Can Ukraine Control Its Far Right Ultranationalists?

[cali]

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The Right Sector is a confederation of several right and far-right organizations and groups such as “Patriots of Ukraine,” the Social-National Assembly, Stepan Bandera’s All-Ukrainian Association “Trident,” Kyiv Organization’s “White Hummer,” and the UNA-UNSO. The Right Sector trumpets the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism, which reaches its zenith in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which in its heyday was lead by Bandera. (He was assassinated by a KGB agent in Munich in 1959.) From 1942 to 1954, the group acted fought against the German and Soviet Armies. Now, its descendent organizations are dedicated to advancing the 20th-century throwback notion of the primacy of the nation-state. Their rhetoric may sound utopian (or dystopian), but it’s actually quite archaic. “If non-Ukrainians understand Ukrainians’ urge towards their nation, and are disposed to it and help in struggle, we are disposed to them too; if they are neutral and don’t prevent us in our struggle, we are neutral to them, too; if they object our right to be a nation-state and work against us, we are hostile to them,” Bandera once said.

Of course the role that the Right Sector played in the Euromaidan cannot be underestimated. When two months of protests in the streets got almost no attention from Yanukovych’s government and just tightened the screws on society—with parliament voting on new draconian anti-protest laws and pro-government thug squads kidnapping and killing civil activists—it was the far right that first started to talk back to Yanukovych in his own language. They were the first to throw Molotov coctails and stones at police and to mount real and well-fortified barricades. They were amongst those who burned two military troop carriers that attacked the barricades on February 18. The Euromaidan won thanks to the resoluteness of people who were ready to fight rather than to negotiate in parliament when any negotiation became pointless. But now the situation on the ground has changed and the role the far right will play in the future of the country is an open question.

As University of Ottawa political scientist Ivan Katchanovski writes: “The far right in Ukraine has now achieved the level of representation and influence that is unparalleled in Europe. A member of Svoboda, a name adopted by the Social-National Party in 2004, became the Minister of Defense. Svoboda members also control the prosecutor general office, the deputy prime minister position and the ministries of ecology and agriculture. The paramilitary right sector has de facto power at least in some Western Ukrainian regions, such as the Rivne and Volyn Regions. Anriy Parubiy, the commander of the “Maidan self-defense,” has been appointed the head of the National Security and Defense Council, and [Dmitro] Yarosh, the leader of Right Sector, is expected to become his deputy.”

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But there are several areas in which the Right Sector still holds outdated and ultra-conservative views. In his video address “Great Ukrainian Achievement: What does Right Sector struggle for?” Yarosh says: “We are against degeneration and totalitarian liberalism, but we support traditional morals and family values, against the cult of profit and depravity.” What Yarosh means here when he says ‘degeneration’ is ‘homosexuality.’ When he says ‘totalitarian liberalism,’ he means that the right of the nation trumps human rights. Right Sector websites actively use such strange terms as “liberal homodictatorship” when they talk about modern open Western societies. One should note that while the far right is good in fighting, they might prove very problematic for Ukraine’s modern, open future.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/01/can-ukraine-control-its-far-right-ultranationalists.html

[Benton D Struckcheon]

1. Can Russia control theirs?

And whether either of these two putrid sides can or can't there's no reason for us to give a damn.

[reformist2]

2. LOL that US journalists are acting like the new government of Ukraine is legitimate.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

4. It is. President fled. Duly elected parliament appointed temporary

Government until planned May elections. It's as legitimate as any parliamentary government. Don't know what you're smoking.

[Wet Willie]

3. If those thugs can't, I'm sure Russia's can

Guess, we'll need another UBL.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

5. WTF? Yanacovich was a bully turned whimp

Putin withdrew support from their dunce in Kiev. Putin is now the bully on scene and if he continues, the U.S. and Europe will stomp him under their feet.

[Wet Willie]

6. I don't see the US nor EU having much leverage against Russia

Remember Georgia crisis?

I'm thinking we will have about as much impact in the here as we did there.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

7. This is orders of magnitude bigger than Georgia

There had been fighting between Ossetia and Georgia years before, and the Georgian government made first offensive moves in trying to invad and reclaim Ossetia as its own.

Nothing along those lines has been undertaken by Ukraine which would cause US and Europe to refrain taking significant action against Russia.

Ukraine is far more strategically important to Europe than Georgia as well.

[Wet Willie]

9. That is precisely why they are stalemated

Last edited Sun Mar 2, 2014, 01:25 AM - Edit history (1)

from a military perspective anyway.

Do you seriously think the EU or US want to confront Russia militarily, when we can't even beat the weakest, barefoot soldiers on the planet, after 13 years, no less?

I don't think so.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

10. You're joking, right? Those same barefoot soldiers kicked USSR ass

The U.S. military could pulverize Russian troops if called upon to do so.

[Wet Willie]

11. nope, they were much better funded back in the day, too.

BTW: Do you think we will pull the ole UBL trump card, this time, too?


The new UBL?

[Pretzel_Warrior]

12. Your purposeful ignorance of history means this discussion is over

Your hatred or disregard for the United States is clear.

[pampango]

8. A challenge but the far-right is stronger in France and the Netherlands and they control theirs.

It is something to pay attention to in Ukraine (and France, the US and many other places) but it is not something to lose our heads about. There are a lot more good people in all those countries.

[Igel]

13. Too much hyperbole to take it seriously.

A lot of the "far right ultranationalists" are isolated loonies on some points and mainstream on others.

I mean, the very idea of a nation-state. Even as a number of states that we rather like continue to fight "cultural imperialism". While Mugabe was asserting the right of the oppressed to counter-oppress he was applauded; it took a lot for the tinpot dictator to be recognized for what he is, and he makes the "far right ultranationalists" look moderate.

But Bandera was anti-Soviet, while Mugabe wore the right words, the right trappings.


The Ukrainians are still at the level the Balts were 15 years ago. After being trammelled and oppressed they got the upper hand. Their former oppressors found this utterly intolerable--they'd done it for centuries, wallowing in "Russian privilege", but the second the tables were turn it was insufferable. In many cases it was to restore some sort of equity. We could call it "affirmative action". It was to support indigenous languages against populations that had been transplanted into occupied territory, against the required use of a much larger, dominant language.

We "get it" when it's done wrt English.

It's taken a long time for the Baltic languages to not be second rate in their original territories, for the indigenous people to have at least equal status to the occupiers, and for things to level out so that the ethnic Russians have to be bilingual and not just the natives. They're getting there. But we heard the same jingoistic speech from the Russian government when the Latvians dared to require Russians to learn Latvian and to expect Latvian to be used instead of quietly die away in the face of the much more dominant Russian.

Now we hear from the Russians that it's insufferable for the Ukrainians not to take their opinions into account. But in mid-January, that was the demand from the Maidan--for the Russians to take *their* opinions into account. What was right for the Russians is obviously ultranationalist hate from the Ukrainians.