Thread by @Belltower_EN

#Putin’s war against #Ukraine has divided the far right in Germany. Some show solidarity with the Ukrainian people & are sharing information on how to sign up w/ the far-right #Azov battalion. Others sympathise with Putin & buy into Kremlin propaganda. 🧵 Thread 1/18

A case in point is the #AfD: the party has often been very sympathetic with Putin. But party leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla have now clearly denounced the Russian invasion, saying it cannot be justified and Russia must withdraw its troops immediately. 2/18

Another AfD politician admitted that he couldn’t have imagined that Putin would invade. Condemnation is far from universal though and criticised by the rank and file, with other AfD figures blaming “NATO aggression” or claiming Russia was backed into a corner. 3/18

A regional chapter of the neo-Nazi party #DieRechte, a party that in the past has had close connections to the Russian far right, has been sharing calls for donations for voluntary battalions fighting for Ukraine or even information on how to sign up as foreign fighters. 4/18

#DieRechte appears to take #Putin’s claims of “denazification” at face value, describing the Russian government as “dirty communists” and criticising its propaganda move to host an “Antifascist Congress” in August. 5/18

German neo-Nazis have already trained with #Azov in the past & now prominent figures are sharing information on how to sign up and travel to Ukraine to fight against Russia on Telegram channels, utilising their previous contacts. "Der III. Weg" is one example. 6/18

On the one hand, "Der III. Weg" rejects Russian imperialism, which it claims aims to restore the Soviet Union. But on the other hand, it also rejects US “Globalism”, a similar antisemitic code to that used by #Putin, as well as rejecting NATO expansion in eastern Europe 7/18

“Der III. Weg” makes it very clear that they do not support the Jewish Zelenskyy or his western ambitions. The neo-Nazi party has also launched the campaign “Nationalists help Nationalists”, offering accommodation for the Ukrainian far right in Germany. 8/18

But it seems "Der III. Weg" expects Ukrainian "patriots" to stay and fight, with the offer being more aimed at women and children of far-right fighters. 9/18

Neo-Nazi party #NPD places the blame for war solely with NATO, accusing it of warmongering. It laments that “brother nations” are shooting at each other and “are dying for the interests of capital and the arms industry”. 10/18

At the same time, the #NPD makes clear: “Russia is no enemy of Germany”, but also “Ukraine is not our opponent”. 11/18

An ex-functionary of the #NPD, Baldur Landogart (real name: Tobias Schulz) is recruiting for #Azov on Telegram and made clear to his followers that anyone supporting Russia is no longer his “comrade” and doesn’t belong to his “people” anymore. 12/18

There are also still groups on the German far right that are very pro-Russian – like #FreieSachsen, a new far-right party active in antivaxx demos against covid measures founded by right-wing extremists, and an ex-#NPD and #DieRechte member. 13/18

#FreieSachsen has expressed solidarity with #Putin and the separatist “people’s republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk, seeing a warped parallel to their own apparent struggle in the German state of Saxony gaining independence from Berlin. 14/18

Like most of the conspiracy believer scene, #FreieSachsen sees Russia’s attack as a defence manoeuvre and mostly adopts the narrative of the Kremlin. 15/18

The fact that the war is very divisive for the far right is not lost on some of its central figures. #MartinSellner, Austrian head of the #IdentitäreBewegung (Identarian Movement), warns of a “right-wing civil war” that could split the far-right movement. 16/18

New-right ideologue #GötzKubitschek (Institut für Staatspolitik/Sezession) has also warned against taking sides. But despite this rhetoric, at least Martin Sellner has so far mostly positioned himself on the side of Russia. 17/18

Sellner also describes “patriots” from the West travelling to Ukraine to fight as a “grave mistake”. He describes sanctions against Putin’s regime as Russia being “cancelled”. 18/18