2014-03-09

Author: TonyGosling

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:03 pm (GMT 0)

For The Record

http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-779-ounb-redux-the-underground-reich-and-the-ukrainian-crisis/

Picture worth a Thousand-Year Reich, er . . . a Thousand Words |

FTR #779 OUN/B Redux: The Underground Reich and the Ukrainian Crisis

Posted by Dave Emory · March 9, 2014Post a comment Email This Post Print This Post

Tags BND, CIA, Dulles, Ethnic Cleansing, EU, Gehlen, GOP, JobbikAnti-semitism, Nazi Germany, OUN/B, Reagan, SS, Underground Reich

http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-779-ounb-redux-the-underground-reich-and-the-ukrainian-crisis/

Dave Emory’s entire lifetime of work is available on a flash drive that can be obtained here. (The flash drive includes the anti-fascist books available on this site.)

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Listen: MP3

Side 1 http://emory.kfjc.org/archives/ftr/700_799/f-779a.mp3

Side 2 http://emory.kfjc.org/archives/ftr/700_799/f-779b.mp3



Swoboda leader Oleh Tiahnybok salutes

Introduction: For decades, we have covered the OUN/B, a Ukrainian fascist organization allied with the German general staff in World War II. Having staffed the 14th Waffen SS (Galician) Division and the Ein­satzgruppen (mobile execution squads) in the Ukraine, the OUN/B was a pivotal element in the postwar Gehlen spy outfit in its CIA and BND incarnations, the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations and the GOP ethnic out­reach organization.

OUN/B has been deeply involved with covert operations and figures in the investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy, as well as the de-stabilization of the Soviet Union during the climactic phase of the Cold War. With a profound presence in the GOP’s Ethnic division, as well as the contemporary Ukrainian political infrastructure, the OUN/B is anything but an historical relic. The development of the OUN/B in both the U.S. and the Ukraine is explained in great historical depth in AFA #37.



John McCain and Oleh Tiahnybok

In the past we have noted that Ykaterina Chumachenko, head of the OUN/B’s leading front organization in the U.S. and Ronald Reagan’s Deputy Director of Public Liaison, went on to marry Viktor Yuschenko and become First Lady of the Ukraine after the “Orange Revolution.”

With the Yuschenko regime in power, OUN/B founder Stephan Ban­dera was named a hero of the Ukraine. As we see below, Roman Shukhevych was also granted that honor. Shukhevych lead the OUN/B-staffed Einsatzgruppe “Nightingale” in its liquidation of the Lvov Ghetto! (Lvov has also been known as Lemberg at vari­ous times in its recent history.) Shukhevych’s son Yuriy is promi­nent in the OUN/B associated opposition as well.

In Lvov (Lviv), a street has been renamed for the Einsatzgruppe “Nachtigall” (“Nightingale”)!

The presence of the younger Shukhevych in the opposition and the renaming of a street after the Einsatzgruppe Nacti­gall is emblematic of the central role of the OUN/B ideological descendants in the political coalition that has come to power in the Ukraine. Centered on the Swoboda party, as well as the Pravy Sektor, the military and judicial processes in the Ukraine are firmly under the control of the OUN/B heirs.

Note that some European politicians are aware of the nature of the OUN/B heritage of opposition forces in the Ukraine. It appears that Swoboda and OUN/B-inspired Pravy Sektor are only two of some 23 extremist groups in the Ukraine, effectively controlling roughly 44% of the population.

The Swoboda party has networked with the Hungarian Jobbik party, the heir to the Arrow-Cross fascists allied with Germany during World War II. Like the OUN/B, Arrow-Cross was well represented both in the GOP’s ethnic outreach program and the Free Congress Foundation. It is important not to overlook the the fact that Yanukovich was funda­mentally corrupt and incompetent–a quality he shares with the vast bulk of the leaders of the former Soviet Republics and much of the rest of the world’s politicl elite.

Two recent posts from the International Business Times illustrate and define what might be termed “the ideological/political bouquet” of the opposition forces that ousted Yanukovych (who, like most of the leaders who have come to power in the former Soviet republics and a plethora of leaders elsewhate, was manifestly incompetent and corrupt.)

Writer Palosh Ghosh notes that Swoboda–the largest of these groups–has generated considerable gravitas from young, educated Ukrainians who are disgusted with the moribund economy. Historically, economic deprivation has lent popular support to the ranks of fascist organizations.

Swoboda parliamentarian Yuriy Mykhalchyshyn has quoted Third Reich luminaries such as Joseph Goebbels, Gregor Strasser and Ernst Rohm in his political speeches, and the deputy chief of Swoboda, Ihor Miroshnychenko, has termed Ukrainian-born actress Mila Kunis “a dirty Jewess.“

The new government in the Ukraine has major participation by Swoboda and Pravy Sektor, the heirs to the political legacy of OUN/B, including effective control of the military and judicial process.

Of paramount importance is the association agreement that was at the heart of the dispute that ultimately brought the Yanukovich regime down. This agreement–again, at the heart of the Ukrainian crisis–concerned bringing the Ukraine into the EU orbit. In addition to the extreme austerity that would have been imposed on the Ukraine, this agree­ment is significant because the United States has NO dog in this fight!

The covert operation that is evident with the $5 billion effort alluded to by Deputy Secrectary of State Nuland and the diplomatic offensive that has been undertaken in the wake of the Russian move into the Crimea have been executed on behalf of Germany and the EU. We will analyze this more in succeeding programs on the subject.

http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-779-ounb-redux-the-underground-reich-and-the-ukrainian-crisis/

Program Highlights Include: The potential agreement with the EU would have been economically destructive for both the Ukraine and Russia, as well as putting NATO military forces at Russia’s border; the role of Citizen Greenwald’s financial angel Pierre Omidyar in financing the Ukrainian opposition; the influx of Swedish and other European neo-Nazis into the Ukraine to fight alongside of Swoboda and Pravy Sektor; the fact that some 350 jihadists fighting for the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated elements in Syria joined the street fighting on behalf of the Swoboda/Pravy Sektor combatants; the chants used by the opposition are those used by the OUN/B prior to, and dur­ing, World War II; John McCain’s networking with Swoboda.

1. For some time, the pro-EU/German bloc of Ukrainian political parties currently garnering headlines with protests in Kiev and other cities has manifested the fascist roots and alliances of the OUN/B. Both Yulia Timoshenko’s “Fatherland” party and the UDAR party network with the Svoboda party of Oleg Tyagnibok (“Oleh Tiahnybok”), which has evolved directly from the fascist OUN/B of Stephan Bandera.

