Thread by @HeerJeet

1. This is a good & balanced report on Chrystia Freeland's twitter account posting a photo of her with a scarf that was an emblem of the UPA, a Ukrainian fascist paramilitary group once aligned with the Nazis. thestar.com/politics/feder…

2. I have to say, I find the aggressive handling of this by Freeland's office more troubling than the original offense (the tweet was deleted, after all, and could be chalked up as a mistake.) Instead of apologizing, they've gone on offense.

3. Freeland's office: the controversy is "a classic KGB disinformation smear ... accusing Ukrainians and Ukrainian Canadians of being far-right extremists or fascists or Nazis." Not good. It assumes the only people who object to symbols of fascist paramilitaries are KGB agents.

4. Is it true that KGB in past and Putin now try to smear all Ukrainian nationalism as fascistic. Yes, absolutely. But are all attempts to investigate and marginalize Ukrainian fascism driven by KGB/Putin. No. Lots driven by Ukrainian anti-fascists (both Jews & gentile).

5. There were in fact historically Ukrainians who were fascists, some of whom aligned with Nazis. (One of those was Freeland's maternal grandfather). Recording the deeds of this faction & keeping them marginalized remains politically imperative. That's not a KGB agenda.

6. Right now, Putin is smearing the whole of Ukrainian nationalism as being fascistic, arguing he's "de-nazifying" country. That's cynical and vile propaganda. But Freeland by posing with UPA colors & her office tweeting out image, is feeding into propaganda.

7. To put it another way, the very fact that Putin is engaged in smearing Ukrainian nationalism (and denying Ukraine's right to exist) makes it more imperative, not less, that prominent Canadian politician Freeland to make clear distance from fascist group.

8. More broadly, the whole story shows how the claim of Russian disinformation (sometimes real, sometimes not) is used as a smokescreen to hide real problems that deserve scrutiny & criticism.