What do Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Moldova and Kazakhstan have in common with Ukraine? Russian allegations that they are all overrun by Nazis.

Decrying Nazism – even when it’s not there – has been Russia’s ‘Invade country for free’ card Published: July 14, 2022 2.32pm CEST

Oleg Morozov, a member of the Russian parliament and an ally of President Vladimir Putin’s, made what sounded much like a threat in May 2022.

Poland should be “in first place in the queue for denazification after Ukraine,” he said.

Just days earlier, pro-Putin Moscow city assembly member, Sergey Savostyanov, asserted that after Ukraine, Russia needs to drive alleged Nazis from power in six more countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Moldova and Kazakhstan.

Just a few months following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which was made under the false pretense of denazifying the government of that country, such claims might send chills down the spines of the people in those countries as well as of many keen observers of the region.

It could be argued that such claims of denazification “might be dismissed as the hyperbolic expression of one individual in the overheated atmosphere of Russia today,” as scholar and former diplomat Paul Goble recently described it. Yet it’s evident that for over a decade, Russia has used lies and disinformation, including many references to denazifiying Ukraine, to build a case specifically for the Ukraine invasion.

And unsupported claims of denazification have been an excuse for Russian international aggression since World War II.

Putin and his allies have attempted to expand the meaning of “Nazism” to essentially render it meaningless – but still useful to them. Anyone who opposes Putin’s government can be labeled a Nazi, representing basically the worst and most horrible enemies Russia has ever faced in its history, the battle against whom cost almost 1 in 6 Soviet lives, civilian and military.

The opposition is fascist As a scholar of Russian diplomatic communication, I have researched Russian use of language to justify its military interventions. I found that Russian diplomats inconsistently use and misuse international law expressions to justify Russian actions aimed at gaining either more influence or territory.

And the label “Nazi” has been selectively used and misused to target the perceived opponents of the Putin regime, at times with some success. Indeed, on one extreme, according to Putin’s propogandists, Nazism doesn’t even have to be antisemitic. To Russian officials, anyone who expresses anti-Russian sentiment can be denounced as a Nazi. That allowed Russia to claim that Ukraine was run by Nazis, even though President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish.

In May 2022, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a strong ally of Putin’s, accused the West of supporting Nazi ideas. Also in May, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs articulated that the Israeli government is supporting neo-Nazis in Ukraine. This assertion came right after Israel demanded an apology for Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s claim that Hitler had Jewish origins.

Long-running accusations Nowhere has Russia been more persistent with accusations of Nazism than in Estonia and Latvia, two countries with sizable Russian-speaking populations and membership in the European Union and NATO.

For decades, Russia has alleged that fascist ideas have been circulating in these countries on a large scale and have become mainstream. In 2007, Putin said that he is dismayed by Estonia and Latvia’s alleged reverence for Nazism: “The activities of the Latvian and Estonian authorities openly connive at the glorification of Nazis and their accomplices. But these facts remain unnoticed by the European Union.”

In 2012, Russia reacted angrily to a recent gathering of World War II veterans in Estonia and stated that it was aimed at “glorification of former SS-men and local collaborationists.”

In 2022, Latvia designated May 9 as the Day of Remembrance for those killed in Ukraine as a result of the Russian invasion. This move was sure to irk some folks in Russia, as Russia celebrates the Soviet victory over the Nazis in World War II on the very same day. Latvia was at the time also debating the removal of monuments to Soviet-era soldiers.

In response, Putin’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that “the ruling regime in Latvia has long been well known for its neo-Nazi preferences.”

The pot calling the kettle Meanwhile, another debate rages about whether Russia under Putin itself can be seen as a fascist state. On one hand, Putin’s dictatorship has embraced expansionist militarism, crushed domestic opposition, promoted toxic nationalism and revived Russian patriotism by building national identity around the Russian defeat of Nazi Germany.

On the other hand, those who argue that Russia may be a repressive and aggressive dictatorship – but not a fascist state – note that fascism is a fundamentally revolutionary ideology and tends to be accompanied with mass mobilization. Meanwhile, Putin is viewed by many as a reactionary right-wing dictator who is not guided by revolutionary ideas, does not have much charisma and is governing a largely passive population. His supporters will likely continue labeling perceived adversaries as Nazis. Such rhetorical groundwork could eventually lead to more wars beyond Ukraine.

    • ProfessorOwl_PhD [any]@hexbear.net
      214·
      1 year ago

      Of course they aren’t, and you’re making another nonargument - nobody says there aren’t Nazis in Russia, but either way Nazis existing in Russia has 0 effect on Nazis existing in Ukraine. The most you can claim is it’s the pot calling the kettle black, but you’re going for outright denial instead.

