Russian neo-Nazi organizations actively participate in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine (VAAD Ukraine) Joseph Zissels has said.
“There has been a developed system of various neo-Nazi organizations in Russia for over twenty years. [The organizations] become active at the times of escalations, as in the mid 90s in Russia and in Moldova and Georgia. Now they are operating in Ukraine,” Zissels said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.
According to him, the Russian National Union (RNU) headed by Alexander Barshakov is the most powerful among them. The union was created in early 90s; it has a multidivisional structure on Russian territory, which is used to recruit mercenaries. The RNU directly participates in the war against Ukraine; and has its own units under their own flags and symbols that look like the swastika of Nazi Germany.
According to Zissels, Barshakov himself visited Ukraine in March and May 2014; he’s currently still on Ukrainian soil, supposedly in Donetsk. Moreover, his younger son is a member of an armed formation.
According to Zissels, in addition to the RNU, Eurasian Youth Union (headed by Alexander Dugin), the Other Russia (headed by Eduard Limanov), the Black ‘Sotnia’ (company) and other activists also actively operate in Crimea.
“They don’t have their own units, but their members are a part of other units,” he said.
According to Zissels, Russia also uses European neo-Nazis from other countries for its benefit. Particularly, the legitimacy of the ‘referendum’ in Crimea was confirmed by involving international ‘observers’ that particularly consisted of 33 (out of 40) representatives of neo-Nazi organizations and one representative of a far left organization. There were representatives of Third Way from France, St Stephen Legion from Hungary and other organizations from Poland, Serbia and France. Certain activists with neo-Nazi tattoos and T-shirts with the image of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, a Romanian fascist from the times of World War II, have been noticed as well.
“Russia has been infected with revenge-seeking ideas, and it is very closely connected to Nazism,” the Head of VAAD Ukraine said.
