Keep in mind, these are primary sources and thus should be used with caution! This section was last edited (diff) on 30 April 2024 at 15:39 by PrimeBOT (talk • contribs • logs)
2022
"formerly": Lykhachov, Vyacheslav (3 April 2022). "Euromaidan SOS: honest answers to the most common questions about AZOV in the West". Center for Civil Liberties. Retrieved 12 April 2022. So, the short answer to the question is no, Azov is not a neo-Nazi regiment....there are were individuals with neo-Nazi background and Far-Right views among Azov founders and fighters from the very beginning. However, not all the founders of the battalion had such a background. Among the first fighters of Azov, activists from the Automaidan groups, there were several ethnic Jews (and at least one Israeli citizen) even, for example. Most of the Far Right fighters left the regiment by the end of 2014. The rest of the Right Wing radicals, who clearly articulated their views, were deliberately "cleaned out" by the new commandment of the regiment in 2017. In recent years, there are absolutely no grounds for accusations that neo-Nazis serve in the Azov regiment.
2021
Attributed: "with neo-nazi elements": Weijenberg, Gijs; Zuijdewijn, Jeanine de Roy van (16 July 2021). "The Forgotten Front: Dutch Fighters in Ukraine". International Center for Counter-Terrorism. Retrieved 12 April 2022. Already in the autumn of 2014, The Guardian reported that a large group of Azov members would adhere to far-right or neo-Nazi ideas. They glorified Adolf Hitler's leadership, denied the Holocaust, and the battalion symbol showed the sonnenrad – a common symbol among neo-Nazis.
"with neo-nazi elements": Rekawek, Kacper (14 April 2021). "Don't Designate Azov. Why the U.S. should not include the Azov Movement on the Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) list". Counter Extremism Project. Retrieved 27 April 2022. Azov Movement is a multi-faceted entity which comprises not only the aforementioned Regiment, firmly within the command and control structures of the Ukrainian ministry of interior, but also a political party, a paramilitary arm, a charity wing, discussion club, etc., with its backers in the government in Kyiv....The Regiment's veterans have a track record of parading in rows, dressed in black, masked, with torches at political events. Most recently, its political outlet, the National Corps, organized paramilitary trainings for "representatives of veterans' and patriotic organizations, as well as owners of weapons" so that "the Ukrainian army, as well as every citizen of Ukraine […is] ready for any development."
2020
"with neo-nazi elements": Beirich, Heidi (12 November 2020). "The Transatlantic Connections Between American and Southeastern Europe's White Supremacists". Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. Retrieved 12 April 2022. The Azov Battalion's politics are infamous. The regiment has been accused of engaging in torture and war crimes and for using neo-Nazi symbology. Azov representatives claim this has nothing to do with Nazism, but in 2014 a spokesman for the regiment said 10 to 20 percent of the unit were neo-Nazis. Other reporting has documented members' neo-Nazi beliefs and widespread use of Nazi symbols, including the Wolfsangel and the Black Sun, by its adherents.
"with neo-nazi elements": Aliyev, Huseyn (12 November 2020). "Opportunities in Ukraine Too Limited to Provide White Supremacists With Military Training". Russia matters (Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs). Retrieved 29 April 2022. It is noteworthy that Saltskog and Clarke seem to brand all volunteer battalions as ultranationalist and white supremacist. However, only Azov, UNA-UNSO and DUK/UDA (Right Sector) espouse ultranationalist views. In fact, Azov's ideology is a mixture of old Slavic (pre-Christian/Nestorian) paganism and modern Ukrainian nationalism. The authors have also omitted the evidence that one of the founders and senior leaders of the Azov battalion, Natan Khazin, is a practicing Jew, which was presented in my original contribution to Russia Matters. Of course, all of the above evidence does not preclude that there are individuals in either Azov or in other ex-battalions with anti-Semitic views. However, individuals with anti-Semitic views were also present in the ranks of the U.S. Army, which cannot serve as evidence that it is a "hub for white supremacists."...While I have encountered individuals with neo-Nazi and far-right views, the majority of Azov's former and active members with whom I communicated had no clearly defined ideological background, apart from broader Ukrainian patriotic views.
"with neo-nazi elements": Kuzmenko, Oleksiy (19 March 2020). "The Azov Regiment has not depoliticized". Atlantic Council. Retrieved 11 April 2022. "The close alignment between the Azov Regiment and the National Corps continues under the Zelenskyy presidency. In March 2020, soldiers from the regiment were featured alongside leaders of the National Corps in a video ad for a rally meant as a warning to Zelenskyy’s government. Based on this evidence, it is clear that the Regiment has failed in its alleged attempts to “depoliticize." This makes it next to impossible to draw a clear line between the regiment itself and the wider Azov movement, including the National Corps."
"formerly": Shekhovtsov, Anton (24 February 2020). "Why Azov should not be designated a foreign terrorist organization". Atlantic Council. Retrieved 12 April 2022. But, while the ideologically inimical nature of Azov's roots is indisputable, it is likewise certain that Azov attempted to de-politicize itself; the toxic far-right leadership formally left the regiment and founded what would become a far-right party called "National Corps."
2019
"neo-nazi": OSCE - Human Dimension Implementation Meeting 2019 - Information Group on Crimes againts the Person (16 - 27 September 2019) "There is only one viewpoint on both «Azov» Regiment and the «National Corps» («Natzionalnyy Korpus») political party affiliated to it: they are neo-Nazis and racists, and any kind of cooperation with them is impossible." Here it is noted that the Azov regiment is still the armed wing of the National Corps political party and therefore has not been "depoliticized".
"with neo-nazi elements": Legieć, Arkadiusz (25 October 2019). "The Risks of Foreign Fighters in the Ukraine-Russia Conflict"(PDF). PISM Bulletin. (Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych). 1898 (150). Retrieved 12 April 2022. ...recruiting other fighters in Ukraine and abroad(e.g.,Azov Regiment recruited volunteers during neo-Nazi festivals in the UK and Germany)...At the same time, foreign fighters on the Ukrainian side have been the subject of Russian propaganda, especially the participation of neo-Nazis in the Azov Regiment or ISIS veterans in Tatar battalions.
Attributed:with neo-nazi elements": Jones, Seth G. (7 November 2018). "The Rise of Far-Right Extremism in the United States". www.csis.org. Center for Strategic and International Studies. Retrieved 11 April 2022. In Ukraine, RAM members met with groups like the Azov Battalion, a paramilitary unit of the Ukrainian National Guard, which the FBI says is associated with neo-Nazi ideology.
2015
"with neo-nazi elements": Puglisi, Rosaria (9 March 2015). "Heroes or Villains? Volunteer Battalions in Post-Maidan Ukraine". Istituto Affari Internazionali. Retrieved 13 April 2022. While Biletsky and the top leadership of the Azov are defined by experts as "biological racists," it is generally excluded that the whole battalion is aligned along the same ideological lines.
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