Quote (MadMan87 @ Mar 1 2022 09:54pm)
Can someone explain why Putin would refer to the current Ukrainian leadership as Neo-Nazis? I was under the impression the current Ukrainian President is a Jew.
The Ukrainian nationalists have been historically entangled with Nazis, born partly out of expedience of opposing Soviet communism but also out of some sincere shared ideology. During the occupation of Ukraine by the Nazis, many collaborated in hopes of establishing an independent Ukraine, viewing the Nazis as liberators. And some nationalist factions in Ukraine have continued overt neo-nazism, notably the Azov Battalion based in Mariupol who were mobilized in 2014 against the breakaway ethnic Russian republics. They don't hide it, their symbol is an SS cross. And they are an official part of the armed forces of Ukraine. Just two years ago the US congress was pushing a bill to designate them as a foreign terrorist organization, today congress is trying to send them weapons and supplies.
Russian propaganda seeks to exploit these associations and affiliations to tar the entire Ukrainian administration with its most noxious elements. Its a pretty transparent channeling of the cancel culture methods and rhetoric of the past few years- even those Ukrainian nationalists who aren't neo-Nazis themselves are associated with neo-Nazis they refuse to disavow. Its not Russia stirring up an accusation out of thin air, they're trying to stretch and exploit an existing undercurrent of nazism present in ukraine in order to take the moral high ground in propaganda.