Corruption in Ukraine Results in Nazis Attacking Russia with NATO Weapons
Corruption in Ukraine Results in Nazis Attacking Russia with NATO Weapons
Belgorod: A clarification of some confusion in the MSM
[Image: a graphic from an Al Jazeera article covering the first attack in Belgorod.]
Published: 2023-06-17
As usual, you don’t need to worry about all of the links, they are all collected below in the Sources section.
Belgorod
A sequence or attacks by two para-military groups, the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC, or RDK from Russian) and Freedom of Russia Legion (FRL) occurred on Monday 2023-05-22 in the border region of the Russian Federation, Belgorod Oblast. Initial reports by western media during the next few days struggled to inform their readership of who these para-military groups were, or more precisely their ideological motivation for involving themselves in the conflict, and doing so not on the front lines, but within Russia proper.
These two relatively small units’ incursion into Russia was obviously not to open a new front. So the activity contributes not to Ukraine's battles to regain territories within the 2014 boundaries of Ukraine but towards different objectives. One is to expose that Russia is vulnerable to these asymmetric attacks, which places pressure on Russia to deploy military forces in excess of the small attacking groups to defend against these probes. The second is a public relations/narrative thrust, and one which rather backfired.
The interest for this news consumer was the shift in how the story was being reported in the media across a two week period.
Phase 1
The early reports were all of the "what we know" variety, where the western media collective admit that they have no idea, despite having had days to do the research. These are best typified by the BBC with "Belgorod raid: Who are the fighters infiltrating Russia from Ukraine?" and CNN with "Anti-Putin Russians say they launched a cross-border attack from Ukraine. Here’s what we know".
On the 23rd the BBC informs that one of the two groups is part of "an international legion involved in Ukraine's territorial defence" which is obviously BS because they are not defending Ukraine but attacking Russia. They then admit that they've no idea by asserting two contradictory statements at once:
Unconfirmed Russian reports spoke of shooting, casualties and hostages while the RDK said it had crossed the border to call on Russians to rebel against their government. The group [the RDK] said it had taken no hostages and retreated safely on to Ukrainian territory.
On the 24th CNN still has no idea "who dunnit" with:
But questions linger about the groups behind the attack ...
Meanwhile, Newsweek on the 23rd in "Pillaging Inside Russia as Defectors Claim to Have Taken 'Trophy Equipment'" characterizes the attackers as:
A Russian anti-Vladimir Putin militia that crossed into the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine on Monday ...
Reuters' article on the 23rd, "Who are the Freedom of Russia Legion and other armed fighters in Belgorod?" identifies the two groups and provides some background on them. RVC (or RDK) "was founded by a far-right Russian national last August and comprises Russians who have been fighting in and for Ukraine against their own country". They mention that the RVC has "claimed responsibility for a raid there in March as well as the incursion into Belgorod". By there, they mean the March raid into Bryansk.
Reuters are careful to distance the RVC from Ukraine's forces mentioning but not directly quoting a Ukrainian military intelligence official who says “the RVC is an independent underground group inside Russia that also has a unit in the Ukrainian Foreign Legion" and following that directly with "The Foreign Legion says it has nothing to do with the RVC" which again muddies the waters about who is what, and who reports to whom and thus who is responsible for all this. Reuters implies that they don't know either.
Reuters continues, and provides a description of the “other” group, the FRL, a sub-component of the “Foreign Legions” fighting for Ukraine. Yeah, I know, its all rather confusing.
The Freedom of Russia Legion says it was formed in spring 2022 "out of the wish of Russians to fight in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine against Putin's armed gang".
It says it cooperates with the Ukrainian armed forces and operates under Ukrainian command. It has claimed responsibility for the attack in Belgorod and says it has been fighting in eastern Ukraine.
With that, we get that one of the two groups which attacked inside Russian territory “operates under Ukrainian command”. It is this point which Dave DeCamp zooms in on immediately, as we shall see.
[Image: The RVC posing with flags for the cameras. From one of the Newsweek articles.]
Narratives
So, two narratives are established. On the one hand its "Anti-Putin Russians" some of which are under the command of the Ukrainian military and on the other hand its "we don't know". Perhaps you can see why I took an interest in this story, and why I had to sit on it for so long to get my “sourcing” ducks in a row.
Over at Antiwar there is no confusion whatsoever. On the 23rd Dave DeCamp leads with "Neo-Nazi Militia Used US Armored Vehicles in Attack on Russia’s Belgorod Region" followed up on the same day with "Russia Says It Defeated Ukrainian Sabotage Group in Belgorod" thus describing the militia as neo-Nazi saboteurs and perhaps more interestingly raising the spectre of these neo-Nazi fighters are using US equipment to directly attack Russia, and thus contravening the US restrictions that are theoretically in place for the use of said equipment.