With the Yuschenko regime in power, OUN/B founder Stephan Bandera was named a hero of the Ukraine. As we see below, Roman Shukhevych was also granted that honor. Shukhevych lead the OUN/B-staffed Einsatzgruppe “Nightingale” in its liquidation of the Lvov Ghetto! (Lvov has also been known as Lemberg at various times in its recent history.) Shukhevych’s son Yuriy is prominent in the OUN/B associated opposition as well.

Now, this political milieu is coalescing in the Ukrainian pro-EU cadre, pushing to incorporate the Ukraine into the German-dominated EU.

Note that, in addition to individuals associated with Swoboda, former heavyweight boxer Vitali Klitschko has resided in Germany for long periods of time.

“A Broad-Based Anti-Russian Alliance”; german-foreign-policy.com; 12/3/2013.

ENTIRE TEXT: The German government is encouraging the protest demonstrations being staged in the Ukraine by the “pro-European” alliance of conservative and ultra-rightwing parties. The “pro-Europe rallies” in Kiev and other cities of the country are transmitting “a very clear message”, according to a government spokesperson in Berlin: “Hopefully” the Ukrainian president “will heed this message,” meaning sign the EU’s Association Agree­ment, which Kiev had refused to do last week, in spite of massive German pressure. To gain influence in the coun­try, Germany has for years been supporting the “pro-European” alliance in the Ukraine. The alliance includes not only conservative parties, but also forces from the extreme right — because of their strength, particularly in west­ern Ukraine, where a cult around former Nazi collaborators is manifesting itself. The All-Ukrainian Union “Svo­boda” party is particularly embedded in the national-chauvinist milieu, under the influence of this cult. Over the past few days, the party’s leader has called for a “revolution” in Kiev.

“General Strike and Revolution”

Oleh Tiahnybok, the leader of the ultra-rightwing Svoboda (Freedom) party is quoted saying “a revolution is beginning in the Ukraine.” Tiahnybok made this proclamation in Kiev during the current protest demonstrations. On the weekend, approx. 100,000 people took to the streets protesting against the current government’s foreign policy course, and calling for the country to become associated with the EU. During their continuing — and increas­ingly violent — demonstrations, protesters are calling on the government to stop refusing to sign the Association Agreement with the EU. According to media reports, numerous activists from ultra-rightwing organizations are partici­pating in the demonstrations, particularly activists from Svoboda. The party’s leader Tiahnybok is basking in the atten­tion he is receiving from the international press. He is planning a general strike to accomplish the “revolution” he announced last weekend.[1] He can rely on ultra-rightwing forces, whose influence has grown over the past few years.

“National Liberation Movement”

The resurgence of the cult around the former Ukrainian Nazi collaborators, since the mid-1980s, has helped ultra-rightwing forces to enlarge their influence in western Ukraine and in Kiev. This cult focuses particularly on Stepan Bandera, a leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). The OUN joined forces with the Nazis during the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. “Along with German units, our militias are making numer­ous arrests of Jews,” wrote the OUN’s propaganda unit following the invasion of Lviv: “Before their liquidation, the Jews had used every method to defend themselves.“[2] While Lviv’s Jewish population was falling prey to pogroms and massacres in the city, Bandera was proclaiming the establishment of a Ukrainian nation.[3] One specialist explained in reference to Bandera’s attempt to proclaim a nation, that today, Bandera and the OUN play a “very important” role in the “ethnic self-identity” of West Ukrainians. The OUN is seen “less as a fascist party” than “as the climax of a national liberation movement, or a fraternity of courageous heroes in Ukrainian national history.“[4] Since the beginning of the 1990s, numerous monuments to Bandera have been erected throughout the country. One such monument crowns the “Boulevard Stapan Bandera” in Lviv’s center.[5] According to analy­ses, a, “for the most part, informally functioning nationalist civil society” has been created around the Bandera cult, particularly in West Ukraine.[6]

Collaborationist Traditions

As far back as the 1990s, this milieu has produced various ultra-rightwing organizations. In 1990, the UNA Party (“Ukrainian National Assembly”) was founded, forming a paramilitary wing (the “Ukrainian National Self-Defense” — UNSO) in 1991. Yuri Shukhevych, the son of Roman Shukhevych, a Nazi collaborator, was one of its first leaders. Soon the “Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists” (CUN) followed, which elected the former OUN activist Slava Stetsko to the Ukrainian Parliament in 1997. As President by Seniority, Stetsko had the honor of delivering the opening address at the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) after the 1998 elections. After 1945, Stetsko had continued to pursue her Ukrainian activities from her exile in Munich. It was also in Munich that, since 1948, the “Ukrainian National Council” had held its meetings — in the physical and political proximity of German and US intelligence services. The National Council considered itself to be the “core of the Ukrainian state in exile.“[7] Already in 1998, the CUN received — in electoral alliances with other parties — 9.7 percent of the votes in Lviv, 20.9 percent in Ternopil and 23.8 percent in Ivano-Frankivsk. At the time, the “Social National Party of the Ukraine” (SNPU), which was co-founded in Lviv in 1991 by Oleh Tiahnybok and had violent neo-Nazi mem­bers, was not yet successful in elections. In 1998 Tiahnybok was voted into the Ukrainian parliament with a direct mandate. Only after the SNPU changed its name to the “All-Ukrainian Union ‘Svoboda’ (‘Freedom’) in 2004, did it become more successful in elections and the leader of Ukraine’s ultra-rightwing forces.

Heroes of the Ukraine

At the time, politicians, who had been closely cooperating with Berlin, particularly Viktor Yushchenko (Ukrainian President 2005–2010), had been engaged in activities aimed at forming a broad anti-Russian alliance to inte­grate the Ukraine into the German hegemonic sphere — thereby strengthening the ultra-rightwing forces. For the elections in 2002 and 2006, Yushchenko’s electoral platform “Our Ukraine” cooperated with CUN and enabled that organization to win three seats in the national parliament in both elections. Oleh Tiahnybok (Svoboda) had tem­porarily been a member of the “Our Ukraine” parliamentary group. He was excluded in the summer of 2004, fol­lowing his speech at the grave of a Nazi collaborator, in which he ranted against the “Jewish mafia in Moscow.” That same year, Yushchenko announced that, if elected, he would officially declare Bandera “Hero of the Ukraine.” This did not impede Berlin’s support. With the “Orange Revolution,” Berlin also helped him to ultimately be elected Presi­dent. Yushchenko declared Nazi collaborator Roman Shukhevych on October 12, 2007, and Bandera on Janu­ary 22, 2010 “Heroes of the Ukraine” — as a favor to the broad anti-Russian Alliance. At that time, Svoboda had just received its first major electoral success: In the March 15 regional parliamentary elections in Ternopil, with 34.7 percent and 50 out of 120 parliamentarians, including the president of parliament, it emerged the strongest party.

