Who’s Who in Ukraine’s New “Semi-fascist” Government:
Meet the People the U.S. and EU are Supporting
By Brian Becker
The U.S. and European Union countries played a key role in the overthrow of the elected government in the Ukraine headed by Victor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions. Listening to the politicians in Washington or watching the corporate media, it would be easy to believe that the coup in the Ukraine has ushered in new era of democracy for the people of that country.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The new, self-appointed government in Kiev is a coalition between right-wing and outright fascist forces, and the line between the two is often difficult to discern. Moreover, it is the fascist forces, particularly the Svoboda party and the Right Sector, who are in the ascendancy, as evidenced by the fact that they have been given key government positions in charge of the military and other core elements of the state apparatus.
That millions of Ukrainians, Russians, Greeks, Jews and others would
abhor living under such a government should come as a surprise to no
one. Seven decades ago, Nazi Germany and its allies invaded the Soviet
Union, of which the Ukraine was a part.
It was inside the Soviet Union that the main forces of the Nazi war
machine were destroyed—but at an appalling price. More than 27 million
Soviet soldiers and civilians were killed and the country devastated.
(By comparison, 416,800 U.S. personnel were killed in the same war, also
a huge number itself, but one that only represents about 1.5 percent of
Soviet deaths.)Highlighting its extreme right-wing character, among the
first actions of the rump Rada (parliament) were terminating the
official status of Russian and Greek as minority languages, rescinding
the Crimea’s autonomy, and outlawing the Ukrainian Communist Party.The
Fatherland party is leading the new government, headed by Arseniy
Yatsenyuk.
A few weeks before the Feb. 24 coup, U.S. Assistant Secretary of
State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, then in Kiev to
support the anti-government protests, was recorded calling for
Yatsenyuk to become the new leader. Yatsenyuk is a banker, very
Western-oriented, and seen as sure to accede to the demands of the
International Monetary Fund and the international banks for austerity
measures in exchange for a “bailout” of the Ukraine’s debt.
In addition, Yatsenyuk is not from an overtly fascist party, a major
public relations advantage for Western imperialist backers of the new
regime.
The new Secretary of the powerful National Defense and Security Council is Andriy Parubiy,
is also listed as being from the Fatherland party. But here the murky
divide between the right-wing and fascist parties comes into view.
Parubiy was co-founder of the Social National Party in 1991, an
openly fascist party whose symbol was the “Wolfsnagel,” which closely
resembles a swastika. The SNP changed its name to Svoboda (“Freedom”) in
2004, and has tried to somewhat moderate its image while retaining its
neo-Nazi core.
It was only in 2012 that Parubiy ran on the Fatherland ticket. During
the opposition demonstrations in the Maidan Square, he was known as
“the commandant.”
Parubiy’s deputy is Dmytro Yarosh, who was the
leader of the fascist Right Sector’s para-military forces in Maidan. In a
recent BBC video, a Right Sector leader said: “National socialist
[Nazi] ideas are popular here…We want a clean nation, not like under
Hitler, but a little bit like that.”
The new Defense Minister is Ihor Tenyukh, former head of the Ukrainian navy and from the Svoboda party. Oleksandr Sych, also from Svoboda, is one of three Vice Prime Ministers.
Another key post held by an open Svoboda member is that of Prosecutor-General. Oleg Makhnitsky
is now the equivalent of Attorney General in the U.S., and has
immediately set out to indict the leaders of Crimea who do not want to
live under the new order in Kiev.
The new, self-appointed government in Kiev
is a coalition between right-wing and outright fascist forces, and the
line between the two is often difficult to discern.
Svoboda also holds the ministries of ecology and, especially critical in the Ukraine, agriculture in the new government.
Though not named as a government minister—clearly by choice—Oleh Tyahnybok
is the leader of Svoboda, of which he was also a co-founder when it was
known as the Social National Party. Now he is one of the most powerful
figures in the country.
While Tyahnybok sought to moderate Svoboda’s public image beginning
with the name change in 2004, a speech he gave the same year showed just
how paper-thin that cover was.
Speaking at memorial to a commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army
(UIA) that collaborated with the Nazis and massacred tens of thousands
of Poles, Jews and communists, he called for Ukrainians to fight the
“Muscovite-Jewish mafia” which he claimed were running the country.
Tyahnybok praised the UIA and the Organization of Ukrainian
Nationalists led by Stepan Bandera, who “fought against the Russians,
Germans, Jews and other scum who wanted to take away our Ukrainian
state.” (For the terms “Russians” and “Jews,” he substituted extremely derogatory slurs).
In 2005, Tyahnybok signed an open letter to Ukraine leaders
denouncing the “criminal activities” of “organized Jewry” who, he
claimed, wanted to commit “genocide” against Ukrainian people.
Support for the fascists is surging in the Ukraine. In 2006, Svoboda
received .36 of 1 percent in the elections; in 2012 it became the fourth
largest party in the Rada (parliament) with 10.45 percent of the vote
and 37 seats out of 450. In a public opinion poll taken at the beginning
of February, 54 percent said they would vote for Tyahnybok for
president if he ran against Yanukovych. (The poll was held three weeks
before the overthrow of Yanukovych.)
The smiling faces of Victoria Nuland and Sen. John McCain, among
other U.S. officials, have appeared in countless photos with Tyahnybok
in recent months.
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