OPERATION NOVOROSSIYA: Part 4 of 6: Strange Bedfellows
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| Throughout the years Ukrainian and Russian far right have made for strange bedfellows and questionable relationships |
To quote the worlds authority on far right and Neo Nazis movements, Anton Shekhovtsov:
"If Neo Nazis did not exist, the Kremlin would have to invent them"
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| UNA-UNSO (Ukrainian and Russian nationalists fighting together in Transnistria) |
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| Strange Bedfellows, The 1991-92 Transnistrian conflict, UNA-UNSO leader/commander and ex KGB agent Dmytro Korchynskyy (more on him later)who is considerd the founding father of the modern Ukrainian Neo Nazi movement, as well as an FSB informant. This conflict was a strange instance of Ukrainian nationalists and Russian Federation nationalists fighting alongside each other, including the former Defence Minister of the DNR Igor Girkin a famed extremist who was recently confirmed to be a veteran FSB Colonel |
The Bandera Problem?
The far right of Ukraine was always a base for Stepan Bandera style, Western Ukrainian ideology. Bandera's beliefs were first and foremost anti-Russian and anti-communist. He too fell victim to the anti-semitic rhetoric that was being parroted across Europe and particularly in Germany as well with the Russian elites. Bandera became radicalized in College in Lviv becoming a product of his time and was a violent and ruthless nationalist. After the 4 million deaths due to Lysenkoism and Stalin's policies of Holodomor in 1932-33, Bandera took offense to the Soviet Bolshevik commanders that implemented the theft of Ukrainian agriculture, resulting in the starvation of the Ukrainian people, forcing complete madness onto the Ukrainian land, including forcing cannibalism in some remote parts of Western Ukraine. Bandera also blamed the Jewish commanded units of the NKVD (Soviet Secret Police) for the massacres of the Ukrainians. The outbreak of world war in September 1939 released Bandera from the Polish prison where he was supposed to spend the rest of his life on convictions for political murders. Two years later, on 30 June, 1941 Bandera and fellow OUN member Yaroslav Stetsko attempted to proclaim a new Ukrainian state in Nazi-occupied Lviv, but were quickly arrested by the Germans and spent the rest of the war in detention. His followers at the OUN blamed fellow Ukrainians, including many Jews who collaborated with the NKVD with the murders of thousands of Ukrainians and grouped them in with the Bolshevik Soviets, forcing swift and brutal retribution of any suspected traitors or Russian sympathizers.
The number of Nazi collaborators in Ukraine is to this day an open debate. However, the percentage of Ukraine's population was on par with any other European country during WW2. Soviet propaganda trying to paint a picture of ALL Ukrainians as Nazi supporters while conveniently washing away Russia's own partnership with Hitler. The fact is the Soviet Union had over 1 million Nazi collaborators inside their range of influence, maybe only 150-200k of those were from Ukraine. History also negates to mention that the Nazi party itself was formed thanks to the antisemtic ideology of the Russian White Movement emigre that exiled during the Red Revolution from 1917-23.
The Nazis first ideologist was a xenophobic, far-right exile from St. Petersburg named Alfred Rosenberg, whom Hitler placed in control of the Party after the putsch. Fyodor Viktorivich Vinberg, a Black Hundred monarchist who called for "Aryan peoples" to unite against the "Jewish plan for world domination". For Russia, he advocated a return to the strong authority of the Tsar, which he hoped to restore, with German help. Another famous Russian-National-Socialist is Putins favorite philosopher Ivan Ilyin, who famously believed Nazism was the perfect political ideology for Russia, but Hitler was not a competent leader, that destroyed the political movement. It was the Russian White emigre who first published the most controversial pieces of literature in history: Protocols of The Learned Elders of Zion, the fake anti semitic conspiracy novel compiled by an Okhrana agent Alina Glinka as a parody against the Jewish plan to take over the world. The text was carried along to Germany and assumed a new purpose. Until then, The Protocols had remained obscure; it now became an instrument for blaming Jews and liberals for corrupting the globe. It became a favorite of Hitlers and became assigned reading in Nazi Germany in 1935 and is still propagated as truth in many Russian, Neo Nazi, Islamic and occult circles
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"if the Bolshevik Revolution had not occurred, the Nazi Party would not have existed in the form that it did, if at all, and likely would not have come to power in Germany, but it can lead one to consider the Holocaust as a mere German reaction to foreign developments."
Even the Nazi occult connection can be traced back to the 19th century Russian New Age movement that birthed the global theosophical movement and the secret societies that evolved from the writings of notorious antisemitic, Russian mystic, Madame Helena Blavatsky. The Nazi's also were heavily devoted to the teachings of Georgian-born Russian mystic Georg Gurdjieff and the Fourth Way philosophy. The antisemitic conspiracy movement in the Russian empire was a clear use of Maskirovka to achieve a result and to push a narrative. The first ethnic cleansings and pogroms were started by The Black Hundreds/Union Of Russian People, with the blessings of the Russian Orthodox Church. The KGB manipulation of the history of Ukraine and Bandera in the 1960s can be viewed as almost an exact reflection of their conspiracy propaganda used against the Jews decades earlier.