Socially Acceptable

To secure the broadest possible base for their anti-Russian policy, the so-called pro-European Ukrainian parties are still cooperating with ultra rightwing forces. “Batkivschyna” (Fatherland), the party of imprisoned opposition politician Yulia Tymoshenko has entered an electoral alliance with Svoboda in the run-up to the last elections. Thanks to this alliance, Svoboda was able to obtain 10.4 percent of the votes and twelve direct mandates and is now represented in the Verkhovna Rada with 37 parliamentarians. A firm opposition coalition was formed, which included Svoboda, Batkivschyna and Vitaly Klitschko’s “UDAR” party. This coalition is not only closely cooperat­ing in the Ukrainian parliament but also in the current protest demonstrations on the streets. Batkivschyna has “sig­nificantly aided Svoboda to become socially acceptable,” according to an expert, but it cannot be ruled out that it thereby also “dug its own grave.” Already at the 2012 elections, Tymoshenko’s party lost some of its “voters to the radical nationalists” because of its cooperation with Svoboda.[8] The dynamic of radicalization of the current protests could invigorate this development — aided by Berlin’s active encouragement.

Party Cell Munich

With its growing strength, Svoboda is also gaining influence on a European level. Since the 1990s, the party has systematically developed contacts to various ultra-rightwing parties in other European countries. For quite a while, it had been cooperating closely with the French Front National until the FN began to cultivate a “more moder­ate” image. Up to the beginning of this year, Svoboda had participated in a network that also included the “British National Party” and Hungary’s “Jobbik.” It has been seeking closer ties to the neo-fascist “Forza Nuova” in Italy and the German NPD.[9] But, it is also establishing its own party structures in other European countries. Last August, it founded a party cell in Munich chaired by a Svoboda city council member from Ivano-Frankivsk, who is cur­rently studying in the Bavarian capital. Following its foundation ceremony, the new party cell visited the Munich Waldfriedhof, indicating a traditional link between Munich and the Ukraine: the two OUN leaders Jaroslav Stet­sko and Stepan Bandera are buried in this cemetery. In a press release, the party’s new cell announced that the visit had been made “in honor of those, who had died for the independence of the Ukraine.“[10] Subsequent to their unsuccessful Nazi-collaboration, both had continued their struggle for Ukraine’s secession from the Soviet Union and integration into the German Federal Republic’s hegemonic sphere of influence.

2a. Note the primary role of Swoboda in the Ukrainian demonstrations and their role in precipitating the Russian crack­down.

“Ukraine’s Forces Move Against Protesters, Dimming Hopes for Talks” by David M. Herszenhorn; The New York Times; 12/9/2013.

EXCERPT: . . . . On Monday evening, Ukrainian security forces raided the headquarters of an opposition party, Fatherland, and seized computer servers.

The party’s parliamentary leader, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, is one of the main organizers of the protest movement, which ballooned in recent days to dominate the streets of Kiev and pressure Mr. Yanukovich after he refused to sign a politi­cal and trade pact with the European Union. Fatherland is best known, however, as the opposition coalition formed by the jailed former prime minister, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, whose release has long been demanded by Western leaders. . . . .

. . . . Despite the action against Mr. Yatsenyuk’s party, Fatherland, the authorities seemed to be holding back from simi­lar investigations of the other two parliamentary leaders at the forefront of the protests, the champion boxer Vitali Klitschko, of the UDAR party, and Oleg Tyagnibok, of the nationalist Svoboda party.

Mr. Tyagnibok’s supporters in particular are among the most fearsome demonstrators and have led some of the more provocative efforts to occupy buildings and block government offices. . . .

2b. A hacked phone call suggests the possibility that the snipers that fired on the demonstrators were agent-provacateurs working for the Swoboda/Pravy Sektor coalition.

“Estonian Foreign Ministry Confirms Authenticity of Leaked Phone Call Discussing How Kiev Snipers Who Shot Protesters Were Possibly Hired by Ukraine’s New Leaders” by John Hall; Daily Mail [UK]; 3/5/2014.

EXCERPT: Estonia has confirmed the authenticity of a leaked telephone call between its foreign minister and an EU chief which suggested the sniper killings in Ukraine last month were ordered by the new coalition.

The 11-minute call between the EU’s foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton and her Estonian counterpart Urmas Paet was made on February 25 in the aftermath of the massacre.

During the call, Paet claims a doctor told him both protesters and police were shot by snipers during clashes in Kiev allegedly on the orders of the opposition.

But while the Baltic state acknowledged the audio was genuine, it denied that it had blamed opponents of Ukraine’s deposed president for sniper killings during last month’s unrest. . . .

. . . . .A spokeswoman for Ashton declined to comment on the leaked conversation.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has not reacted officially, but Itar-Tass news agency quoted a source at the ministry on Wednesday as saying that Moscow was ‘surprised’ that the EU was not commenting on the intercepted phone chat.

3a. Swoboda organized a march in commemoration of the OUN/B on Bandera’s birthday, recognizing their direct politi­cal lineage with his organiztion.

“15,000 Ukraine Nationalists March for Divisive Bandera” [AP]; USA Today; 1/1/2014.

EXCERPT: About 15,000 people marched through Kiev on Wednesday night to honor Stepan Bandera, glorified by some as a leader of Ukraine’s liberation movement and dismissed by others as a Nazi collaborator.

The march was held in Ukraine’s capital on what would have been Bandera’s 105th birthday, and many of the cele­brants carried torches.

Some wore the uniform of a Ukrainian division of the German army during World War II. Others chanted “Ukraine above all!” and “Bandera, come and bring order!”

However, many of Bandera’s followers sought to play down his collaboration with the Germans in the fight for Ukraine’s independence as the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Ukraine’s foremost national­ist organization in the first half of the 20th century.

Bandera, who died 55 year ago, remains a deeply divisive figure in Ukraine, glorified by many in western Ukraine as a freedom fighter but dismissed by millions in eastern and southeastern Ukraine as a traitor to the Soviet Union’s strug­gle against the occupying German army.

...

