Attempts to intimidate Europeans with Ukrainian “neo-Nazis”
Ukraine’s 3rd Separate Assault Brigade launched its European tour aiming to promote a volunteer movement, which includes both the efforts to help the army and join its ranks. The very appearance of fighters from the 3rd Brigade on European soil made Russian talking heads and their financially motivated local minions literally throw tantrums.
As soon as the Brigade announced its EU tour, multiple media sleeper cells exposed themselves by revisiting a “good old” Russian narrative about Ukrainian “neo-Nazis”!
The Algemeen Dagblad, a Dutch daily, published an article with the rather scandalous headline: “Ukrainian battalion created by neo-Nazis comes to Rotterdam, Denk asks questions: “What is this signal about?”
The article criticizes the very idea of the 3rd Brigade coming to Rotterdam and describes both the 3rd Brigade and the Azov Battalion in the most negative terms, while regularly applying a screaming label of “neo-Nazis”.
But the most interesting thing is who penned the piece, intended to provoke public protest against the Ukrainian brigade’s European tour and delivered in a style identical to that characteristic of the long-rotten Russian narrative?
he author is a Turkish woman, Iffet Subasi, who hasn’t conceived a single article on Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion and neither has she even spoke out on the war on her social media platforms. And then, out of nowhere, she comes out with an article claiming that Ukrainian “neo-Nazis” are starting a European tour! But did she really write the piece “out of nowhere”?
The fact is that the obviously “honest” and “unbiased” journalist did a rather interesting bit in her career when in 2013-2014 she worked as a cameraperson for the Turkish national broadcaster, TRT, which also has its own Russian editorial office. And then, in 2018, she was hired as an editor by the Russian branch of Sputnik Media in Amsterdam.
Isn’t that amazing? So why am I not surprised that Dutch daily, which rather often posts manipulative articles on Ukraine, including those claiming that Ukrainians agree to concede part of their territories for the sake of peace, a journalist who previously worked for the Russian media, after three years of total silence on Ukraine, suddenly decided to write something about Ukrainians in the best traditions of Russian propaganda?
I believe this is pretty much a rhetorical question.
Separately, I’d like to note that at the moment, the long-term effort pursued by Russian propaganda to discredit the Azov unit is failing. Last month, the Joe Biden administration in the US allowed the Azov brigade to utilize American weapons, lifting a ban imposed years ago. And now, the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade is on a tour across Europe.
I can just imagine how hard Russian political bosses are pulling their hair upon hearing such news! All those years of sophisticated efforts gone to waste!.. So now, unable to come up with anything new, they try to intimidate Europe in the old-fashioned way with those Ukrainian “neo-Nazi” boogeymen. And as they always do (this has long become ridiculously embarrassing, really), they exploit certain dubious media outlets and journalists for this purpose.