      • AJB_l4uOP
        4·
        1 year ago

        https://aijac.org.au/op-ed/barbaric-russian-paramilitary-organisations-must-be-put-on-australias-terror-list/

        Barbaric Russian paramilitary organisations must be put on Australia’s terror list Jun 12, 2023 | Oved Lobel

        The Australian – 12 June 2023

        Shadow minister for home affairs James Paterson recently called on Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil “to seek advice from your department about whether the Wagner Group can be listed as a terrorist organisation under existing legislation”. With reports that the UK is moving towards such a listing, bipartisan legislation circulating in the US congress calling for the same, and a unanimous resolution in the French parliament advocating Wagner be added to the EU terrorism list, now is precisely the time for the Australian government to list Wagner. In addition, the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM) should similarly be listed under the Criminal Code.

        That both organisations merit listing, and fulfil all legislative requirements for it, is beyond dispute. This is particularly evident in the case of RIM – a globally networked Russian ultranationalist group proscribed as a terrorist entity by the US in 2020 – which trains white supremacists and neo-Nazis in its paramilitary camps. RIM was directly implicated in several bombings in Spain in November and December, acting on behalf of Russian military intelligence. It has fought in, recruited and fundraised for Russia’s war against Ukraine, and is intimately linked to Wagner, including via the latter’s openly neo-Nazi component, Task Force Rusich, which emerged from RIM’s training camps.

        Wagner, for its part, is the Kremlin’s tool of implausible deniability for its brutal imperial adventures in Ukraine, as well as in the Middle East and Africa. It has engaged in the most horrific war crimes and atrocities across the world on Moscow’s behalf. Not only does it systematically loot, torture, rape and massacre, but it has also released several horrifying snuff films and images of executions, mutilations and beheadings that would make Islamic State blush.

        There have been several reports of Wagner storming hospitals and raping women in maternity wards in the Central African Republic, as well as allegations of its operatives disembowelling women, including pregnant women, in that country. The group has also been responsible for several large-scale massacres in Mali. As an organisation that, at least officially, is not a state entity and employs terrorism to promote and fund Russia’s political goals, Wagner is a terrorist group, pure and simple. This is true even before one gets to reports of Wagner working with al-Qa’ida in Somalia.

        Of course, both RIM and Wagner are effectively terrorist organs of the Russian state – not truly independent organisations. But in this, RIM and Wagner are the Russian equivalent of several other groups listed under Australia’s Criminal Code, including Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Hezbollah. The former two are part of an alphabet soup of well-known terrorist fronts created by Pakistan’s security establishment to wage sectarian terrorist campaigns, while the latter is essentially the Lebanese branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

        Wagner and RIM are completely fair game under Australia’s current terrorism legislation, and there should be no controversy over this as there has been with respect to our listing of the IRGC. The government has refused to designate the IRGC on the questionable grounds that it is a state entity, despite a Senate report in February recommending it should do so, and unprecedented consensus between the Coalition, Greens and teals on the issue.

        Thanks to the fiction of their independence maintained by Russia, Wagner and RIM are the lowest of low-hanging fruit for Australian sanctions. They are nationalist and racist, violent extremist organisations engaged in outright terrorism across the world – qualitatively far more dangerous and depraved than the other NRVE groups proscribed by Australia.

        Listing Wagner and RIM would not only send a powerful message of support for Ukraine and those in Africa and the Middle East suffering from Russian-sponsored terrorism, but would also help to impede the activities of these groups and their supporters, including in Australia.

        Both groups are already included on Australia’s consolidated list, although only Wagner is subject to autonomous Australian sanctions.

        The US has already proscribed RIM under terrorism legislation, and there’s no reason for Australia not to follow suit. Inexplicably, however, the US has so far failed to designate Wagner as a terrorist group, though it has sanctioned it as a “transnational criminal organisation”.

        This is despite the bipartisan Holding Accountable Russian Mercenaries Act to do so, which has been introduced and reintroduced in the US Congress over several months. Yet notwithstanding these technicalities, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin recently labelled Wagner “a horrible terrorist organisation”.

        Austin is correct, and Australia is not bound by whatever considerations are underlying the White House’s reluctance. Home Affairs should act quickly on Senator Paterson’s letter and demonstrate that Australia sees these NRVE groups for what they are: murderous, “horrible terrorist organisations”.

        Oved Lobel is a policy analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.

      • JoeyJoJoJuniour@lemmy.ml
        51·
        1 year ago

        So if the USA or any other country for that matter, decided to invade Russia to de-Nazify Russia. You would be in favour of that?