His group also was involved in the ethnic cleansing that killed tens of thousands of Poles in 1942–44. The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists portrayed Russians, Poles, Hungarians and Jews — most of the minori­ties in western Ukraine — as aliens and encouraged locals to “destroy” Poles and Jews.

Bandera was assassinated in 1959 by the KGB in West Germany. [Actually, it was probably BND that killed Bandera, and his assassination at the hands of “the KGB” was involved in part of the cover-up of the JFK assassination. See AFA #‘s 15, 37, as well as FTR #158–DE.]

In January 2010, less than a month before his term in office was to end, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko posthumously decorated Bandera with the Hero of Ukraine award. That led to harsh criticism by Jewish and Russian groups. The award was annulled by a court in January 2011 under President Viktor Yanukovych.

Kiev has been the scene of massive pro-European protests for more than a month, triggered by Yanukovych’s decision to ditch a key deal with the European Union in favor of building stronger ties with Russia.

The nationalist party Svoboda, which organized Wednesday’s rally, was one of the key forces behind the protests, but other opposition factions have said the Bandera rally is unrelated to the ongoing protest encamp­ment in central Kiev. . . .

3b. We note that a street in Lviv, formerly named “Peace Street,” has been renamed after the Einsatzgruppe Nachti­gall, the OUN/B-Nazi formation that exterminated the Jewish population of that city.

“Is the US Backing neo-Nazis in the Ukraine?” by Max Blumenthal [Alternet]; Salon.com; 2/25/2014.

EXCERPT: As the Euromaidan protests in the Ukrainian capitol of Kiev culminated this week, displays of open fascism and neo-Nazi extremism became too glaring to ignore. Since demonstrators filled the downtown square to battle Ukrainian riot police and demand the ouster of the corruption-stained, pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich, it has been filled with far-right streetfighting men pledging to defend their country’s ethnic purity.

White supremacist banners and Confederate flags were draped inside Kiev’s occupied City Hall, and demonstrators have hoisted Nazi SS and white power symbols over a toppled memorial to V.I. Lenin. After Yanukovich fled his palatial estate by helicopter, EuroMaidan protesters destroyed a memorial to Ukrainians who died battling German occupation during World War II. Sieg heil salutes and the Nazi Wolfsangel symbol have become an increasingly common site in Maidan Square, and neo-Nazi forces have established “autonomous zones” in and around Kiev.

An Anarchist group called AntiFascist Union Ukraine attempted to join the Euromaidan demonstrations but found it diffi­cult to avoid threats of violence and imprecations from the gangs of neo-Nazis roving the square. “They called the Anarchists things like Jews, blacks, Communists,” one of its members said. “There weren’t even any Communists, that was just an insult.” . . .

. . . One of the “Big Three” political parties behind the protests is the ultra-nationalist Svoboda, whose leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, has called for the liberation of his country from the “Muscovite-Jewish mafia.” After the 2010 conviction of the Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk for his supporting role in the death of nearly 30,000 people at the Sobibor camp, Tyahnybok rushed to Germany to declare him a hero who was “fighting for truth.” In the Ukrainian parliament, where Svoboda holds an unprecedented 37 seats, Tyahnybok’s deputy Yuriy Mykhalchyshyn is fond of quoting Joseph Goebbels – he has even founded a think tank originally called “the Joseph Goebbels Political Research Center.” Accord­ing to Per Anders Rudling, a leading academic expert on European neo-fascism, the self-described “socialist national­ist” Mykhalchyshyn is the main link between Svoboda’s official wing and neo-Nazi militias like Right Sector.

Right Sector is a shadowy syndicate of self-described “autonomous nationalists” identified by their skinhead style of dress, ascetic lifestyle, and fascination with street violence. Armed with riot shields and clubs, the group’s cadres have manned the front lines of the Euromaidan battles this month, filling the air with their signature chant: “Ukraine above all!” In a recent Right Sector propaganda video [embedded at the bottom of this article], the group promised to fight “against degeneration and totalitarian liberalism, for traditional national morality and family values.” With Svoboda linked to a constellation of international neo-fascist parties through the Alliance of European National Movements, Right Sector is promising to lead its army of aimless, disillusioned young men on “a great European Reconquest.”

Svoboda’s openly pro-Nazi politics have not deterred Senator John McCain from addressing a EuroMaidan rally along­side Tyahnybok, nor did it prevent Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland from enjoying a friendly meeting with the Svoboda leader this February. Eager to fend off accusations of anti-Semitism, the Svoboda leader recently hosted the Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine. “I would like to ask Israelis to also respect our patriotic feelings,” Tyahnybok has remarked. “Probably each party in the [Israeli] Knesset is nationalist. With God’s help, let it be this way for us too.”

In a leaked phone conversation with Geoffrey Pyatt, the US ambassador to Ukraine, Nuland revealed her wish for Tyahnybok to remain “on the outside,” but to consult with the US’s replacement for Yanukovich, Arseniy Yat­senyuk, “four times a week.” At a December 5, 2013 US-Ukraine Foundation Conference, Nuland boasted that the US had invested $5 billion to “build democratic skills and institutions” in Ukraine, though she did not offer any details.

“The Euro-Maidan movement has come to embody the principles and values that are the cornerstones for all free democracies,” Nuland proclaimed.

Two weeks later, 15,000 Svoboda members held a torchlight ceremony in the city of Lviv in honor of Stepan Bandera, a World War II-era Nazi collaborator who led the pro-fascist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B). Lviv has become the epicenter of neo-fascist activity in Ukraine, with elected Svoboda officials waging a campaign to rename its airport after Bandera and successfully changing the name of Peace Street to the name of the Nachti­gall Battalion, an OUN-B wing that participated directly in the Holocaust. “’Peace’ is a holdover from Soviet stereotypes,” a Svoboda deputy explained.

Revered by Ukrainian nationalists as a legendary freedom fighter, Bandera’s real record was ignominious at best. After participating in a campaign to assassinate Ukrainians who supported accommodation with the Polish during the 1930’s, Bandera’s forces set themselves to ethnically cleanse western Ukraine of Poles in 1943 and 1944. In the process, they killed over 90,000 Poles and many Jews, whom Bandera’s top deputy and acting “Prime Minister,” Yaroslav Stetsko, were determined to exterminate. Bandera held fast to fascist ideology in the years after the war, advocating a totalitarian, ethnically pure Europe while his affiliated Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) carried out a doomed armed struggle against the Soviet Union. The bloodbath he inspired ended when KGB agents assassinated him in Munich in 1959.

