David North Profile picture
Feb 4 13 tweets 3 min read
Snyder has betrayed his intellectual responsibilities. The ex-historian is now a shameless peddler of State Department propaganda. His latest thread purports to tell progressives what they must know about Ukraine, singing the praises of its democracy and demonizing Russia. 1/
While branding the Kremlin as "a beacon for white nationalists and homophobes," Snyder says nothing about the historical roots of fascistic and racist elements within Ukrainian nationalism and their dangerous presence within the existing Ukraine state and its military. 2/
The growing global network of neo-Nazi forces is a real danger. But Snyder is silent about the major role of Ukraine in the development of this phenomenon.3/
Newsweek magazine posted an extensive report, dated January 5, 2022, detailing the extensive links of American neo-Nazis with Ukrainian military forces. They are going to Ukraine to gain combat experience fighting Russia. 2/
newsweek.com/ukraine-war-dr…
Newsweek interviewed journalist Mariana van Zeller, who reported on her extensive research into the role played by Ukraine as a military training ground for American Nazis. Van Zeller told Newsweek: 4/
"We interviewed members of a white supremacy group called the Atomwaffen Division ... who has sent members to train in Ukraine, where neo-Nazi militias have recruited white supremacists from around the world to join their fight against Russia and advance racist ideology." 5/
Newsweek also interviewed journalist Oleksiy Kuzmenko, who, according to the magazine, "specializes in research on Ukraine's internationally active far-right as well as its access to the Western military training that is provided to the Ukrainian armed forces." 6/
Kuzmenko told Newsweek: "Since the 2014 Maidan revolution, the government, military and security forces have institutionalized in its ranks former militias and volunteer battalions linked to neo-Nazi ideology." 7/
He continued: "Without screening for extremist ties or views, their integration has not led to depoliticization and/or dissolution once incorporated within the larger body of the government military and security forces." 8/
Ukraine Interior Ministry set up the Azov Battalion (aka Azov Division) in 2014. It is, Kuzmenko told Newsweek, "a highly-capable and heavily armed unit reportedly numbering 1100 or more fighters that is also the military wing of the internationally active Azov movement." 9/
In 2019, Newsweek notes, 40 US congressmen "signed a letter asking for the Azov Regiment to be declared a foreign terrorist organization." 10/
Newsweek's efforts to solicit from US government officials a clarification of its attitude to fascist forces in Ukraine and their relations with American and international neo-Nazi networks were unsuccessful. 11/
Snyder is well aware of the deep historical connections between Ukrainian nationalism and fascism, and once wrote about these connections in considerable detail. But now history conflicts with the political agenda of pro-war propaganda. 12/12

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More from @DavidNorthWSWS

Feb 4
In another of its virtually daily denunciations of China's #ZeroCovid policy, the NYTimes makes the following extraordinary statement: "China’s strategy would obviously not be possible in a country that emphasizes individual rights as much as the U.S. does." 1/
The conclusion that flows inexorably from this declaration is that "individual rights," as understood by the US ruling class, is opposed to - and certainly held to be more important than - the protection and saving of lives. 2/
But what about the "individual rights" of the one million Americans who have died because of the government's refusal to implement effective public health measures? The only "right" left to a dead person is the right to be buried. 3/
Read 6 tweets
Jan 31
Is the CIA now planning the overthrow of Zelensky? The Biden administration is annoyed with his evident lack of enthusiasm for a US-NATO-provoked war against #Ukraine. Today's Washington Post article is, at the very least, a warning to Zelensky to do what he's told. 1/
The WP writes that "top U.S. and European officials say they are growing increasingly concerned that Zelensky is failing to mobilize the country." It criticizes the criminal investigation of Petro Poroshenko on charges of treason and supporting terrorism." 2/
Poroshenko, the corrupt billionaire "chocolate king" of Ukraine, was brought to power in the 2014 CIA-orchestrated putsch in Kyiv. He has close ties to Biden and backs Ukraine's entry into NATO. One can assume that the US prefers him to the unreliable Zelensky. 3/
Read 6 tweets
Jan 30
Completely absent from Professor Snyder’s “Bloodlands”, published in late 2010, is any reference to the fascist & violently anti~Semitic Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B) and its notorious leader, Stepan Bandera, who was allied with the Nazis in WWII. 1/
The omission was remarkable because Snyder had previously written at length in the NY Review of Books about Bandera and the Ukrainian fascist movement. Its criminal legacy, he wrote, was a major factor in contemporary Ukrainian politics. 2/
Snyder explained that the pro-US candidate Yushchenko lost the 2010 election because of widespread hatred in Ukraine of the rightwing nationalists. Before leaving office, Yushchenko named Bandera a national hero. /3
Read 5 tweets
Jan 29
Professor Feigl-Ding, have you taken leave of your senses? As you are clearly advocating a US-NATO war with Russia, have you weighed the consequences? What is your “worst case” scenario? What will the world look like 30 minutes after a thermonuclear exchange? 1/
All the claims of imminent and inevitable war are coming out of the US and NATO. The Ukrainian president has publicly opposed these claims and urged that the US stop the inflammatory rhetoric. 2/
A really dangerous factor in this present situation is the total absence of any critical evaluation of the claims of the US government. Your own reaction, Professor Feig-Ding, exemplifies this capitulation to war propaganda. 3/
Read 7 tweets
Jan 20
Displaying a heretofore unknown passion for political economy, Biden the scholar explained to the assembled reporters that “capitalism without competition
is not capitalism, it’s exploitation.” Actually, he’s wrong. 1/
Capitalist exploitation is rooted in the extraction of surplus value from the working class — the essential prerequisite for capitalism whatever the state of competition among the owners of the means of production. 2/
Moreover, the hankering for a capitalism where competition flourishes is a nostalgic fantasy, which did not exist even in the distant days of Biden’s youth, let alone by the time he was dispatched to the Senate by the DuPont corporation to look after its interests. 3/
Read 4 tweets
Jan 19
The #NYTimes spells out the #herdimmunity strategy of the Biden administration: "By infecting large numbers of people quickly, it’s also generating immunity quickly. And that counts toward making #COVID19 a more manageable illness..." 1/
The author admits this may be "cold comfort" to those who get sick and die now. "As older age groups are infected things may deteriorate further, but the situation is still vastly better than if people hadn’t already accumulated some immunity against Covid." 2/
He adds: "The immunity Omicron will leave behind might well be a major step toward making Covid a manageable illness by providing more protection against future surges and variants. ... But the immunity generated by Omicron is not going to lead to the extinction of the virus." 3/
Read 4 tweets

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