So now, we've got two interesting things occurring. The western media are obfuscating who has just attacked Belgorod, and it may well be the case that these groups are using US/NATO military equipment to attack Russia itself. This second point harks back to the corruption which is endemic in the supply of military hardware to Ukraine. It could end up anywhere, as we've seen recently with a multiple-rocket launcher in the hands of a Mexican drug cartel. So why not a bunch of Nazi's attacking Russia?
This point, the risk implicit in the lack of control of the military hardware supplied to Ukraine, has been in the back of my mind since it was raised by a secondary student at a Peace Conference I covered close to the beginning of Russia’s direct entry into this conflict. If one thinks about it, it raises the likelihood of asymmetric warfare which is politically labelled as terrorism. This, in turn, provides justification for increases in “security” funding, reductions of civil rights and the spending of money on military hardware which circles back to the blood-soaked arms manufactures. Its a self licking icecream of weapons funding and civil liberty reduction.
Phase 2
It all would have been fine to leave the situation in this confusing muddle, but the bloody Nazi saboteurs, armed with some heavy equipment, refused to sit down and shut up. Instead they launched another series of attacks a week later. "God dammit, now we've got to report more accurately on this", think the editors at the western MSM.
Newsweek, on June 1st, published "Troops Cross Into Russia as Putin's Army Fights To Defend Belgorod—Report" opening with:
Russian fighters serving under the Ukrainian Armed Forces have crossed into the town of Shebekino in Russia's Belgorod region, bringing "heavy equipment" with them
quoting Ilya Ponomarev, an exiled Russian politician—who says he is the political representative for the FRL and "the only member of the Russian parliament to vote against Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014".
The Newsweek piece has a distinct echo of the "funding and arming moderate rebels" line run up the pole during the Syrian proxy war. It portrays the militia fighters as “freedom fighters”.
"Very soon we will advance again into Russian territory to bring freedom, peace, and calm," the Legion said, adding: "We are going to liberate the whole of Russia—from Belgorod to Vladivostok, in order to have a white-blue-white flag of freedom flying in Moscow."
Over at Antiwar, Dave DeCamp is having none of it and is just reporting the activity with "Russia Says It Repelled Another Cross-Border Raid in Belgorod" in which he identifies the two groups and names Dennis Nikitin, "a well-known white nationalist", as the leader of the RVC. Again DeCamp spots the political challenge involved in the activity but is careful not to overplay it with "There hasn’t been any sign yet that Thursday’s attack was carried out with US weapons" though concludes with a quote-of-the-week candidate:
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday that President Biden’s opposition to signing off on US arms being used on Russia is rooted in his desire to “avoid World War III.”
Any uncertainty about whether US weapons were used by the "white nationalists" (aka Nazis) evaporated 3 days later on June 4th with "US Officials Confirm NATO Weapons Were Used in Attack on Russia’s Belgorod Oblast". This is for the first of the two attacks, on May 22nd, but it doesn't really matter. The headline could have read:
“Corruption in Ukraine Results in Nazi's Attacking Russia with NATO Weapons”
so I’ve use that for this piece.
Commentary
In the outer-commentary world the first 'nuanced' approach to the Nazi attack on Belgorod, Russia was by Prof. Paul Robinson in Canadian Dimension published on May 25th. Robinson does not beat around the bush with "Why are Russian neo-Nazis fighting Putin?" A week after the second attack, on June 7th, an essay by Patrick Lawrence is published by Consortium News with "Neo-Nazis in Ukraine? No, Yes, No–Yes". Lawrence’s piece references an excellent piece of "here's the damn evidence" summary journalism by Joe Lauria (Editor-in-Chief of Consortium News) published at the end of 2022.
The explanation for the “who is attacking Belgorod, aaaaah, we don't know for sure” but "here's what you need to know" is as clear as daylight. Russian ethnic people have been attacked by the Nazi infested Ukrainian regime installed in a coup lead by the US's Vixen Nuland in 2014. For eight years Russian-Ukrainian untermenschen have had their markets, hospitals, kindergardens, orphanages, weddings and funerals bombed by these modern white-supremacist, Bandera worshiping Nazis. They are not "neo-Nazis", they are Nazis that just happen to have been born recently rather than go down with the Third Reich.
Russia, not the leadership, not Putin, but Russia, the Russian People, have a problem with this. The Great Patriotic War in which they defeated the last European invasion of Russia lead then by ultra-Nazi Hitler is their history. The emergence of Russia's Immortal Regiment was not some government ordained activity. It is an expression by, for and of the Russia people. They've seen this shit before, they are seeing it now, and they are not going to take it lying down.
