Kremlin cancels denazification of Ukraine?
Nazi-cleansing is not on Moscow's list of demands to Kiev
By Riley Waggaman, a Moscow-based writer and former “senior editor” at RT
Ukraine is home to Wolfsangel-bedazzled punitive battalions that bring eternal shame to Kiev and its Western sponsors. I wrote about this more than seven years ago.
Well, a lot has happened since then.
A few hours after the Not-War began on February 24, I typed up a blog post explaining why “denazifying” Ukraine probably wasn’t really a top priority for the Kremlin.
It appears this assessment was correct.
Below is a brief chronology of recent events:
February 24
Denazification means that Ukraine should be liberated from neo-Nazis, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
“Ideally, Ukraine should be liberated, cleaned from neo-Nazis, from people sharing pro-Nazi sentiment and ideas,” Peskov pointed out, when asked to explain remarks about the need to denazify Ukraine. […]
Peskov also declined to say if Moscow believed that Ukraine’s president and other senior officials shared pro-Nazi ideas. “I will refrain from further clarification,” the Russian presidential spokesman said.
February 25
The Kiev authorities are under the control of Western countries, led by the United States and supporters of neo-Nazism, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference on Friday.
“No one is going to attack the Ukrainian people, no one is going to treat the members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in some degrading way. It's about not allowing neo-Nazis and those who promote genocidal methods to rule in this country,” he said. “Because now the regime in Kiev is under two mechanisms of external control—the West, led by the United States, and neo-Nazis who promote their ‘culture’, and it is flourishing in modern Ukraine.”
February 28
Kiev’s announcement that it is ready for demilitarization and denazification will be a step towards the end of the Russian special operation in Ukraine. This was stated by Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya, speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly on the situation in Ukraine, broadcasted by RBK.
March 1
“Yes. This is the President of Ukraine,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. So he answered the question of journalists whether the Kremlin continues to consider Zelensky the legitimate president of Ukraine…
Peskov was asked to answer the question: according to the Kremlin, Kiev is now under the control of Nazi forces that need to be denazified? The press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation replied: “I cannot answer this question. It is necessary to contact the Ministry of Defense. I do not know the situation on the spot.”
March 4
Russia does not abandon the course towards the denazification of Ukraine. This information was denied by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov , TASS reports.
“No, this is not so,” the press secretary of the President of the country emphasized.
A Kremlin spokesman gave such a comment to Ukrainian media reports, citing Aleksey Arestovich, adviser to the head of the President’s office, that Russia no longer mentions the demand for denazification of Ukraine.
March 7
“We really are finishing the demilitarization of Ukraine. We will finish it. But the main thing is that Ukraine ceases its military action. They should stop their military action and then no one will shoot,” [Dmitry Peskov] said.
On the issue of neutrality, Peskov said: “They should make amendments to the constitution according to which Ukraine would reject any aims to enter any bloc.”
He added: “We have also spoken about how they should recognize that Crimea is Russian territory and that they need to recognize that Donetsk and Lugansk are independent states. And that’s it. It will stop in a moment.”
RIA Novosti also published a story on March 7 outlining Russia’s “conditions for the termination of the special operation in Ukraine.” The listed demands are conspicuously absent of anything Nazi-related.
What is “denazification”, anyway?
Konstantin Dolgov, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy, said on March 4 that “denazification” involved reeducating Ukrainians:
According to him, denazification is not only not only the liberation from symbols or the prohibition of symbols.
“The bulk of the population [should] understand that Bandera is a Nazi criminal, and others like him too. When this understanding comes, then the process of denazification will be basically completed,” Dolgov said.
A day later, Putin seemed to advocate for a more targeted approach:
“So what is denazification. Here I was talking with my Western colleagues: what is it, you also have radicals. Yes, we have. But we don't have radicals in the government. And everyone admits that there [in Ukraine] is,” Putin said. He noted that in Russia there are also “some idiots who run around with a swastika somewhere,” but they don’t walk around the capitals with torches, as in Germany in the 1930s, but this happens in Ukraine.
It’s not difficult to understand why these grand visions for Ukraine were dropped. After all, how could any of this be achieved using military force?
What will the Not-War accomplish?
It’s safe to say “denazification” was never a serious objective for the Kremlin—mostly because it’s difficult to understand what it would entail, or even how a “special military operation” could be used to make sure Ukrainians are sufficiently “denazified”. How to even measure that? It’s a mystery.
Besides, the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians are completely normal people minding their own business. That’s just a fact.
In my humble opinion, Russia’s other demands (as stated by Peskov on March 7) are reasonable. The problem is that Kiev and its Western patrons are not very reasonable. But Russia knew this before launching its Not-War… so what was the Kremlin hoping to achieve here?
It’s been nearly two weeks. It’s now abundantly clear that some very serious miscalculations have been made. Where is the exit ramp? How does this end well for Russia? Or for anyone?