` Regardless of the realities of history, every story is different depending on which country controls the narrative and is always told through the eyes of the victor. Ukraine's narrative was never offered due to the result of the Soviet pacification of Ukraine after WW2. Russian history always leaves out certain parts of history to strengthen its cause. One of the forgotten WW2 facts, not available to Soviets until after 1992 was that it was Germany's decision to go back on their word that led to the Ukrainian revolt against the Nazis, with Bandera establishing the Ukrainian nationalist organization names UPA or the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. A formidable guerilla group that took on the Germans and the Soviets. Only Melnyk and his small fringe of OUN loyalists actually fought alongside the Nazis. Bandera's support for Partisans across Europe ended in his arrest and placement in a concentration camp, but ended up being released in a last ditch effort before wars end in order to have Bandera's follower fight against the Soviets. After the war Bandera would later become an intricate ally to CIA, MI6 and W. Germanys BUD. Providing critical intelligence against the Soviets as well as being a formidable foe. “Bandera,” said one CIA report from 1948, “is by nature a political intransigent of great personal ambition [who] has…opposed all political organizations in the emigration which favor a representative form of government in Ukraine, as opposed to a mono-party, OUN/Bandera regime.”
Todays Ukrainian Banderists cherry pick his Nationalist anti-Russian views while limiting Ukrainian participation in the Germans Ghetto camps, stating Stalin killed just as many Jews and 4 times as many Ukrainians. Bandera was assassinated (poisoned) by the KGB at the age of 50. "Banderism" was a term invented in the 60s in the Soviet Union, used to degrade all Ukrainians as anti semites and ruthless warmongers that do not deserve sovereignty. Russian Jewish diaspora in America started a huge wave of racism against Ukrainians after the fall of Soviet Union. This supposed Russian Ukrainophobia is sometimes taken as a starting point for antisemitism among Ukrainian right-wing groups. One example is the repeated reference to the CBS television program The Ugly Face of Freedom, which aired in 1994 and presented Ukrainians in general as collaborators, as an example of purportedly Russian Jewish-led anti-Ukrainian propaganda in the United States.
In 2014 a rupture occurred in Ukrainian politics that lead to the resurgence of Bandera in the discussion of what constitutes Ukrainian national identity. Some of those in the western territories of the country wanted to use Bandera to try to build up the legacy of Ukraine as being separate from the Soviet Union and Russia. Others, namely members of radical rightwing Ukrainian political parties and affiliations, worship him as a fascist icon while marching through the streets of cities with banners that evoke Nazi imagery. For the Russians (and most eastern Ukrainians), this twofold use of Bandera’s image allowed them to cast all Ukrainian nationalists as Nazis or Nazi sympathizers, drawing a direct line back to the partisans fighting in Ukraine during and after the end of WWII. They could argue that the nationalists are just as threatening now as they were back in the 1940s. His image casts a long shadow over contemporary Ukrainian politics. He has been embraced by many Western Ukrainians and much of the government as a national hero to be honored and glorified. However, in Eastern Ukraine and Russia he is constantly shown as a Nazi collaborator in an attempt to delegitimize the Ukrainian government, the members of which are simultaneously called “Banderites” (meant to signify them as Nazis)
In the subconscious conception of an ordinary Russian, a “Banderist” is an “anti-ideal” of Ukraine, the living embodiment of “bad Ukraine”, which differs from the ideal of “good Ukraine”, or Little Russia, which is under the complete political and mental control of Moscow, irrespective of whether it is a Russian province or protectorate, or a “self-governing” country (the level of whose independence is still determined by Moscow)
The of image of a “Banderist”, which is very questionable in its essence and needs to generate fear, hatred and repulsion even on the level of physiological reflexes, is, at the same time, remarkably well-suited for the current anti-Ukrainian propaganda, where the Banderist is depicted as a peculiar boogeyman for the Russians of the Russian Federation and Ukraine as well as some of the Ukrainians in Eastern and Southern Ukraine. In their interpretations and most (practically all) Russian publications, the Banderists are depicted as the inventors of the most unimaginable forms of torture (though in reality, they themselves were mostly the victims), possessors of animal instincts, and specialists in all kinds of humiliation against the Russians, Jews and Poles.
Svoboda
The parliament party that later became Svoboda was established in 1991 in Western Ukraine (Lviv) under the name Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU). It changed its name in 2004 and became Svaboda (All Ukraine Union) and became the first official Ukrainian far-right political party. It was founded by representatives of the local branches of the Afghanistan Veterans Organization. During the 1990s and early 2000s the party when it was still called SNPU was mainly engaged in non-electoral activities in Western Ukraine, providing security and protesting language and cultural issues. It would later be merged with political foes from Azov and National Corp in 2016, thanks to the underlying support from Azov co-founder Andrey Biletsky. Among the formations of these parties was the massive influx of Russian anti Kremlin nationalists with links to FSB: Pyotr Khomyakov, the ideological mastermind of the Northern Brotherhood (Severnoe bratstvo), Yuri Belyaev, the leader of the neo-Nazi Freedom Party, Alexander Parinov and Alexei Korshunov, former members of the neo-Nazi groups United Brigades-88 (Ob’edinennye Brigady-88, OB-88) and BORN co-founder Nikita Tikhonov, who was convicted for the murders of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova. One other individual was Mikhail Oreshnikov (co founder) of The Misanthropic Division (we will cover his story in Part 5).
