I’m sure it’ll be fine. Every time we align the U.S. with extremists to get corporate-friendly regime change, it has a happy ending!
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.”
“There are lots of Nationalists here, including Nazis,” the anti-fascist continued. “They came from all over Ukraine, and they make up about 30% of protesters.”
The Yanukovich administration has been using anti-Semitism as well, but for purely internal consumption:
The protests in the Maidan, we are told again and again by Russian propaganda and by the Kremlin’s friends in Ukraine, mean the return of National Socialism to Europe. The Russian foreign minister, in Munich, lectured the Germans about their support of people who salute Hitler. The Russian media continually make the claim that the Ukrainians who protest are Nazis. Naturally, it is important to be attentive to the far right in Ukrainian politics and history. It is still a serious presence today, although less important than the far right in France, Austria, or the Netherlands. Yet it is the Ukrainian regime rather than its opponents that resorts to anti-Semitism, instructing its riot police that the opposition is led by Jews. In other words, the Ukrainian government is telling itself that its opponents are Jews and us that its opponents are Nazis.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/mar/20/fascism-russia-and-ukraine/?insrc=hpss. The article goes on to argue that this is a feature, not a bug (pardon the cliche). Which does not diminish the repulsiveness of the new-Nazi Ukrainians who have tried to take leadership of the opposition–but have not, as far as I can tell from some thousands of miles away.
On the other hand, you’re right that the EU is by no means the benign alternative that it passes itself off as. Meyerson’s article gives us a quick overview: http://prospect.org/article/walking-ukrainian-eggshells
It’s silly to characterize the Ukrainian opposition that is now in power in Kiev as neo-Nazis. Sure, the demonstrations brought out the radical right fringe to the square. But the protests were initiated by an effort to integrate with the EU, and the political leaders who are effectively in charge now are not neo-Nazis at all. It’s not like Yulia Tymoshenko is a fascist, or her political party (the “All Ukrainian Union”) is anything like a neo-Nazi or fascist group. It advocates for closer integration with Europe, strengthening of human rights, independence of the judiciary, etc.
It is absolutely true that once the demonstrations got started the extreme nationalists groups joined the liberals on the Maidan (the two groups do have one thing in common, both want to stop Russian dominance of Ukraine). But that does not mean that the demonstrations were neo-nazi, or that by supporting the demonstrators, the U.S. or its European allies were “aligning with extremists.”
Antisemitism runs deep in the Ukraine. The term pogrom first entered English usage to describe Ukrainian attacks on Jewish communities in the 19th Century. Russian leaders, like all totalitarian systems, have historically used vilification of the other to promote internal unity. Putin uses gays, Ukraine is using Jews. No matter how much the 1% want us to believe that national socialism is only a small part of the Ukrainian identity, the truth will out. I am certain that the handful of Plutocrats who own everything give absolutely zero shits about public opinion or the welfare of the Ukrainian people. And since Our Corporate Masters ALWAYS prefer a ruthless national socialist dictator to any form of liberal democracy, I can confidently predict which faction will get the lion’s share of western corporate support (i.e., under the table arms shipments and generous financing) in the coming civil conflict. So while corporate shills would like to paint events in the Ukraine as anything other than dire, violence in the Ukraine only serves the interests of outside parties, Russian Plutocrats or Western Plutocrats, seeking to dominate the nation.