The Right Connections

Many surviving OUN-B members fled to Western Europe and the United States – occasionally with CIA help – where they quietly forged political alliances with right-wing elements. “You have to understand, we are an underground orga­nization. We have spent years quietly penetrating positions of influence,” one member told journalist Russ Bellant, who documented the group’s resurgence in the United States in his 1988 book, “Old Nazis, New Right, and the Republi­can Party.”

In Washington, the OUN-B reconstituted under the banner of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), an umbrella organization comprised of “complete OUN-B fronts,” according to Bellant. By the mid-1980’s, the Reagan administration was honeycombed with UCCA members, with the group’s chairman Lev Dobriansky, serving as ambassador to the Bahamas, and his daughter, Paula, sitting on the National Secu­rity Council. Reagan personally welcomed Stetsko, the Banderist leader who oversaw the massacre of 7000 Jews in Lviv, into the White House in 1983.

“Your struggle is our struggle,” Reagan told the former Nazi collaborator. “Your dream is our dream.”

When the Justice Department launched a crusade to capture and prosecute Nazi war criminals in 1985, UCCA snapped into action, lobbying Congress to halt the initiative. “The UCCA has also played a leading role in opposing federal inves­tigations of suspected Nazi war criminals since those queries got underway in the late 1970’s,” Bellant wrote. “Some UCCA members have many reasons to worry – reasons which began in the 1930’s.”

Still an active and influential lobbying force in Washington, the UCCA does not appear to have shed its reverence for Banderist nationalism. In 2009, on the 50th anniversary of Bandera’s death, the group proclaimed him “a symbol of strength and righteousness for his followers” who “continue[s] to inspire Ukrainians today.” A year later, the group honored the 60th anniversary of the death of Roman Shukhevych, the OUN-B commander of the Nachtigall Battalion that slaughtered Jews in Lviv and Belarus, calling him a “hero” who “fought for honor, righteousness…”

Back in Ukraine in 2010, then-President Viktor Yushchenko awarded Bandera the title of “National Hero of Ukraine,” marking the culmination of his efforts to manufacture an anti-Russian national narrative that sanitized the OUN-B’s fas­cism. (Yuschenko’s wife, Katherine Chumachenko, was a former Reagan administration official and ex-staffer at the right-wing Heritage Foundation). When the European Parliament condemned Yushchenko’s proclamation as an affront to “European values,” the UCCA-affiliated Ukrainian World Congress reacted with outrage, accusing the EU of “another attempt to rewrite Ukrainian history during WWII.” On its website, the UCCA dismissed historical accounts of Bandera’s collaboration with the Nazis as “Soviet propaganda.”

Following the demise of Yanukovich this month, the UCCA helped organize rallies in cities across the US in support of the EuroMaidan protests. When several hundred demonstrators marchedthrough downtown Chicago, some waved Ukrainian flags while others proudly flew the red and black banners of the UPA and OUN-B. “USA supports Ukraine!” they chanted.

4. Pravy Sektor (“Right Sector”) is another of the primary elements of Euromaidan. It, too, openly professes its political and historical lineage as deriving from the OUN/B forces.

“Far-right Paramilitary Vows Protest Defiance in Ukraine” [Agence France-Presse]; Global Post; 2/5/2014.

EXCERPT: Even as Ukraine’s main opposition leaders meet with the authorities to try to resolve their long-running standoff, one influential and unrepentant voice stands out — that of far-right paramilitary leader Dmytro Yarosh.

“The revolution will win in Ukraine!” the shaven-headed 42-year-old told AFP in a rare interview at his field headquar­ters — an entire floor in an occupied trade union building on Independence Square in central Kiev.

Yarosh’s masked and helmeted followers — some armed with guns, others wielding baseball bats — patrol the barri­cades around the protest tent camp and were in the frontlines of clashes with riot police, throwing Molotov cocktails.

“We got things moving, we breathed life into the revolution,” said Yarosh, himself a former Red Army soldier who claims he is no fascist but a nationalist defending Ukraine against foreign domination — whether from the EU or Russia.

...

He said that his group does not have its own arsenal but that he had authorised a “secret” number of individual members with weapons permits to create “an armed protection unit”.

Yarosh said his followers — who seized the agriculture, energy and justice ministries but then gave them up after pres­sure from other opposition leaders — could also resume their “blockades” of official government buildings.

These kinds of warnings show up differences within opposition ranks and cast doubt on whether the most radical militants will be willing to end their protest even if opposition leaders manage to strike a deal with Yanukovych.

Asked if he is concerned about being put in prison, Yarosh strikes a defiant tone.

“In a revolution, it’s funny even to think about something like that. Once it’s all over, we’ll see who puts who in prison,” he snarled.

For all the fighting talk, Yarosh is also keen to see a political future for his paramilitaries — who have won support and respect in Ukraine for their role in the protests even from people who do not share their far-right views.

“If the revolution achieves its aim, we can talk about the creation of a new political movement with its own niche,” he said.

It is not hard to see what that niche would be.

Unlike many protesters, who see greater integration with Europe as an ideal, Yarosh said Brussels was a “mon­ster” responsible for a “gay dictatorship and liberal totalitarianism” that imposes “anti-Christian and anti-national rules”.

Yarosh said he has been an activist in the Ukrainian nationalist cause for more than 20 years and is the leader of a hardline nationalist group Trizub (Trident), many of whose members are now activists in Pravy Sektor.

He says his group is the “successor” of the controversial Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) who battled Poles, Soviet and Nazi forces in western Ukraine during and after World War II.

The UPA is hated in Poland for its campaign of slaughter against Polish civilians in the Volhynia region in 1943 and then in Galicia in 1944, now condemned as ethnic cleansing.

The rebels on occasion collaborated with occupying Nazi forces as well as fighting them and — most controver­sially — some of its members served in the Galicia branch of the SS.

Asked how he felt about Jews, Yarosh said that he was not an anti-Semite but considered as “enemies” any “ethnic minority that prevents us from being masters in our own land”.

Even though the UPA slogan “Glory to the Heroes!” rings out frequently on Independence Square, Yarosh’s views are completely different from those of mainstream opposition leaders.

While Yarosh does not overtly condemn them, it seems that their on-and-off negotiations with President Viktor Yanukovych are grating.

“I don’t want to criticise them or they’ll get offended and start crying,” he said.

5a. The latest post from german-foreign-policy.com notes the Vitali Klitschko has endorsed the possible use of force, relying on the OUN/B-evolved militants as, in effect, enforcers.