The year 2004 you may note was a popular year for the awakening of Ukrainian far right and it's no coincidence that “Operation Novorossiya” was launched the same year. The Orange Revolution would be a huge slap in the face for Putin and FSB's political aspirations in Ukraine. It would also prove that, if Ukrainians, who (according to Putin) are themselves just "Russians", could start formulating a pro-Western mindset, both politically and independently, and are given a voice and choices of leadership, then most certainly, the average Russian Muscovite could as well. Putin's only goal after 2004, was to make sure Ukraine would never influence a color revolution in Russia ever again. Putin would bring on staunch loyalist and inventor of "Putinism"; Vladislav Surkov to resurrect the ancient Russian art of Maskirovka, and Lefebvre's strategy of Reflexive Control would be once again, the main modus operandi for Russian intelligence operating in Ukraine.
Dark money flowed from the Kremlin to support Ukrainian opposition parties. (both pro and anti Russian). Despite the rise in nationalism, however, Svoboda never took hold as a political movement. It peaked in 2012 when it passed into the Verkhova Rada with 10.4% of the vote. This remains today the, by far, best national electoral result of a far-right organization in post-Soviet Ukrainian history (compared to 2.2% in 2020). Svoboda's rise in Ukraine came in conjunction with the election of Viktor Yanukovych.
The most interesting part of Svoboda's rise was how they got there in the first place. In 2016 a bombshell investigation by Ukrainian journalist Sergey Leshchenko made public a photograph of a wire transfer of $200k from pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to the Svoboda party, making public of the suspicion of previous accusations of Yanukovych making similar payments in the years leading up to his 2010 Presidential victory. Svoboda, who was a heavy public critic and the biggest opposition to the Yanukovych administration was left in damage control, proving publicly open cooperation between Ukraine's far-right and Moscow. Yanukovych’s campaign manager was none other than infamous American political strategist Paul Manafort. It is believed Manafort, made famous for his arrest when working for the Trump administration, orchestrated the Svaboda payoffs for Yanukovych and was working under the direction of the FSB. An accusation in which followed him while working with Trump.
Manafort's relationship with Russian government-aligned interests began with his introduction to Oleg Deripaska in 2004. Since at least that time, Deripaska has acted as a proxy for the Russian state and intelligence services. Deripaska has managed and financed Kremlin-approved and -directed active measures campaigns, including information operations and election interference efforts. Deripaska has conducted these activities in an effort to install pro-Kremlin regimes, control local economies and politicians, and strengthen Kremlin aligned powerbrokers across the globe Manafort recommended, among other things, to play on political polarization in Ukraine. He seems to have recommended to the Yanukovych Party of Regions to use anti-Semitic and anti Russian rhetoric to their advantage. The tactic was intended to create a vision of crazy, radical, right-wing Nazis, posing an immediate threat to the government, threatening Western assistance as well as integration with the West. It would also start mobilizing the Yanukovych supporters from the Eastern region.
Yanukovych and the Party of Regions' support of Svoboda would not just be limited to just financial support. Manafort would secure airtime for them on local Tv talk shows, using a scare tactic to rally support for the Russian community. They would secretly push media and political contributions towards Oleg Tiahnybok, the controversial Svoboda candidate with overt extremist Neo-Nazi beliefs that would scare the nonpolitical pro-Russia community into registering to vote for Yanukovych. Manfort even planned a photo shoot for John McCain with Tyahnybok standing on the same stage during the press conference. Giving Russia propaganda a field day with the optics in the media sphere. It was Yanukovych that started leaking the Neo- Nazi narrative into the international media. The Reflexive Control strategy that Surkov implemented would successfully begin pushing the idea of Banderism and Western Ukraine ideology in Russian media. Of the 94 talk show appearances and Ukrainian media events on Russian-owned media, only 3 would be before 2009 and a total of 91 from 2009-2012. Giving Svoboda their best performance in the parliamentary elections and at the same time mobilizing a new base for Yanukovych due to the "scarecrow" effect.
