https://aresistance.noblogs.org/fiktivni-narodni-republiki/?fbclid=IwAR2oUsdwEsm1O2G4x86UTyGHEgSJOEd7gVxrpCK0KUg-sC_giXyOQ7iu2Cw
Αdam Clifford
One of the most common myths about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is that in 2014 a full-scale civil war broke out in eastern Ukraine, in the Donbass region. People who do not have access to Russian-language media have probably fallen victim to far-right or Stalinist pro-Putin misinformation.
There is a huge amount of data (ie even the heroes of these events themselves claim this) that show that the early stages of the conflict were not provoked by the Donbass residents themselves, but by far-right paramilitary groups composed mainly of Russian citizens.
In essence, in 2014, Russia presented the first stage of the plan:
In the initial stage, it seeks to create semi-autonomous entities ("people's republics") within Ukraine, through which to control the policies of the Ukrainian state.
And when the first stage failed, it moved on to the second, which involved annexing parts of Ukraine.
But let's start over - the war in Donbass was started by a paramilitary group of far-right fighters from Russia, which, led by Igor Strelkov Girkin (former Russian FSB officer), captured the city of Slavyansk in the Donetsk region.
A quick look at their YouTube appearances, available since April 2014, would be enough to establish that they are far-right people. At least a very large number of "separatists" who invaded eastern Ukraine for the first time from Russia can undoubtedly be described as anti-Semites, racists, monarchists, Orthodox fundamentalists, supporters of the restoration of the Russian Empire and even neo-Nazis who carry out their fantasies. with the help of the weapons they receive from Russia, and with the support of the Russian secret services.
According to Alexander Borodai (the first prime minister of the Donetsk People's Republic, whom I will discuss in more detail below), between 30,000 and 50,000 Russian volunteer fighters have passed through the People's Republic's armed forces. Examples of this can be found in the many extreme nationalist, often overtly neo-Nazi, armed groups such as the Russians, the Varyag, the Russian National Unity, and the Imperial Legion, which recruit far-right elements from all over Russia. There are also several interviews and videos of volunteers from Russia, in which they admit that the "people's militias" are composed mainly of Russian citizens. And although the number of "separatist" confessions that have emerged since then has only increased, many leftists still adhere to the "civil war" version.
And what will happen when all these fascist elements begin to occupy territories in Donbass? Among others, Vyacheslav Ponomarev, the self-proclaimed "people's mayor" of Slavyansk (appointed by the "separatists"), openly admits that he ordered pogroms against the Roma on the outskirts of the city. According to human rights activists, non-Orthodox Christians in Slavyansk were expelled, tortured and killed during the occupation. The "secular mayor" also called on Ukrainian-speaking residents of Slavyansk to "report" to the "authorities". All this makes the new "people's" authorities very unpopular with the local population, as evidenced by Girkin's desperate appearance in a video in which he complains that he cannot gather even a thousand people under his command and calls the entire male population of the region cowards.
It is also worth watching the videos from the conquest of Kramatorsk (the closest big city to Slavyansk) by a special unit, apparently composed of Russian civilians. After the occupation of the administrative buildings, several Kramatorsk residents gathered in front of them to find out who the armed men were. Shouts of "disappear" and "Ukraine" were heard from the crowd. When one of the squatters said it was "for Donbass", the residents replied: "Did you ask us? After all, we are Donbass. Who invited you here? ” As Denis Kazanski, a journalist from Donetsk, points out, the people in this video are so brave because they still don't believe that these people can shoot them.
The Russian citizen Girkin became the first Minister of Defense of the "People's Republic" of Donetsk and with each of his actions and statements made it clear that he was an Orthodox fundamentalist and monarchist who dreamed of returning Russia to its natural borders. is. within 1939. ". Girkin's goal was the realization of the Hitler-Stalin pact. The alleged "anti-fascist" Girkin spoke positively of the counter-revolutionary White Guard and adored Russia's Nazi collaborators during World War II. It is enough to know Russian and use an Internet search engine to find that Girkin is a war criminal who can boast of a long career: he fought for the Russian "separatists" in Moldova in 1992, participated in the war in Bosnia in 1994 (on the Serbian side) and finally took part in the two Chechen wars.
Girkin's articles from the Second Chechen War, which he wrote for the Russian nationalist magazine Zavtra, show that he harbored gross racial prejudices against Chechens. How many of them killed Girkin is not known; According to Russian human rights activists from the Memorial organization, the then FSB officer was involved in the abduction and murder of at least four people. An idea of his ideas about proper warfare can be found in an article he co-authored with Borodai, in which the two openly gloated over the destruction of a Dagestani village with heavy missiles.
Like Girkin, Alexander Borodai is a citizen of the Russian Federation who did not set foot in Donbass before 2014. But that will not stop him from becoming the first prime minister of the Donetsk People's Republic. And Borodai politically belongs to the Russian far right: he is a monarchist, Orthodox fundamentalist and supporter of the restoration of the tsarist empire. In the 1990s, he was the director of the Russian nationalist newspaper Zavtra, and in 2011 he founded the nationalist Internet channel Den-TV, where he often gave a platform to far-right voices such as anti-Semite Konstantin. Дусенов.
Borodai also has a long "separatist" career.
In 1992, like many other Russian citizens, he will be among the "separatists" who, with Russian military support, have placed Transnistria under Russian control. Of course, in 1992 the "reason for the invasion" was the protection of the "endangered Russian-speaking" population from "Moldovan fascism". As in the case of Georgia in 2008 or Ukraine in 2014, few moralists have bothered to look for the real reasons, but instead have chosen to believe Russian propaganda nostalgic for the USSR.
When things worsened in August 2014, the two separatist leaders returned to Moscow; The "offices" they left in the "people's republic" were occupied by local puppets. At that time, however, the war was in full swing and Russia had already deployed its tactical units on Ukrainian territory. In their own country, a luxurious life awaited them as a reward for their services. Borodai was even elected a member of the Russian parliament (the Duma) by Putin's United Russia party.
All this does not mean that before 2014 in Donbass everything was perfect, it is obvious that there were problems, but they were social and class in nature, rather than racial (as Putin's propaganda claims). And it is somewhat logical that all this zeal for the integration of the region in Russia comes not from the people, but from paramilitary far-right elements of the Russian Federation itself.
