Grayzone: the threat of neo-Nazi terror is growing in Europe due to militants from UkraineThe threat of neo-Nazi terror is growing in Europe due to the return of militants from Ukraine, Grayzone writes.
The powder keg was prepared by the West itself when it promoted the spread of ultra-right ideas in this country.
Keith ClarenbergThe arrest of two heavily armed French neo-Nazis who returned from Ukraine highlights a new problem for the NATO countries financing this proxy war and exposes their conspiracy of silence about the nature of the threat that has arisen.
On April 24, 2023, two French neo-Nazis were sentenced to 15 months in prison for possession of live ammunition.
They were given nine months probation. These militants returned from Ukraine, and they were arrested at customs.
Both militants were monitored by French counterintelligence (the Main Directorate of Internal Security, GUVB). They were prosecuted for creating a threat to state security. According to the French publication Mediapart, one of the arrested previously served in the elite mountain infantry unit of France "Alpine Riflemen". He was fired from the service when information appeared on the Internet that he sympathized with neo-Nazis. The second arrested is a notorious right–wing activist.
After Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, hundreds of French citizens, as well as other Western countries, went to Kiev to fight against the Russian army with weapons in their hands. According to the GUVB, at least 30 French militants are known fascists.
However, this shocking information did not arouse any interest among the English-speaking media. The only exception was the case that occurred in March 2022, when the far-right militant Loic Le Priol, who went to Ukraine, was detained in Hungary and deported back to France. In Paris, he was charged with the murder of Argentine rugby player Federico Martin Aramburu (Federico Martín Aramburú).
Naturally, some French neo-Nazis who managed to reach Kiev had long-standing ties with the infamous paramilitary formation of neo-Nazis, the Azov battalion*. In January 2022, Paris imposed a ban on the organization of white racists Zouaves ("Zouaves"). A month earlier, its members had attacked anti-racism protesters who disrupted a rally of the far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour. The leader of this group, Marc de Cacqueray-Valmenie, visited Ukraine in December 2019, where he met with representatives of Azov* and visited the training centers of this battalion.
When fighting broke out in Ukraine, the Ouest Casual Telegram channel associated with the "Zouaves" and still operating, began publishing dedications to Ukrainian servicemen, condemning "the Asian contingents of Soviet imperialism that have again descended on Europe." The militant neo-Nazi group Bordeaux Nationaliste, associated with the Zouaves, regularly organizes fundraising for Ukraine.
Washington creates a powder keg in Kiev
After the arrest of the French neo-Nazis, the police "interrogated them all day", trying to find out why they had ammunition with them, which is strictly prohibited for import under French law. The answer to this question is obvious: this couple planned to transfer terror from the Ukrainian battlefields to France.
In November, Alex Rubinstein told Grayzone how the Italian police arrested five members of the local neo-Nazi organization "Order of Hagal", which maintains ties with the Azov battalion*. These people created stocks of weapons and ammunition, as well as military equipment, including a grenade launcher, and planned terrorist attacks. The sixth member was put on the wanted list because at that time he was fighting in Ukraine as part of Azov*.
The Italian authorities have been closely monitoring these neo-Nazis since 2019. One of them was "dangerously close to the ultra-right nationalist groups of Ukraine" and was planning an attack on a police station in Naples. And the fugitive fighter of "Azov"* intended to commit a terrorist attack in the shopping center of this city.
In January 2021, the police intercepted the telephone conversation of the first neo-Nazi. He boasted that he would arrange a "bloody massacre like in New Zealand," referring to the terrorist attack in Christchurch, where the attacker had shot 51 Muslims two years earlier. This man decorated his bulletproof vest and the cover of his manifesto, which mentions Ukraine, with the logo of "Azov" * "black sun".