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| The infamous McCain photo op. Paul Manaforts payments to Svaboda revealed that it was he who arranged that Tyahnybok would be standing directly behind McCain for his speech. Russian propaganda almost immediately ran headlines with pictures of Tyahnybok from 2004 doing a Hitler salute, back when Svaboda was a extreme far right party linked to Marie le Pen and French National Front. The hacked Botsman emails from 2019 also confirmed the FSB was in fact arranging payments to push Svaboda into Ukraine political sphere |
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Victor Medvechuk the treasonous oligarch who was slated to be named President after the 2022 invasion and (averted) coup. |
Yanukovych served as the governor of Donetsk Oblast from 1997 to 2002. He was Prime Minister from November 2002 to December 2004 and again from December 2004 to January 2005, under the notoriously corrupt President Leonid Kuchma. Yanukovych first ran for president in 2004. That time in Ukraine was swamped with Russian interference and influence. Most of the media outlets were Putin-controlled propaganda mouthpieces, that occasionally allowed right-wing anti-Russian rhetoric already pre-approved by the Kremlin and GRU. Voter intimidation, ballot stuffing, and even the poisoning of the opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko eventually led Yanukovych to victory, however, due to widespread protests of an obviously rigged election, (the Orange Revolution) a new runoff declared Yushchenko the victor. An obvious setback for Russian Intelligence, it showed that the lack of actual operatives and qualified handlers inside Ukraine led to this embarrassing failure.
In the immediate aftermath of the Orange Revolution, Deripaska contacted Manafort and directed him to begin work to rehabilitate Yanukovych and the PoR. Manafort briefed Deripaska on how to recover from this defeat and influence Ukrainian politics in a manner beneficial to both Deripaska and the Kremlin.
Paul Manafort was introduced to Deripaska through a work associate connected to Nathaniel Rothschild, a British investment fund manager and scion of the Rothschild banking dynasty. Rothchild was heavily invested in future Ukrainian business dealings and needed a Yanukovych win to proceed. In 2003 he invested in Deripaska's aluminum company RUSAL and hired Manafort to improve Russia's image in the media. Deripaska and the FSB influence campaign to fix the 2004 election failed after the runoff was announced due to irregularities, So Manafort was brought on to make sure Yanukovych would not lose again.
Manafort's objective was to avoid future events like the Orange Revolution. To do this, Manafort sought to sway the political direction of Ukraine to benefit the Party of Regions (PoR) without the heavy-handed tactics that Russia and Deripaska had used in 2004. This involved a strategy to "subtly influence the perceptions" of Western governments and create "an acceptable explanation for actions by governments not totally in concert with Western thinking". Manafort outlined this goal in a 2005 memorandum to Deripaska and Rothschild:
"We are confident that we can create the protections needed to ensure the avoidance of Orange Revolutions becoming acceptable in the West. The key is to understand the West and to use their tools to deal with the specific problems in ways that the West believes is in concert with them. Rather than attacking the West, the correct strategy can be created to embrace the West and in so doing restrict their options to ferment an atmosphere that gives hope to potential advocates of a different way"
From approximately 2004 to 2009, Manafort implemented influence operations on behalf of Deripaska, including a broad, multi-million dollar political influence campaign directed at numerous countries of interest to Deripaska and the Russian government. Pro Russian oligarchs with deep economic ties to Russia also paid Manafort tens of millions of dollars and formed strong ties with Manafort independent of Deripaska.
On directions from Moscow, Manafort hired and worked increasingly closely with Russian national, and influential intelligence officer Konstantin Kilimnik. Kilimnik became an integral part of Manafort's operations in Ukraine as well as Russia, serving as Manafort's primary liaison to Deripaska and eventually managing Manafort's day to day operations in his office in Kyiv. Proving that the Kremlins influence over Yanukovych was so direct and overt, that they did not even try to hide it. Kilimnik and Manafort formed a close, lasting relationship that endured up to the 2016 U.S. elections and beyond.
The Kovolenko Affair
Known now as the Kovalenko incident, the Kremlin along with Ukrainian pro-Kremlin forces tried to popularize an artificially created, supposedly fascist organization to discredit Ukraine’s pro-democratic electoral uprisings, liberal nationalism, and resistance against Russia. The principal protagonist of this affair was the dubious Ukrainian political activist and GRU/FSB asset Eduard Kovolenko. In the run-up to the 2004 presidential election, Kovalenko, self-proclaimed leader of the far-right party Ukrainian National Assembly (UNA), declared that he and his party would hold a march in support of Yushchenko as a presidential candidate. Yushchenko’s office immediately replied that they never needed their support and did their best to distance themselves from Kovalenko’s sordid initiative. Yet Yushchenko’s office failed to deter the operation, Kovolenko proceeded.
At the meeting that was held after the march, Kovalenko declared:
“We, the right-wing nationalist party, are supporting the only one candidate from the right-wing forces: Viktor Yushchenko. One Ukraine, one nation, one people, one president!”
Then proceeded to give a Heil Hitler Roman salute.