You’re not allowed to ask. It’s a no-no. The Not-War is safe and effective.
[This has never been about denazification of Ukraine.] Correction, as I have learned additional information, I must make a correction. It is about the Denazification of Ukraine. At the time I initially wrote this comment I was uninformed and un knowledgeable about the far right nationalistic Azov fighters that have been present in Easrern Ukraine since the end of the Maidan Revolution in 2014. They have been systematically killing ethnic Russian adults and children to the total of around 14,000. They have been preventing the ethnic Russians in the Donbas area from speaking Russian. They have been using them as human shields. This has also been about NATO.
I was in Cuba in June 1962, which was soon followed by the Cuban Missile Crisis due to the Soviet Union’s construction of missile launch facilities and placement of offensive ballistic missiles in Cuba ninety miles from US shores as a response to American deployment of missiles in Italy and Turkey.The USA didn’t like this, we felt it as a threat. This situation is comparable to having Ukraine join NATO, placing US funded missilery directly at the back door of Russia. Russia has no military base in similar proximity to the United States.
Furthermore, the US funded Pentagon bio labs in Ukraine add yet another layer of biological threat directly at the Russian Federation.
The US, NATO and the EU deliberately want to maintain a situation of obvious imbalance and have repeatedly ignored Russian concerns regarding the safety and integrity of their borders which would be compromised by allowing Ukraine to join NATO. The USA, NATO, and the EU have pushed Putin into a corner by dismissing Russian concerns. They are precisely to make impossible any attempt at a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian crisis, provoking the Russian Federation to trigger a conflict…
Russia will control Ukraine, the bread basket of the world, within the next 30 days using their pincher tactic and victory is imminent. The Ukrainian men that haven’t been conscripted to fight a hopeless war are left to die and other citizens and farmers have fled, there will be no one to harvest the crops. Russia will then control the exports of wheat, corn,aluminum, palladium and neon, which are indispensable for the production of microchips, oil, petroleum products, carbon and alloy steel, grain to feed livestock…things we and other countries import to keep our economies afloat and prevent global famine. The sanctions are ultimately going to hurt the US and Europe and crash our economies and cause famine. I believe this to be the real goal. Soon the US and Europe will point their fingers at the “boogeyman” Russia instead of at themselves. Meanwhile, the US continues to import oil to the tune of $74 Million per day for oil imports. America imported 24 percent more oil from Russia in 2021 than in 2020. 36 percent of Russia’s government budget comes from oil export revenue. Yet we continue to import from Russia rather than reopening the Keystone pipeline. You have to be blind not to see the hypocrisy.
Why is the US so determined to collapse our economy? I would imagine that among the reasons include the projected collapse of Medicare in 2026 and Social Security in 2033. US politicians should focus on fixing our domestic situation versus the continuing warmongering and nation making.
The bottom line is this: I don’t believe what our government or corporate media are telling us about Ukraine and Russia. These are the same people who said Donald Trump colluded with Russia. They said the Hunter Biden laptop was phony. They told us the 2020 election was the most secure and accurate in history. They told us the pandemic would kill 22 million Americans and that the vaccines would protect us from it.
Why does the United States wants to create tensions with Russia and involve its European partners in the conflict, with all the consequences we can imagine?
This war is nearing its end. My belief is that in conclusion there will be a border reorganization creating a Ukrainian Republic and a Russian republic. Novorossiya will consist of Kharkiv,Donbas/Lunesk, Donetsk republic, Mariupol to Odessa, and Crimea. Lviv May go to Poland, and the Carpathian regions will go to either Hungary or Romania. The remainder from Kyiv eastward will be under the Ukrainian Republic. This division of Ukraine will reduce hostilities and provide a neutral Ukraine with no possibility of them ever joining NATO.
Appreciate the sobering and concise report.
Here we are told how safe and effective it is to freeze people's bank accounts if they say something the government does not like. One of the freedom convoy organizers (Tamara Lich) was finally released from jail today after being held for two weeks for "consulting people to commit mischief" or some nonsense. Now she is banned from posting anything online about peaceful protests or she faces jail time, they will have thought police monitoring her 24/7. In related 1984/great reset-ish events, I got a weird email from a cryptocurrency wallet service I had used in the past a couple days ago threatening they were going to freeze and suspend my account if I did not provide biometric data to verify my identity. It seems the war the fascistic plutocrats (and their puppets) are waging on the citizens over here is more economic and psychological (with a touch of overt police brutality) for the time being (but it is a war nonetheless).
I can't speak to the situation in Ukraine, but I can tell you that the Canadian government, judicial system, state media and law enforcement system is in serious need of some denazification.
Until then, we will do the best we can to starve the parasites out until their systems collapse under their own weight.
Keep up the great work and stay safe over there.
Much love and respect from Canada