Neo-nazi to stand for Ukrainian president

A very dangerous development.

"Support for the fascists is surging in the Ukraine. In 2006, Svoboda (the other fascist party), received .36 of 1 percent in the elections; in 2012 it became the fourth largest party in the Rada (parliament) with 10.45 percent of the vote and 37 seats out of 450. In a public opinion poll taken at the beginning of February, 54 percent said they would vote for Tyahnybok for president if he ran against Yanukovych. (The poll was held three weeks before the overthrow of Yanukovych.)"

Ukraine far-right group unveils presidential bid

Dmytro Yarosh, leader of the Pravy Sektor movement, is expected to bid for presidency and has made it clear he is ready for armed conflict with Russia

MSN,

7 March, 2014

Kiev: On Friday, Ukraine's far-right Pravy Sektor movement announced its leader, Dmytro Yarosh, would make a presidential bid in elections scheduled for May 25 and said it was ready to go to war with Russia.

The ultra-nationalist group played a crucial role in the frontlines of deadly protests that unseated former president Viktor Yanukovych last month and has been branded a neo-Nazi organisation by Russia.

Youthful members of the group profess a patriotic and religious nationalist ideology and some have been spotted brandishing fascist symbols at the main protest camp in central Kiev.

"Dmytro Yarosh will run for president," Andriy Tarasenko, a senior member of the paramilitary group, said at a press conference in Kiev, patrolled by young militants in camouflage uniforms.

A poll by the Sotsis Centre released this week said Yarosh would win just 1.6 percent of the vote if he ran, putting him in seventh place among other leading figures following Yanukovych's ouster.

But political observers say his popularity could rise as the group has been careful to distance itself from the new pro-EU authorities in Ukraine, which are struggling to avert national bankruptcy.

"There has been no reset of power. Only the names in the government offices have changed," Tarasenko said, adding: "We need a change of the system of power."

But Tarasenko stressed the group would not use "revolutionary methods" against the new pro-EU team and said the struggle had entered "a peaceful phase".

"That is why we are going into politics," he said.

An ex-Soviet soldier with a degree in Ukrainian literature, Yarosh created Pravy Sektor (Right Sector) during the anti-Yanukovych protests as an extension of his existing nationalist group Trizub.

During clashes in February that killed some 100 protesters and police officers, his name was on the lips of the most ardent protesters and his activists still patrol the barricades at the protest camp -- often in pseudo-military uniforms.

They could be seen again on Friday holding the movement's red-and-black flags near piles of flowers where many of the protesters lost their lives, asking for help in their election campaign.

'Leaders of the revolution'

Tarasenko said Pravy Sektor would also take part in mayoral elections in Kiev and local polls across Ukraine, due at the same time as the presidential vote in May.

"We remain the leaders of this revolution," said Tarasenko, adding that the movement was ready to fight if a full-scale war with Russia broke out.

"We are mobilising, we are preparing to react to foreign aggression," he said, "If the Kremlin goes further, we will fight to defend our native land."

Tarasenko said a Pravy Sektor congress to officially turn the movement into a political party would be held on March 15.

Russia this month opened a criminal investigation against Yarosh for incitement to extremism and terrorism and is seeking the paramilitary's arrest. In a rare interview with AFP last month, Yarosh denied that he was a fascist and anti-Semite, defining himself as a nationalist who wanted Ukrainians to be "masters of their own land".

Yarosh said Pravy Sektor was a "successor" to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which battled Poles, Soviet and Nazi forces in western Ukraine during and after World War II.

The UPA is hated in Poland for its campaign of slaughter against Polish civilians in the Volhynia region in 1943 and then in Galicia in 1944, now condemned as ethnic cleansing.

The rebels on occasion collaborated with occupying Nazi forces as well as fighting them and -- most controversially -- some of its members served in the Galicia branch of the SS.

Yarosh said he supported Ukraine signing an association agreement with the European Union as the new leadership is planning but drew the line at possible EU membership.

The far-right leader railed against the "Brussels monster" and its "anti-Christian and anti-national rules," saying it was responsible for a "gay dictatorship and liberal totalitarianism".

Ukraine far-right leader demands govt open arsenals for radical groups

The leader of the Ukrainian radical group Right Sector, Dmitry Yarosh, has reportedly demanded the country’s authorities open military arsenals for the group’s fighters.

RT,

7 March, 2014

This is according to an unknown source in Ukraine’s military department, as cited by ITAR-TASS.

The source also quoted Yarosh as saying the “conservative approach” of the security agencies’ chiefs doesn’t allow for order to be restored by precluding anti-Maidan rallies in eastern and southern regions of Ukraine.

In an ultimatum, Yarosh demanded that the government gives to his group the access to a part of weapons and military equipment, as well as several military training centers “for quality training for Right Sector fighters.”

“Yarosh doesn’t rule out more decisive action on Ukraine, if the government doesn’t comply with these demands,” the source indicated to ITAR-TASS.

However, Right Sector denounced the report as false.

“It’s only an attempt to discredit out organization,” the group’s press secretary, Artyom Skoropadsky, told Slon web portal.

The organization’s political council also dismissed the report in a statement it published on Right Sector’s website. The council stated that the group “operates exclusively within the legal field, despite aggressive actions by the Kremlin leadership.” The movement stated that it supports the Ukrainian government’s actions aimed at “maintaining peace and integrity of the country.”

A source in the Ukrainian government has not confirmed the information on Yarosh’s demand.

“I regularly see Yarosh, but it’s the first time I’ve heard about his demand to open the Defense Ministry’s arsenals,” the unnamed source told Slon.

It has also emerged that Yarosh is planning to run for the presidency, according to the head of his movement in Kiev.

The Right Sector movement, an amalgamation of several far-right groups, was formed in November 2013.

Members of the radical movement were very active in the violence which spurred the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovich. After the February 21 agreement between Yanukovich and opposition leaders was signed, the Right Sector declared they did not recognize it and would continue the armed struggle.

Many of its violent acts carried out by the group have been well-documented by media and published on YouTube. The fighters used clubs, petrol bombs and firearms against the Ukrainian police. Even after the coup, some members of the movement continued to use rifles and pistols.

On Wednesday, a proposal was submitted to the Ukrainian parliament suggesting that Right Sector be pronounced a regular armed unit. Coup-appointed Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk dismissed three deputy defense ministers over the refusal to support the proposal.

Also on Wednesday, Russia put Yarosh on an international wanted list and charged him with inciting terrorism after he urged the notorious Doku Umarov, one of the most-wanted terrorists in the world, to attack Russia over the Ukrainian conflict.