According to Andriy Shkil, then the actual leader of the [real] UNA-UNSO, the whole event was staged by Kremlin-financed media mogul Viktor Medvedchuk, then the Head of the Presidential Administration (under President Leonid Kuchma), who was later involved in the electoral fraud in favor of pro-Russian Yanukovych, which triggered the “Orange revolution. Medvedchuk was (and still is) also known for his close personal relations with Vladimir Putin who is the godfather of Medvedchuk’s daughter. Kovalenko’s task was simple: by giving support to Yushchenko under Nazi-like flags, he was expected to discredit the democratic candidate in the eyes of Western observers. Luckily for Yushchenko, however, the Western media largely did not buy into that frame-up and ignored it. Kovalenko was eventually outed as a Kremlin asset in 2014, after switching his Anti-Russian stance. Medvedchuk facilitated a payoff in which Kovalenko and his followers took to the streets opposing their previous (fake) support for Yushchenko leading up to the 2014 war with Russia.
The double-crossing Kovalenko was arrested by SBU after it was found he was secretly supporting pro Russia revolts calling for all Ukrainians to abstain from Military service and the fight for Donbas, claiming Ukraine was better off partnering with Putin. The courts released documents of his involvement with GRU fake far-right operations going back to 2004, including leading an operation to petition Serhei Aksyonov, the former FSB installed Crimean leader in 2014, to provide weapons and manpower to an anti Ukrainian movement.
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| Eduard Kovalenko and the Heil Hitler affair |
Kotsaba
Cases like this were not a normal occurrence in Ukraine, but not rare either. Ever since Kovalenko, cautious Ukrainians became suspicious of any nationalists that were overtly racist or violently patriotic, as throughout the years, incidents involving the most anti-Russian critics, ending up actually being pro-Russian agents of chaos were not uncommon. Other suspicious actors also evolved from the anti-war, hard left and so-called communist movements. Most notably that of Ruslan Kotsaba, a popular West Ukrainian journalist as well as a peace and anti-war activist. Kotsaba continued his work after his move to Germany, where he criticized the Zelenksy administration and called for the restructuring of the Ukrainian govt and for the elimination of the conscription policies in Ukraine. He was even nominated for the Aachen Peace prize but his nomination was withdrawn after videos were leaked of him in outlining his Anti-semitic views. Further investigation revealed his strong ties to Russian Intelligence and the DPR. Kotsaba and Koralenko cases were unique only due to their highly public trials. The arrest of Kovalenko was highly publicized due to his strong Nationalism and militant anti-Russian views, many of his supporters were involved in violent altercations and threats toward Russian-speaking Ukrainians. So news of his arrest was only seconded to the fact Zelensky included him in the prisoner exchange with the Russian government as a result of the negotiations at the Minsk Process in 2020. Unfortunately, the prisoner exchange made more news due to controversy around Volodymyr Tsemakh, a former Donbas commander implicated in the 2014 shoot-down of the Malaysian MH-17 Airliner than it did of the undercover FSB and GRU assets transferred back to Russia.
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| To show a great example of GRU Reflexive Control tactics, they occupy the ultra-Left wing as well as ultra right wing to deliver their propaganda ammunition. Ruslan Kotsaba was a prominent left-wing journalist awarded for his pacifism. You will find Russian Propaganda mixed in with Left-wing Western media which is favorable to anti-war, communist, anti-capitalis,t and therefore anti NATO. It is unknown why Kotsaba was cooperating with the FSB but it is believed to be financially motivated |
Brother Dyma
While other incidents of collaborations between Russian Nationalists and the Ukrainian far right might seem plausible in the context of their fringe elements and staggered support, the story of Dmytro Korchynsky is by far the most bizarre. Official records indicate that after being drafted in the Soviet Army in 1985, Korchynsky would go on to join the 24th motorized rifle "Iron" division of the Carpathian military district (Yavorov). However according to his memoirs, inscribed by him in the book "War in the Crowd", he said that he graduated from the Baltic Military District, allegedly as a "BMP commander - squad leader", though there is no record of him transferring districts, the transfer would be on par with KGB recruitment procedures of Ukrainians at the time.
He would go on to University in Kyiv, But instead of studying, he immediately became interested in politics: spending time at meetings of the Ukrainian Cultural Club and the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, and then began to try himself as a propagandist and organizer. However, his ideas were so outrageous, and his appeals were so radical, that they embarrassed even the most ardent "anti-Soviet" Ukrainian Nationalists.
At that time, the older Ukrainian dissidents, who united in creating first legal organizations, called people like Korchynsky, provocateurs of the KGB. Sent, according to them, with two goals: to provoke activists in the Ukrainian nationalist movement into criminal acts and to discredit their existence. The fact that Korchynsky was a provocateur of the State Security Committee, recruited either in the army or in the first year of university, was already talked about back in the late 80s.
