] civilians in firearms, tactical medicine. Sokil is CLOSE WITH GERMANY's NEO-NAZI "Dritte Weg" party & both groups are open about it /3 martsinkiv.if.ua/medychna-dopom…
Fighters of the Azov Regiment - a unit of Ukraine's National Guard & the military wing of the internationally active far-right Azov movement - receive training in the U.S.-, Canada- backed training Centers of the National Guard of Ukraine. That's per Ukraine's National Guard.
In August, the National Guard stated that Azov fighter "Bars" [apparent real name: Oleksandr Moskalenko] graduated after 4 years from the [U.S.- and Canada-backed] National Academy of the National Guard of Ukraine and returned to the Regiment as an officer ngu.gov.ua/nove-pokolinny…
In June, the [U.S.-, Canada-backed] International Interagency Multidisciplinary Training Centre stated that Azov fighter "Stohid" took part in a demining training supported by NATO's Support and Procurement Agency and led by "NATO instructors from the UK" facebook.com/NGU3070/posts/…
German neo-Nazi "Dritte Weg" party gushes over the "Centuria" organization recently launched in Ukraine by the far-right internationally active Azov Movement:
"A new organization with eternal values - perhaps exactly what was missing in the political arena of Eastern Europe".
Germany's neo-Nazi "Dritte Weg" is a known ally of Ukraine's Azov movement and members of the party routinely join Ukrainian far right at events in the country
"Centuria" launch teased [backgrounder: ] an expansionist agenda, brought up "fight of civilizations". Currently, it appears to be focused - like all of the Azov movement - on attacking anti-Maidan Sharij, Kremlin-friendly "Opposition platform" parties.