In today’s Vatnik Soup and “Degenerate Russia” series, we’ll discuss Russia’s Nazi problem, Nazi vatniks, and the sheer absurdity of Russia’s “denazification” claims to justify its genocidal invasion of Ukraine.
Russia loves to build its whole national identity around the Soviet victory against Nazi Germany, to insane degrees of “pobedobesie” hysteria. Russians conveniently forget two things: how they actually started WWII on the side of the Nazis…
… and how their one big victory is owed to the massive help that the Soviet Union received from US and UK allies.
They also focus very narrowly on the military defeat of the Nazis, as traitors who dared invade them, instead of invading others *with* them.
Crucially, the Russian state has no objection whatsoever to any other aspect of Nazism, such as its fascistic militarization of society, indoctrination of the youth, cult of a dictatorial leader, or antisemitism…
… nor to its omnipresent meaningless symbols, and certainly not to its genocides and invasions — as long as it’s not Russia itself being invaded.
Ukraine, conversely, has low antisemitism, a pluralistic, democratic and open society, and most importantly did not invade nor genocide anyone.
Ukrainian Jewish organizations even told Putin:
“Your certainty of the growth of anti-Semitism in Ukraine also does not correspond to the actual facts. It seems you have confused Ukraine with Russia, where Jewish organizations have noticed growth in anti-Semitic tendencies.”
Russia calls Ukrainians Nazis because they see them as enemies. The rest is propaganda — they dig up some staged or edited photos of Nazis with Ukrainian flags, maybe some real ones of some insignificant cringe extremists (all countries have them).
Significantly, the photos of alleged Nazis in Ukraine are almost always anonymous, never showing any named person, let alone anyone with any political power.
Ironically, when a Nazi can be identified, it often turns out to be… a Russian Nazi, like Alexei Maximov.
Indeed, Russia has massive numbers of Nazis, active, named and identifiable, including in high political and military roles, and the Russian state actively supports and encourages them.
There’s Ivan Okhlobystin, calling for a “holy war” against the “old world” from Moscow’s Red Square. This was not a minor gathering of some extremists, but entirely condoned and organized by the Russian state.
And here he is with Malofeev and Dugin, proclaiming that “Russia is an empire, and any empire strives for expansion. And there will be no rest for us until Russia establishes its protectorate over the entire planet.”, to the enthusiastic applause of both of them, and of the audience.
There are also Russian Nazis involved in the invasion and occupation of Ukraine, such as Pavel Gubarev and Denis Pushilin (again, Nazi symbols and open genocide plans, but they’ll still call Ukrainians Nazis).
Rusich and Alexey Milchakov, who openly says “I’m a Nazi”.
Yes, Russia sent Nazis openly saying that they are Nazis to “denazify” Ukraine, a country with an elected Jewish president.
The Nazi even has a Nazi girlfriend.
There’s the Nazi-inspired Wagner criminals and war criminals, of course, who (like the original WWII Nazis!) were fully supported by the Russian state… up until they marched on Moscow.
Wagner was then reorganized and integrated with the Russian army, rebranded as the no-less-Nazi-inspired “Afrika Korps”.
And all the Western Nazis support Russia too. They regularly gather in Russia at Malofeev’s invitation.
Through its Malofeev and Duginist networks, Russia infiltrates or sponsors all sorts of far-right groups and parties in Europe, which are then endorsed by Elon Musk.
Yes, we should mention Dugin, his “red fascism”, his dreams of a Molotov-Ribbentrop redux, of destroying the West by sowing chaos, especially separatism and racial conflicts by supporting extremists from both sides, and ultimately a global empire stretching “from Vladivostok to Lisbon”.
In the US, there’s Lucas Gage and Nick Fuentes, who’s “of course pro-Putin, very pro-Russia”, and whines “I like Hitler, I do, and I’m tired of pretending I don’t”.
His Nazi buddy Andrew Anglin, who praises a Russian occupation of the USA, was also brought back on Twitter by Musk under the guise of “free speech”.
The Tates, who partied with Nick Fuentes, Clavicular and Myron Gaines (the one doing a Nazi salute). They recently visited Russia and are now in jail, awaiting extradition to the UK over dozens of criminal charges.
From Germany, Kim Schmitz (“Dotcom”), who was recently on Tucker Carlson. He’s now encouraging the Russian invasion of Europe from the far-away safety of New Zealand, pending his extradition to the US over alleged criminal copyright infringement, racketeering and wire fraud.
But before he even gets there, Kim seems awfully concerned already about “kicking Jews out of America”. His readings on the topic are his signed copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and the infamous, grotesque Russian hoax, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
From France, Alain Soral and his “Der Führer” coffee cup, now hiding in Moscow from the mean “Zionists” after being sentenced in two European countries two dozen times for his antisemitism, hate speech and Holocaust denial.
Another Nazi mug collector and Nazi apologist is Darryl Cooper, promoted by Tucker Carlson right before Kim Schmitz.
His understanding of the history of Ukraine is just as bad as his knowledge of WWII, of course.
And a vatnik like Scott Horton has no issue working with him, while screaming about “Nazis in Ukraine”.
Same with Holocaust denier Ryan Dawson and his support for “Z”, the symbol of the genocidal invasion of Ukraine, regularly whitewashed and promoted both by Russian state-media RT and “anti-war” (lol) Kremlintarians like Scott Horton.
There are many more examples. Nazis or not, we’ve souped a lot of those vatniks already, too many to link here. You can find more about them as well as deep dives and resources on the topic on our website:
Russia itself is more nihilist than either Nazi or communist at this point. The Kremlin can glorify Stalin or the Tsarist empire, defend Hitler, fascists and communists on the same day, and call whoever they decide to invade “Nazi” without seeing any contradiction.
Case in point: Nazi mass-murderer Anders Breivik (in prison), who really likes the Zwastika too, though maybe not as much as Tara Reade (now in Moscow) and her Stalinist friends.
The epitome of the vatnik horseshoe: whoever and whatever benefits Russia’s aggressive, territorial expansion, and strengthens the power of its current “tsar”.
Russia spends $5 billion a year on propaganda to manufacture passivity towards its genocidal invasions, featuring such absurdities as a peaceful, democratic country with a freely elected Jewish president needing “denazification” by Nazi-inspired Wagner criminals.
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