His sudden rise to power began in 1990, starting the Ukrainian Nationalist Union (UNS) with Oleg Vitovich, going on to merge under UNA-UNSO and was widely renowned as the face and founder of the influential Bratvso party. His rise to popularity was in part due to early collaborations with Yuri Shukevich, the son of Roman Shukevich, the former commander of the UPA and Bandera's top man at OUN. Which makes it extremely puzzling that an investigation into Korchynsky unearthed a tranche of evidence linking him to Russian far-right extremist Alexander Dugin, the famous anti-Ukrainian Eurasianist and fascist ideologue. Korchynsky addressed those rumors in 2016 stating that for the few years after the Orange revolution (2005-06) Korchynsky was trying to establish a dialogue with the Russian far right, to form a union of Cossack separatism within the Russian border. He stated that this was not unusual and as crazy as it seems due to the UNA-UNSO fighting side by side with the Russians in Moldova and assisting the separation of pro-Russia Transnistria, protecting the Ukrainian population along the border. Korchynsky then fought against the Russians for the Chechen side, even overseeing the execution of Russian soldiers.
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| Dmytro Korchyns’kyy founder of the Bratstvo party |
An arrest warrant for Korchynsky was issued during the Maidan protests accusing him of firebombing the Presidential Administration building, leading the Ukrainian ultra-nationalist to slip away before the results of Maidan were not even clear. Thanks to a source within FSB, we know that Korchynsky was in fact hiding in Transnistria and Moscow in secret, with the covert help of Surkov and Russian intelligence. He ended up getting arrested in Israel on Feb 5th. What he did there, one can only guess, but he went there with the help of friends of Aleksy Arestovich and the Odessa mafia. Influential friends of Korchynsky ended up in the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs: the next day, a notice came from Kyiv that the international warrant had been removed, and he was immediately released. This close connection of the "Brotherhood" (Bratstvo) with the "best people" of Odessa became the reason for unofficial suspicions about his involvement in the events of May 2, 2014. (Recall that the identity of the mysterious armed "titushki" who then attacked the procession of pro-Ukrainian radicals and provoked the massacre remained unknown). Coincidentally at the same time when Maidan was taking a turn into revolution, Yanukovych would announce dictator rule and martial law, making the protestors "terrorists" in the eyes of the Ukrainian state.
The GRU would launch a huge media campaign, building the narrative to the Western media about the huge Neo-Nazi problem in Ukraine. The Kremlin also launched the hybrid war of disinformation to Russian State media focusing on the fact that Euromaidan was a fascist Neo-Nazi uprising backed by the United States. Pro-Russian news channels began creating the narrative of "violence against Russian-speaking Ukrainian" citizens. With a strange fixation on smaller groups like Right Sector.
With the beginning of the ATO, Korchynsky immediately took advantage of this chance to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of Ukrainian society. He and other Bratstvo activists would go on to form the short lived Jesus Christ Company, which underwent an internship as part of the Azov battalion, and then was included in the ill-fated Shakhtersk battalion - disgraced by its disbandment for looting and other crimes against the civilian population and would become known as the infamous "Tornado" Battalion. After that, a company of "brothers" was assigned to a separate battalion, which they called "Saint Mary", and included by Arsen Avakov in the National Police. But in May 2016, Korchynsky said that his guys were getting bored with serving as ordinary policemen, and therefore their battalion was “disbanding itself”.
Not much was mentioned that some of his Bratstvo members would go on to split off as pro-Russian separatists of the Varyrag and Battalion in Donetsk. Led by long-time Korchynsky loyalist and friend Aleksander Matyushin. It has been theorized that the FSB would use the cover of Korchynsky's nationalists to stage false flag attacks and as snipers coming from the pro-Maidan side of the protests, not to mention give access to infiltrators and violent altercations by FSB agent provocateurs, in order to coincide with the Kremlin propaganda discrediting the movement altogether.
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| Alexander Matyushin, a Korchynsky and Dugin protege from EYU(ESM) that went on to fight as a pro-Russian separatist with his Varyrag Battalion |
In March 2014 the SBU would make the arrest of long time Korchynsky associate Oleg Bakhtiyarov., who was a militant operative of Alexander Dugin who also trained with Matyushin at EYU/ESM. Bakhtiyarov would admit that he had amassed a group of over 200 paid extremists from Russia and Ukraine, including former members of Bratstvo and Patriots Of Ukraine, and was planning to force his way into the country’s parliament and the Cabinet building. “Bahtiyarov promised participants of the assault a cash reward up to $500 each,” according to an SBU statement released to the media. Bakhtiyarov, who was arrested on March 31, had stockpiled Molotov cocktails and was aiming to mount the assault in a bid to disrupt the presidential election scheduled for May 25.
So how did a high profile Ukrainian nationalist like Korchynsky end up cooperating with Russian state actors? Well, in 2003 Korchynsky was arrested in Moscow with infamous activist Eduard Limonov at a protest in Moscow. The Kharkiv native Limonov, who co-founded the National Bolshevik Party with Andrew Dugin, at that time was a radical anti-Kremlin mouthpiece. It is believed during the arrest, an agent of the Kremlin made Korchynsky a deal he could not refuse, and was either forced into collaboration or had a financial or beneficial goal in mind upon this initial encounter. In 2004 Korchynsky and Bratstvo publicly denounced the Orange Revolution and sided with the pro-Russia and pro-Russia side of the conflict. He was later approached in 2005 to lecture at a far-right rally in Russia which was organized by Vladislav Surkov for Putin's Nashi nationalist group.