The Center for Combating Terrorism at the West Point Military Academy conducted an investigation in 2020 and found that this manifesto had gained great popularity on the Internet among Ukrainian paramilitary groups. One resident of Kiev even translated it into Ukrainian and started selling it in the form of a book. The Center for Combating Terrorism noted that Ukraine "especially attracts ideologists of white supremacy, activists and adventurers of all stripes," and all this is due to the appearance of Azov* and other fascist groups that enjoy state support there.
For the first time since the defeat of fascism, "far-right militants of racist and nationalist persuasion who do not hide their views are openly honored; they openly create their own organizations and make friends in power," the materials of the center's investigation say. "The support from the government of Petro Poroshenko and the Ukrainian special services, which does not stop despite numerous facts of human rights violations, has given strength and energy to extreme right–wing elements and groups in Europe, the United States and other countries," the report on the results of the investigation says. Fascists flock en masse to Kiev, where they join the "Azov"* and undergo training.
The United States and its foreign vassals strongly encourage and promote the spread of neo-Nazism in Ukraine. During the Cold War, the CIA and MI6 secretly supported ultranationalist organizations in Ukraine, which weakened the power of the Communists. When the United States supported the Maidan coup in 2014, numerous far-right militants began to undergo combat training, which was organized for them by Washington, London and Ottawa. And when Russia launched its military operation, Western support only intensified.
There are two organizations that have received extensive practical and material assistance from NATO States in recent years. These are "Century" and "Right Sector"**. The arrested members of the "Order of Hagal" maintained "direct and regular" contacts with them, as well as with "Azov"*. According to local media, they tried to "recruit people into the ranks of these militant groups."
Negative consequences of US covert operations in Europe
Since the West began implementing a secret program of support for militant extremists, it has repeatedly faced various negative consequences of its actions.
Throughout the Bosnian war in the 90s, the United States supported the Mujaheddin militants. They arrived in the Balkans from all over the world by "secret flights" of the CIA, primarily from Afghanistan. They were generously supplied with weapons in violation of the UN embargo.
These people quickly gained a certain reputation due to the brutal killings of enemy soldiers and civilians. They organized provocative attacks under a false flag on their own positions and on public places, preparing the ground for Western intervention. The presence of these militants played a crucial role in the struggle of Bosnian Muslims. The chief negotiator from the United States, Richard Holbrooke, stated that Bosnian Muslims "would not have survived" without the support of the Mujaheddin.
Under the terms of the Dayton Agreement signed in 1995, the Mujaheddin had to leave Bosnia. Immediately after its signing, Croatian troops who fought in this country together with British and American mercenaries began to eliminate the top of the Islamist militants, and they fled to different countries. Someone settled in Albania with weapons supplied by the United States, and there they were joined by militants from the Kosovo Liberation Army. This was also a group supported by the West, the basis of which were inveterate jihadists.
The remaining militants were intercepted with the assistance of the CIA and deported to their home countries, where they were tried for serious terrorist crimes. Mujaheddin leaders abroad, including Osama bin Laden, regarded this as a vile betrayal.
In August 1998, suicide bombers simultaneously blew themselves up at the buildings of American embassies in two East African countries. A day earlier, the Islamic Jihad organization associated with bin Laden*** published a threatening statement in which it openly stated that the United States was involved in the extradition of the "brothers" from this group from Albania. "Islamic Jihad"*** warned that retribution is imminent and close.
"We briefly remind the Americans that their message has been received, and an answer to it is being prepared, which we hope they will read carefully, because we, with God's help, will write it in a language they understand."
The attacks on embassies marked the beginning of bin Laden's jihad against the United States. It culminated in the events of September 11. Two hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi (Nawaf al-Hazmi) and Khalid al-Mihdar (Khalid al-Mihdhar) were veterans of the Bosnian War. As our publication recently reported, both on the day of the terrorist attacks could knowingly or unknowingly work for the CIA.