With a shrill amen chorus discussing the “anti-Democratic,” and/or “extreme” nature of the Yanukovich government’s response to murderous behavior on the part of political opponents, we are being treated to a fundamental perversion of political cognition.

FACT: armed elements of the opposition coalition opened fire on government security forces, killing a number of them. FACT: Nowhere on earth are security forces going to react benignly to the use of deadly force on members of their ranks.

QUICK: What U.S. police or military forces would NOT shoot back, if fired upon?

Note again the close German coordination with Ukrainian opposition elements.

“At All Costs;” german-foreign-policy.com; 2/19/2014.

EXCERPT: Yesterday, the day after the German Chancellor held deliberations with two leaders of the Ukrainian opposition, protests in Kiev escalated into bloody confrontations. Demonstrators, unconditionally sponsored by Germany and other western countries for months, began, over the past few days, to arm themselves with firearms and ammunition. Two police officers were shot to death during yesterday’s uprising. This escalation into a bloody confrontation followed on the heels of government compliance with a fundamental demand of the demonstra­tors, just as it seemed that a de-escalation was about to begin — to the tactical disadvantage of the “Germans’ man” in Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, who has been calling for the president to resign. Klitschko, who flew to Berlin Monday, to dis­cuss the next steps, threatened an even more bloody escalation and declared, that he does not “rule out the use of force in the evacuation of the Maidan.” One of the organizations he is relying on is explicitly named after Nazi collaborators, who had carried out mass-murder of Soviet Jews. Escalation strategies, such as those currently implemented in Kiev, are not alien to German foreign policy.

Firearms and Ammunition

In the course of yesterday’s bloody escalation of the protests, several police officers and demonstrators were killed in Kiev. As was confirmed by news reports, there have been clear indications since some time that some of the demon­strators in Kiev had begun arming themselves. It was reported that for days, a group calling itself the “First Hun­dred Group in Kiev of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists” were publicly asking for “ammunition or money to buy it.“[1] Just previously, the Berlin-supported leader of the opposition, Vitali Klitschko, called for forming militias. Yesterday, the fascist-interspersed, violence-prone, “Right Block” called on all opponents of the govern­ment in the possession of firearms to come to the Maidan. In their attempt to storm the Ukrainian Parliament, gov­ernment opponents broke through police barricades and set police cars on fire. Heavy clashes erupted between the armed demonstrators and police. Parliamentarians seeking to flee the building were clubbed in their cars; the office of the governing party was set on fire. Whereas demonstrators claim that ambulances were impeded by the police in action, the wounded apparently were not treated because of the barricades set up by the demonstrators.[2] During the night, the situation escalated further.

Collaborators in Nazi Murder

This escalation into a bloody confrontation occurred the day after opposition leaders Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Vitaly Klitschko had had an audience in Berlin’s Chancellery, where they discussed with Angela Merkel the next steps the gov­ernment opponents should take. The plea by the “First Hundred Group in Kiev of the Organization of Ukrainian Nation­alists” for ammunition could not have not been known to them at the time of their meeting. The plea had not been made clandestinely, but was publicly displayed on a poster. Apparently, neither the Chancellor nor the Ministry of For­eign Affairs had insisted that further offensive protest demonstrations be held back, to avoid the worst, until the arms buildup of the opposition could be reversed. On the contrary, as usual, the German Foreign Minister criticized “the violence” in Kiev, generally and specifically that emanating from state forces. The fact that the demonstrators, under the leadership Berlin’s Klitschko, is largely comprised of fascists, is not even mentioned in the German government declaration. The “First Hundred Group in Kiev of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists,” for example, is a historical reference to the “Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists,” who, at the side of Nazi Germany’s Wehrmacht, helped invade the Soviet Union and, among other crimes, actively participated in Nazi mass murders of Jews. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[3]) . . .

. . . . The escalation in Kiev came at precisely the point, where the Ukrainian government accepted a central demand of the protestors, declaring an amnesty for the arrested demonstrators. “Signs of a slight relaxation of tensions” were “not to be overlooked,” according to reports in the German media,[6] which then indicated that special units of the police were being pulled back and law enforcement officers had begun dismantling barricades and towing away burned out police cars. However, this also removed the means of leverage for all those who, like “the German’s man” in Kiev, Klitschko — sought to force President Viktor Yanukovych to resign. Out of the escalation into violent confronta­tion, the German Foreign Minister now concludes that “Europe’s restraint, exercised in its decision to impose personnel sanctions” — on politicians in Kiev — “will certainly now be reconsidered.“[7] Washington recently criticized Berlin and the EU for not having put enough pressure on the Ukrainian government. . . . .

5b. Germany Watch–which feeds along the right-hand side of the front page of this web site–notes that the potential agreement with the EU would have been economically destructive for both the Ukraine and Russia, as well as putting NATO military forces at Russia’s border. The post excerpted below also notes that some 350 jihadists fighting for the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated elements in Syria joined the street fighting on behalf of the Swoboda/Pravy Sektor combatants.

We note in passing that Germany Watch is a conservative publication, not “leftist” at all.

“Ukraine Nazis–Another Country Falls to the Axis”; Germany Watch; 2/26/2014.

EXCERPT: In his formal remarks at Munich and a week earlier at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov assailed Western governments for supporting neo-Nazi terrorist organizations in their zeal to place Ukraine under European Union and Troika control to tighten the NATO noose around Russia.

If anything, Lavrov understated the case.

Ever since President Viktor Yanukovych announced that Ukraine was withdrawing its plans to sign the European Union’s Association Agreement on Nov. 21, 2013, Western-backed organizations made up of remnants of the wartime and immediate postwar Nazi collaborationist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B) and their successors have launched a campaign of provocations aimed at not only at bringing down the government of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, but at overthrowing the democratically elected President Yanukovych.

The EU Eastern Partnership was initiated in December 2008 by Carl Bildt and Radek Sikorski, the foreign ministers of Sweden and Poland, in the wake of Georgia’s military showdown with Russia in South Ossetia. The Eastern Partner­ship targeted six countries that were formerly republics within the Soviet Union: three in the Caucasus region (Arme­nia, Azerbaijan, Georgia) and three in East Central Europe (Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine). They were not to be invited to full EU membership, but drawn into an EU vise through so-called Association Agreements, each one centered on a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA). The prime target of the effort was Ukraine.

Under the Association Agreement negotiated with Ukraine, but not signed, the industrial economy of Ukraine would have been dismantled, trade with Russia would have been savaged (with Russia ending its free-trade regime with Ukraine, to prevent its own markets from being flooded via Ukraine), and the European markets’ players would have grabbed for Ukraine’s agricultural and raw materials exports. The same deadly austerity regime as has been imposed on the Mediterranean states of Europe under the Troika bailout swindle would have been imposed on Ukraine.