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| Liminovs National Bolsheviks |
Limonov and Korchynsky eventually parted ways, up until the anti Putin Limonov was found in Crimea after the 2014 annexation, sprouting a new Pro Putin and Pro Kremlin ideology. Korchynsky claimed in his 2016 interview that he was no longer lecturing in Russia and assured his questionable contact with Russia was in the past, renouncing his political support of Yanukovych, implying he even set fire to anti-Ukrainian firebrand Alexander Dugin’s offices, cut all ties to his controversial participation in Russian Eurasianist Movement and has now kept to his traditional support of Ukrainian right-wing activism.
However, according to Eduard Liminov Korchynsky was responsible for recruiting (titushki) for the anti-Maidan in 2013/14. Liminov admits "Korchynsky has always been and, in my opinion, remains a friend of Alexander Dugin.”
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| Korchynsky and his deputy Aleksy Arestovich along with Alexander Dugin at RIA Novosti studios talking about the need to prevent the West from influencing Ukrainian society. Though they deny being recruited by GRU, it must be noted all their actions since 2004 have been in line with the Kremlin's best interest. |
The Crimea Affair
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| Korchynsky and Andriy Biletsky of Patriots of Ukraine |
Korchynsky, standing in front of a packed room and in front of computers and flat screens, gave a play by play status of how Russia would intend to achieve, and Ukraines response.
The war has started - we are starting to fight... In a maximum of 2 years, we will have a large-scale full-fledged conflict in Crimea." Korchynsky Dec 2008
Granted he should know, both Korchynsky and Arestovich worked with Alexander Dugin, who strategized the taking of Crimea for years. His description of how it will happen is indeed almost exactly how events unfolded in 2014. Arestovich explained that Russian hybrid measures will begin a "drip" propaganda campaign, (leading to the eventual annexation) that in 2 to 4 years would become a flood of pro-Russian sentiment in the region.
Korchynsky laid out the Russian plan:
"1) After the illegal referendum, local leadership declares independence from Ukraine.
2) The Ukrainian authorities will be provoked to take forceful measures, the introduction of internal troops, etc.
3) The separatists then appeal to the leadership of Russia for help. At the same time Ukrainian security forces in Crimea are offered to side with the Russians (they are bought off), measures then implemented to sway the Crimean Tatars to their side,
4) Ukrainian military units are blocked, local territorial defense units are created.
5) the propaganda campaign in the Russian mass media is intensifying
These actions will ensure the introduction of Russian special-purpose units to the territory of Crimea"
Ukraine will not be able to beat Russia in a head-on battle for Crimea, whats left of the Ukrainian army that wasn't bought off or blackmailed would most likely not be in a mental state to start shooting at their comrades. It would be entirely up to volunteer territorial defense forces to defend Ukraine.
Arestovich also explained that the number one priority in any action in Crimea would begin with protecting the Russian-speaking community because most definitely the Crimean Tatars would start the slaughter of Russian speakers.
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Korchynsky and Arestovich explained the only way to prevent the inevitable invasion, they would need to "Hezbollize" the volunteer defense forces with the use of small 5-10 man groups to begin terrorist activities in Crimea, Ukraine and Russia. The main goal was to instigate terrorist attacks on Russian oil pipelines, businesses, petrol stations, communications, trains railways while implementing a 10 year moratorium on elections. Arestovich went on to tell the stunned crowd that he has made a list of businesses that he would provide to the press and to any 5-10 man group in Ukraine that is willing to blow up Russian businesses.
Guerrilla tactics are suicidal tactics. People who dared to do this should report to themselves that 80 percent of them will die... But we should all know that those people who die in battle (in a very serious and lyrical tone ) will be in Valhalla in 15 minutes, sitting for one table with the heroes. - Korchynsky
To say Korchynsky’s press conference raised some eyebrows is an understatement. Many re-examined how was it that Korchynsky and Arestovich were free to travel to Russia and back without being arrested by the FSB. Korchynsky, who was listed an enemy combatant in Russia and Arestovich, an agent for Ukrainian military Intelligence (GUR MO). Some Ukrainain and non-critical thinkers within the public looked at Korchynsky as a brilliant strategist, who is just offering the truth. Even so, why was it necessary to make a Broadway spectacle of what can only be described as an Intelligence briefing? Indeed such strategies and intentions should most certainly be best kept within a small trusted circle, what was the point of inviting the press and media?
Indeed as many feared, Russia used this press conference as a rationalization for invading Crimea. Russian media would announce that suicidal Banderists Nazis are planning terrorist attacks against Russian Speakers. It would seem that Korchynsky’s idea of a "Ukrainian Hezbollah" played directly into the hands of Kremlin propagandists.