They are not losing this war. They are winning it, and the terms of settlement will be theirs to decide. Recall the Clausewitzian doctrine of "War is politics by other means". What are their stated political goals?
Demilitarization of Ukraine
Denazificiation of Ukraine
An Empire’s Denouement
The US and its NATO allies armed the Ukrainian fascists, and Russia's people know this well. Their grandfathers fought to preserve their motherland, and woe betide any who think they will not stand up to do it again. Hence the old military doctrine echoed in “The Princess’ Bride”: do NOT fight a land war in Asia (against Russia).
Would you like in on a secret, a secret with such a sweet irony? Russia does not need to defeat Ukraine. They will take the rest of the Donbas, and rebuild and care for those people and places.
The force that defeats the Ukraine will be Europe, and a Europe lead by a united Germany and France whose people are beginning to see through this ideologically based, propaganda fueled insanity of the US feeding its weapons industries to any ally whose ideologically driven idiots can be manipulated to fight the US' wars for them.
We saw it in Syria, we're seeing it again in Ukraine, and Europe will eventually decide to not commit suicide and tell the US to piss off. We're seeing it now, as the US is pusillanimously pushing a pivot to Asia which Europe's economies cannot afford.
The reckoning is coming, US Empire. Insanity can only run so far. Your allies are about to abandon you. You can fight your wars on your own.
In fact, if NATO is not disbanded, the European political leadership might even recognize that the US is the dangerous party in NATO, not Turkiye or whoever else. It is the US which could draw them all into some suicidal defense should the US be so stupid as to push this insanity even further.
Sources
Good Commentary
Prof. Paul Robinson: Belgorod raid: Why are Russian neo-Nazis fighting Putin?, Paul Robinson, Natylie's Place: Understanding Russia, 2023-05-27
originally published at Canadian Dimension on 2023-05-25
Patrick Lawrence: Neo-Nazis in Ukraine? No, Yes, No--Yes, Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News, 2023-06-07
Including the background of:
On the Influence of Neo-Nazism in Ukraine, Joe Lauria, Consortium News, 2022-12-29
ANTIWAR
Neo-Nazi Militia Used US Armored Vehicles in Attack on Russia's Belgorod Region, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2023-05-23
Russia Says It Defeated Ukrainian Sabotage Group in Belgorod, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2023-05-23
US Says It's Investigating Reports of US Equipment Used in Belgorod Raid, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2023-05-24
Top US General: Ukraine Should Not Use US Equipment to Attack Russia, Connor Freeman, Antiwar, 2023-05-27
Russia Says It Repelled Another Cross-Border Raid in Belgorod, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2023-06-01
US Officials Confirm NATO Weapons Were Used in Attack on Russia’s Belgorod Oblast, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2023-06-04
DURAN
Belgorod reckless stunt damages collective west narrative, The Alexes, The Duran, 2023-05-23
The MSM
Anti-Putin militias mount cross-border incursion in western Russia, Isobel Koshiw, Washington Post, 2023-05-23
For Ukraine Military, Far-Right Russian Volunteers Make for Worrisome Allies, Valerie Hopkins, New York Times, 2023-05-26
Belgorod raid: Who are the fighters infiltrating Russia from Ukraine?, no author (thus "staff writers"), BBC, 2023-05-23
Belgorod: the Russian region now part of Putin’s war on Ukraine, Jonathan Yerushalmy, The Guardian (UK), 2023-05-23
Pro-Ukrainian forces ‘still fighting in Russia’s Belgorod’ despite Moscow claims, Julian Borger in Kharkiv and Pjotr Sauer, The Guardian, 2023-06-02
Anti-Putin Russians say they launched a cross-border attack from Ukraine. Here’s what we know, Rob Picheta and Nathan Hodge, CNN, 2023-05-24
Troops Cross Into Russia as Putin's Army Fights To Defend Belgorod—Report, Isabel van Brugen, Newsweek, 2023-06-01
Pillaging Inside Russia as Defectors Claim to Have Taken 'Trophy Equipment', Isabel van Brugen, Newsweek, 2023-05-23
Who are the Freedom of Russia Legion and other armed fighters in Belgorod?, No Author, Reuters, 2023-05-23
Who are the Freedom of Russia Legion and Russian Volunteer Corps?, No Author, Reuters, 2023-06-05
Culture
NENA ｜ 99 Luftballons [1983] [Offizielles HD Musikvideo], NENA, their youtube channel, uploaded 2021-04-24
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