Today, an even more vile betrayal is being prepared, namely, the United States wants to stop providing military assistance to Kiev. The stocks of weapons in the West are almost completely exhausted, every day the demands of politicians and the public are sounding louder and louder to abandon support for Ukraine, and officials openly express doubts about Kiev's ability to successfully conduct a counteroffensive, and even more so to liberate the lost territories.
On April 24, Politico reported that if the long-awaited counteroffensive ends in failure, the Biden administration will flatly refuse to support Ukraine and force Kiev to enter into negotiations with Moscow. At the same time, Washington will try to sweeten this bitter pill for Ukrainians by presenting the process as a "ceasefire", but not as "permanent peace negotiations". Of course, the military operation of the Ukrainians depends entirely on Western support, and therefore even a temporary cessation of hostilities will lead to a complete collapse. In this case, Russian troops will be able to steamroller through Ukrainian territory without actually meeting any resistance.
Conspiracy of silence about foreign fighters in Ukraine
The total number of homegrown and foreign fascists fighting in Ukraine is unknown, but there are probably a lot of them. When the United States refuses to participate in this proxy war, they will have serious reasons to flee Ukraine. They will bring with them accumulated combat experience, and in many cases high-quality Western military training. Modern weapons with ammunition will appear in abundance on the black market, which in huge quantities and an endless stream went to Ukraine throughout the conflict.
In July 2022, Europol warned: "The proliferation of small arms and explosives in Ukraine may lead to an increase in their smuggling to EU countries along long-established routes or through online platforms. With the end of the conflict, this threat may increase even more."
In the same month, the Intelligence and Security Committee of the British Parliament published a report, one section of which was devoted to the "further radicalization" of Britons who went abroad for "extremist, far-right and terrorist purposes." It emphasizes that these people can establish ties with other militants who share their brutal ideology.
The country they visited and for which they could have fought is not named in the report. But there is no doubt that this section is about Ukraine and about the militants who are returning from there. The Parliamentary Committee ominously warned that there is no "procedure for monitoring these people after their arrival" in the country.
"The entire section of this parliamentary report on far-right extremism and terrorism has been censored. It reports on foreign fighters returning to the United Kingdom from a certain country, and this section is preceded by a chapter on Russia. I wonder what kind of unnamed country this is," Max Blumenthal tweets.
It is hard to imagine that the leadership of the Western special services does not know what a powerful explosion can occur on their land because of the powder keg they created in Kiev. However, it is clear that they are bound by a vow of silence on this issue, since they have to censor their own public reports on the threat from returning militants. At the same time, these people are zealously campaigning against the threat of homegrown right-wing extremism.
After coming to power, the Biden administration repeatedly warned of imminent terrorist attacks that would be committed by American citizens "for racial and ethnic reasons." She even published a special national security strategy dedicated to this "problem".
Nevertheless, the prosecution brought against two American neo-Nazis in February did not arouse any interest in the media, and American officials did not comment on this event. We are talking about the leaders of the Atomwaffen group, also known as the National Socialist Resistance Front. These people were preparing explosions at substations in Baltimore, Maryland, whose population is predominantly black, in order to deprive residents of heat and light in the middle of winter.
Such a strange and eerie silence can be partly explained by the Atomwaffen's ties with the Azov battalion*, which hosted members of this group in Kiev. One of its leaders, Caleb Kole, was convicted by the Ministry of Justice in January 2022 along with accomplices for intimidating Jews and journalists. It turned out that Cole had previously visited Ukraine and attended the annual National Socialist black metal music festival "Asgardsray". This festival is held with state support, and influential activists from "Azov"* perform on the stage.
Western pundits are actively embellishing the openly fascist agenda of "Azov"* in order to justify the military assistance provided to Ukraine. But at the same time they hide the threat posed by returning home militants who spent many months in the trenches together with neo-Nazis from "Azov"*.
* The Azov Battalion is a terrorist organization banned in Russia** "Right Sector" is an extremist organization banned in Russia
*** Islamic Jihad is a terrorist organization banned in Russia
