The Fascists in the Ukrainian Parliament
Pål Steigan
(Translated from the Norwegian by Tanja Barth)
"Victory for the democratic, pro-Western forces" - This was the message that most of the Norwegian and Western media sent when commenting on the elections in Ukraine, claiming that the Nazi and fascist elements have been completely marginalized. The truth is quite the opposite – never have the Nazi & fascist groups been as strong as they now are in Ukraine.
Election results for the openly fascist parties - The Nazi/fascist party "Svoboda" got 4.71% of the votes and did not pass the national election threshold of 5 %. But the party will still have 6 delegates that have been elected in single constituencies.
The even more extreme fascist party "Right Sector" only got 1.81 % of the votes, but their leader, Dmitro Jarosj, personally won the election in his constituency in the Dnepropetrovsk region. In this region, he is closely allied with the oligarch Igor Kolomoiskij, who has financed several fascist battalions in the East. So in this case there is a fusion in Ukraine between Nazi ideology and Nazi militia on the one side, and robber barons on the other.
"The Radical Party", lead by Oleh Lyashko, got 7.45 % of the votes, which resulted 22 seats in the national assembly. So the openly fascist phalange thus will be represented by 29 seats in the national assembly.
Lyashko is a criminal and a murderer. He boasts of kidnapping, torturing and even killing his political opponents. The fairly westernly-oriented Amnesty International describes him in this way:
"Oleg Lyashko is supposed to be a lawmaker, but he has taken the law into his own hands. “Glory to Ukraine, death to the occupiers” is his rallying cry. Though he doesn’t have the right to detain people, he abducts them and abuses them verbally and physically while the camera is rolling. His and other similar websites feature numerous video clips showing what appear to be cases of abduction and violations of the rights to fair trial, liberty and security of the person, and the right not to be subjected to torture and other ill-treatment...Amnesty International regards the actions of Oleg Lyashko and his armed associates as a flagrant violation of international legal standards."
Thus we see a fascist murderer and torturer, leading a group with 22 seats in the parliament, enjoying complete parliamentary immunity. Western media seems to consider this as trivial and normal.
A list of the election results can be found here.
Other extreme right-wing groups - The corrupt gas princess Julia Timosjenko got only 5.68 % of the votes and obtained 19 mandates. Her party and Timoshenko herself are extremely right-wing to put it mildly.
The leaders of the right-wing militia, that fought so brutally against the Eastern separatists, have largely incorporated themselves in Jatsenjuk's party. This includes one of the founders of the "Social-National Party", Andreij Parubij. As the leader of the national security council he had the direct responsibility for the so-called "anti-terror campaign" in Eastern Ukraine. He is a loyal supporter of the fascist Stepan Bandera. In order to analyze the strength of the fascists after the Ukraine elections, one needs to take into consideration the positions that they will obtain in the People's Front and in the new administration.
Jatsenjuks team of right-wing extremists - "The People's Front" has a military council, which consists of the leaders of the fascist militia who fought, and still are fighting, against the Russian-speaking people in the eastern areas of Ukraine. They include, among others, Andrij Biletskij, leader of the Azov-regiment, which now is integrated into the National guard, Yuriy Bereza, leader of the Dnipro battalion (also called the Kolomoiskij-batallion, because it is financed by the oligarch Kolomoiskij) and Ihor Lapin, leader of the Aidar battalion, to name a few. In the "People's Front", we find (in addition to Parubij) Secretary of Interior, Arsen Avakov, who was listed as wanted by Interpol as late as 2012. As Secretary of Interior, he is by law directly responsible for the bloody war in eastern Ukraine. Arsenij Jatsenjuk, himself no liberal or democrat, made public declaration posted on Ukraine's official internet site in the U.S., whare he referred to his fellow Ukrainians in the East as «subhumans». He later changed this to «non-humans», a rather modest improvement in our view.
The Self-Reliance Party - Another surprising election result was that Andriy Sadovyi's "Self-Reliance Party" got as much as 10.98 % of the votes, giving them 33 seats. The party refers to itself as center-right. But Sadovyi is the mayor of Lviv, where he has ruled with a mandate including those of the "Svodboda" representatives, who got 38 % of the votes in the lates local election. Sadovyi is also a close ally of Semen Sementsjenko, who leads the fascist Donbas battalion.
Forces to be used in violent oppression - Ukraine is a de facto bankrupt state. Soon there will be draconian cuts in all services, and this will undoubtedly lead to dissatisfaction and opposition, in Western Ukraine too. The regime will certainly consider the fascist storm troops a useful tool for repressing the opposition.
A Swedish translation can be found here: «Minst ett trettiotal fascister i den nya parlamentet i Ukraina.»
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Source: Steigan Blogger. Photo: © Sergei Chuzavkov / AP
URL: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2014/11/02/fascists-in-the-ukrainian-parliament