Furthermore, the Association Agreement mandated “convergence” on security issues, with integration into European defense systems. Under such an upgraded arrangement, the long-term treaty agreements on the Russian Navy’s use of the crucial Crimean Black Sea ports would have been terminated, ultimately giving NATO forward basing on Russia’s immediate border.

While Western news accounts promoted the demonstrations in Kiev’s Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnesti, or Euromaidan as it is now called), as initially peaceful, the fact is that, from the outset, the protests included hardcore avowed neo-Nazis, right-wing “soccer hooligans” and “Afghansy” combat veterans of the wars in Afghanistan, Chech­nya, and Georgia. According to Ukrainian parliamentarian Oleh Tsaryov, 350 Ukrainians returned to the country from Syria in January 2014, after fighting with the Syrian rebels, including al-Qaeda-linked groups such as the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). . . .

6. Note that some European politicians are aware of the nature of the OUN/B heritage of opposition forces in the Ukraine. It appears that Swoboda and Pravy Sektor are only two of some 23 extremist groups in the Ukraine, effec­tively controlling roughly 44% of the population.

The Swoboda party has networked with the Hungarian Jobbik party, the heir to the Arrow-Cross fascists allied with Germany during World War II. Like the OUN/B, Arrow-Cross was well represented both in the GOP’s ethnic outreach program and the Free Congress Foundation.

The story below also notes the fact that Yanukovich was fundamentally corrupt and incompetent–a quality he shares with the vast bulk of the leaders of the former Soviet Republics and much of the rest of the world’s politicl elite.

“Tea With Neo-Nazis: The Violent Nationalism in Ukraine” by Dr. Inna Rogatchi; Israel National News; 2/21/2014.

EXCERPT: During these [May 2014] elections, pan-European ultra-right radicals will try to hijack Europe once again; and the situation has not been this serious in Europe since pre-WWII.

The most worrisome and largely overseen factor of the ongoing Ukrainian tragedy, to me, is the mighty presence among the opposition hard-core militants from ultra-right nationalistic parties and movements there. The threat which is posed by those forces shall be not under-estimated, especially in the context of rapidly rising ultra-national forces all over Europe, a new ugly ‘fashion’ of nowadays. . . .

. . . .

But today, 75 years after the Holocaust began, there is no way of playing ignorance as a lead card, one that is actually covering indifference, often simple cowardice, and a strangely aloof attitude towards the recently risen clear and palpable threat of determined race hatred sweeping over all of Europe, – about which neither the Euro­pean Parliament, or the Council of Europe, nor any other supposedly powerful international organization is doing anything real to stop and eradicate as they should.

–“I have been six times in Ukraine during the last two months, what a tragedy is going on there”, — a senior Euro­pean politician told me recently.

–I asked him : “Have you noticed the activities of ultra-right radicals there? Have you heard what they are pro­claiming and under which slogans they are ‘fighting for democracy’, so to say?”.

–“Yes, that Svoboda ( Freedom) party, I know, it is a nightmare, by the way”.

–“Well, it is not what I would attest to as ‘by the way’”, I replied, and asked my friend further on: “That night­mare is just one of the parties of that direction in Ukraine; do you know how many violent racist movements in Ukraine are operating today? Sixteen more in additional to the Freedom party plus seven more of an extreme-radical character, making it twenty three in total. Do you know that together with 44% of the seats in the current Ukrainian parliament occupied by Freedom party, those 23 more parties would cover at least 20% of the population of that huge country of 45.5 million?”

– “Yes, it is very serious” – my friend suddenly sounded alarmed, “it should be taken into serious consideration, of course”.

– I continued: “Do you know that these big Ukrainian radical movements are working in close co-operation with and have very close ties to the infamous Hungarian Fascist Jobbik party?”

– “ Really?.. No, I did not know that. Oh, that’s very important. That’s really bad”, and now he was thoroughly alarmed.

My friend flew to Ukraine the next morning for the seventh time in two months. He joined the urgent summit of the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland there as the highest level of the European diplomacy was urgently trying to save the situation that has gone out of control and beyond of the point of no return. We already know that the summit was another dialogue between the deaf and the blind.

But I do hope that as a honest man and an efficient international politician, my friend will continue to pursue the case that he and I were discussing with mutually shared serious worry not only for Ukraine, but regarding the entire face and destiny of Europe in the near future, after the coming European elections in May 2014. During these elections, pan-European ultra-right radicals will try to hijack Europe once again; and the situation has not been this serious in Europe since the pre-WWII time, for a fact. . . .

. . . . In Ukraine, the Janukovich-led regime has been massively corrupt, the president himself happens to be a con­victed criminal, and his clique fully corresponds to those marvellous qualities. Still, it is the same Ukrainian people who did vote for him; the same way people in Venezuela kept voting for their Orwellian presidents, one after another. Any expert on Ukraine would tell you that all the previous Ukrainian regimes were, quite similarly, utterly corrupted, as has always been the case for this country. Only names and influential groups have changed during the 22 years of the country’s independence, but not their slogans, ways and methods. . . .

7a. A recent post from the International Business Times illustrates and defines what might be termed “the ideological/political bouquet” of the opposition forces that ousted Yanukovych (who, like most of the leaders who have come to power in the former Soviet republics and a plethora of leaders elsewhate, was manifestly incompetent and corrupt.)

Writer Palosh Ghosh notes that Swoboda–the largest of these groups–has generated considerable gravitas from young, educated Ukrainians who are disgusted with the moribund economy. Historically, economic deprivation has lent popular support to the ranks of fascist organizations.

Swoboda parliamentarian Yuriy Mykhalchyshyn has quoted Third Reich luminaries such as Joseph Goebbels, Gregor Strasser and Ernst Rohm in his political speeches, and the deputy chief of Swoboda, Ihor Miroshnychenko, has termed Ukrainian-born actress Mila Kunis “a dirty Jewess.“

“Euromaidan: The Dark Shadows of the Far-Right in Ukraine Protests” by Palosh Ghosh; International Business Times; 2/25/2014.