Some Ukrainians began pressuring SBU to investigate Korchynsky for this provocation. In the East, Russian speaking communities would begin to fear "Banderist Nationalists" Paranoid Afghan war veterans would begin joining self defense along with local chapters of RNE and volunteer units backed by Russia. By 2010 it would seem no other political party would benefit more from this rhetoric than Yanukovych's Party of Regions. Ironically, Korchynsky's benefactor and co-presenter at the conference Yuri Zbitnev of New Force, was a close ally of Viktor Medvechuk and would go on to make millions through Yanukovych-backed business partnerships. Patriots Of Ukraine would also be questioned, their Neo Nazi actions would play right into the hands of Kremlin propaganda. However investigative journalists would reveal that the Patriots Of Ukraine were overseen by Yanukovych loyalist and former SBU Lieutenant General Anatoly Prysiazhniuk. Biletsky would also be legally represented by Party Of Regions MP Vasyl Hara. Yanukovych, trying to avoid scandal would order the arrests of Biletsky and several of his comrades.
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| Yuri Zbitnev |
Ilya Kiva
The most recent example of the Kremlin's deep infiltration of Ukrainian far right would be the rambling corruption shitshow that is Ilia Kiva, the former owner of Kyiv Sports club, a former Verkhovna Rada deputy and regional leader for Right Sector, that was involved in the failed coup attempt after the Feb 2022 invasion, and has since then, run to Russia to become a sought after propagandist on Russian State media. Kiva's transformation from a MP into a genocide supporting, "Ukraine is a Nazi state, controlled by a gay Jewish cabal, run by bio-lab NATO Polish mercenaries", Russian cheerleader, would be plotline for a Hollywood comedy if it wasn't such a scary insight into the Kremlins outright contempt for stability in Ukraine.
Kiva is another product of the Arsen Avakov corruption conveyer belt. Avakov, the former Interior Minister who is famously known for his Anti-Russian, nationalist rhetoric and the creation and oversight of Azov as a National Guard unit, who at the same time took payoffs from FSB and covered up numerous racketeering operations. Kyva previously worked as a regional Deputy Chief for Avakov in Dec of 2014, and before served as the commander for the Patrol Police in the Poltova region. In March of 2014 he served as director of Right Sector in Poltova region in East Ukraine, which included Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk, and was in charge of Right Sectors Dimtry Yarosh political campaigns in the region. Which we now know as all an FSB run plotline to scare the Eastern pro-Russian population into believing that fascists were in control in Kyiv. He would also be responsible in the creation of the controversial Mytrovets (peacekeeper) web-site in 2014 which he was the first to use in an unofficial role publically. He would recently go on Russian state propaganda, promoting the site as hit list used by the Zelensky administration.
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| Kiva and far right politician Oleg Lyashko, with Andri Biletsky in the back. Before Kiva became a stooge for Putin's propaganda |
It is no wonder that Kiva was working with the FSB, and it is believed the recruitment happened through Dymtro Korchynsky, whom he openly called a great friend an a "teacher". In 2017 he joined the Socialist party and openly called for violence against Kremlin supporters, claiming he was planning operations under Avakov and Korchynsky. So it was a little puzzling for the public that after his failed run for president, he would announce his partnership with FSB-controlled, Putin ally: Viktor Medvedchuk in 2019 by joining his Opposition platform "For Life". Kiva began hosting a weekly show on ZIK tv, which was owned by Medvechuk and started recruiting his own paramilitary group in 2019, which included former Neo Nazis from Russia and ex-Azov members called Patriots For Life and had numerous clashes with Azov Movement and National Corp, who were run by infamous FSB agent and Azov co-founder Sergey Botsman Korokhtik. The next few years he would be involved in a series of scandals and media embarrassments. He would high tail it out of Ukraine before the attempted coup in Feb 2022. However the details of how the coup was averted are still confidential, all that is certain is that Kiva made his way to Moscow from Spain after cashing out on his corrupt operations in Kyiv, where he was involved in black market smuggling of pharmaceuticals with the son of Arsen Avakov, Olexander. But it is known that he still made a nice percentage of sales of certain pharma drugs sold by FSB-run company Khimprom, and he still owns a few laboratories still operating outside of Kyiv today. All under the watchful eye of Avakov and his son, but at the same time ignored by the police and current administration.
Ilya currently resides in the Moscow region in a place called Agalarov Estate, a gate community for the uber elite of Russian high society, with perfect gardens and personal landscapers, close enough from which it is most convenient to broadcast about “bad” Ukraine, "evil" NATO and idolize Putin while drinking Pérignon with Khimprom drug money. As the name suggests, the complex belongs to Agalarov - a Russian-Azerbaijani billionaire. Often Kiva is promoted on Russian State TV which is based in the Ostankino TV Tower.
These are just a few examples of the Kremlin's Reflexive strategy in Ukraine and their modus operandi in direct influence campaigns buried deep inside the right wing movements and political appointees. Proving once again that Russia's arms of corruption and Kremlins intelligence agencies still have their grip to the most ardent Ukrainian politicians and overt anti Russian nationalists. However nothing was as more confusing and controversial than the birth of the Azov Movement,
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Part 5: AZOV: The Russian Mirror
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