EXCERPT: . . . .However, despite its extremist rhetoric, Svoboda cannot be called a “fringe” party – indeed, it currently occupies 36 seats in the 450-member Ukrainian parliament, granting it status as the fourth-largest party in the country. Further, Svoboda is linked to other far-right groups across Europe through its membership in the Alliance of European National Movements, which includes the British National Party (BNP) of the United Kingdom and Jobbik, the neo-fascist, anti-Semitic and anti-Roma party of Hungary. The leader of Svoboda, Oleh Tyahnybok, who has appeared at the Kiev protests, has a long history of making inflammatory anti-Semitic statements, including the accusation dur­ing a 2004 speech before parliament that Ukraine is controlled by a “Muscovite-Jewish mafia.” [Swoboda Member of Parliament Ihor] Miroshnychenko also called the Ukrainian-born American film actress Mila Kunis a “dirty Jewess.”

Tyahnybok has also claimed that “organized Jewry” dominate Ukrainian media and government, have enriched them­selves through criminal activities and plan to engineer a “genocide” upon the Christian Ukrainian population. Another top Svoboda member, Yuriy Mykhalchyshyn, a deputy in parliament, often quotes Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, as well as other Third Reich luminaries like Ernst Rohm and Gregor Strasser. . . .

. . . . Founded in 1991 as the Social-National Party of Ukraine, Svoboda has apparently appealed to hundreds of thou­sands of Ukrainians tired of economic woes and rampant corruption in government. Reports also suggest that the party has derived significant support from the well educated and the young, who suffer from high unemployment. . . . .

7b. Another International Business Times also highlights the virulent anti-Semitism of Swoboda and their attitude toward Mila Kunis.

“Svoboda: The Rising Spectre of Neo-Nazism in the Ukraine” by Palosh Ghosh; The International Business Times; 12/27/2013.

. . . . Ihor Miroshnychenko, the deputy chief of Svoboda, wrote on his Facebook account: “[Kunis] is not Ukrain­ian, she is a Yid. She is proud of it, so [the] Star of David be with her.” . . . .

8. Many key ministerial posts in the new Ukrainian government have been filled by Swoboda and Pravy Sektor, the political heirs to the OUN/B. The supervision of the military and the judicial process is under the sway of those parties.

“How the Far-Right Took Top Posts in Ukraine’s Power Vacuum”; Channel 4 News [UK]; 3/5/2014.

EXCERPT: The man facing down Putin’s aggression as secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council is Andriy Parubiy. He oversees national security for the nation having previously served as security comman­dant during the anti-government protests in Kiev.

Parubiy was the founder of the Social National Party of Ukraine, a fascist party styled on Hitler’s Nazis, with membership restricted to ethnic Ukrainians.

The Social National Party would go on to become Svoboda, the far-right nationalist party whose leader Oleh Tyahny­bok was one of the three most high profile leaders of the Euromaidan protests — negotiating directly with the Yanukovych regime.

Overseeing the armed forces alongside Parubiy as the Deputy Secretary of National Security is Dmytro Yarosh, the leader of the Right Sector — a group of hardline nationalist streetfighters, who previously boasted they were ready for armed struggle to free Ukraine. . . .

. . . .The new Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Sych is a member of the far-right Svoboda party, which the World Jewish Congress called on the EU to consider banning last year along with Greece’s Golden Dawn.

The party, which has long called for a “national revolution” in Ukraine, has endured a long march from relative obscu­rity in the early 90s. Their declaration that Ukraine is controlled by a “Muscovite-Jewish mafia” has raised fears for the safety of the country’s Jewish population.

Svoboda now controls the ecology and agricultural ministry with Andriy Mokhnyk, the deputy head of Svoboda, running ecology and Ihor Shvaika as agriculture minister.

Associate professor at Lund University Pers Anders Rudling, an expert on Ukrainian extremists, told Channel 4 News that there are other ministers who are also closely in the orbit of Svoboda.

“Two weeks ago I could never have predicted this. A neo-fascist party like Svoboda getting the deputy prime minister position is news in its own right.

“There are seven ministers with links to the extreme right now. It began with Svoboda getting 10 per cent of the vote in the last election, it is certainly a concern in the long run.” . . . .

. . . . Svoboda member Oleh Makhnitsky is now acting prosecutor general.

The initial actions of the interim government have included forcing making Ukrainian the only official language of the nation and making moves to remove a law which forbids “excusing the crimes of fascism”. . . .

9. We note that the chants used by the opposition, including the “moderate” Vitali Klitschko, are those of the OUN/B.

“The Ukrainian Nationalism at the Heart of ‘Euromaidan’” by Alec Luhn; The Nation; 1/21/2014.

EXCERPT: . . . . Svoboda is the most visible party on the square, it has essentially taken over Kiev City Hall as its base of operations, and it has a large influence in the protestors’ security forces.

It also has revived three slogans originating in the Ukrainian nationalist movement of the 1930s [i.e. the OUN/B–D.E.] that have become the most popular chants at Euromaidan. Almost all speakers on Independence Square—even boxer-turned-opposition-leader Vitaly Klitschko, who has lived mostly in Germany and has a US residence permit—start and end with the slogan, “Glory to Ukraine!,” to which the crowd responds “To heroes glory!” Two other nationalist call-and-response slogans often heard on the square are “Glory to the nation! Death to enemies!” and “Ukraine above all!” . . .

10. Continuing the GOP’s tradition of networking with OUN/B elements, John McCain was networking with Oleh Tyahny­bok, leade of Swoboda.

“Far-right group at heart of Ukraine Protests Meet US Senator” ; News 4 [UK]; 12/16/2013.

EXCERPT: Ukraine’s pro-EU protests show no sign of stopping – US Senator John McCain dined with opposition leaders this weekend, including the extreme far-right Svoboda party.

During his trip the former US presidential candidate met with government and opposition figures, but gave his endorse­ment to the pro-Europe protesters.

Senator McCain later waved to protesters from the stage in Independence Square during a mass rally in Kiev, stand­ing with Oleh Tyahnybok, leader of the anti-Semitic Svoboda party. . . . .

10. Pierre Omidyar–Glenn Greenwald’s financial angel–helped finance the Ukrainian coup, along with AID. The latter is a frequent cover for U.S. intelligence activities.

We note that Oleh Rybachuk, the recipient of Omidyar’s funds, was the right-hand man for Viktor Yuschenko in the Orange Revolution.

“Pierre Omidyar Co-funded Ukraine Revolution Groups with US government, Documents Show” by Mark Ames; Pando Daily; 2/28/2014.

EXCERPT: On February 28, 2014 Just hours after last weekend’s ouster of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, one of Pierre Omidyar’s newest hires at national security blog “The Intercept,” was already digging for the truth. Marcy Wheeler, who is the new site’s “senior policy analyst,&rdquo

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