Out of harm's way. On the EU-Ukraine relations and the Tymoshenko issue

My most recent article for openDemocracy:

Out of harm's way
The moral case for releasing Yulia Tymoshenko is overwhelming. But her imprisonment might be a blessing in disguise for the Ukrainian opposition, argues Anton Shekhovtsov.

My other articles for openDemocracy:

• The West on Ukraine: when ‘anti-racism’ becomes xenophobia
• Security threats and the Ukrainian far right
• Ukraine: the far-right in parliament for the first time

Neo-Nazis, Svoboda's new European friends

After the Svoboda party had been deprived of the observer status in the Alliance of European National Movements, it started to look for new European connections. Eventually, the party found new comrades, and, ironically, they suit Svoboda even better than the AENM! Because they are neo-Nazis.

On 23-24 March 2013, Svoboda's member Taras Osaulenko took part in the conference "Vision Europa" organised by the Party of the Swedes (Sweden) founded in 2008 by members of the National Socialist Front. The main speaker at the conference appeared to be Udo Pastörs, deputy leader of the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), two members of which now stand trial in Germany for their support of the terrorist National Socialist Underground. Another speaker at the conference was Roberto Fiore, leader of the fascist New Force.

"Russian and Soviet nationalism in Ukraine"

In the abstract of his paper "Contemporary Nationalism in Ukraine", presented at the Harriman Institute's workshop on Ukrainian and Russian nationalisms, Taras Kuzio writes:

The third section analyses Russian and Soviet nationalism in Ukraine. Skinheads and Nazi parties and movements are included in my analysis of Russian and Soviet Nationalism because they do not espouse ethnic Ukrainian nationalist ideologies but instead propagate eclectic combinations of Ukrainian state nationalism, anti-Americanism and pan-Slavism.

The combination of "Ukrainian state nationalism, anti-Americanism and pan-Slavism" is now allegedly called "Russian and Soviet Nationalism"...

More on academic fraudster Taras Kuzio

In the same article in The Ukrainian Weekly, Kuzio writes:

More bizarre was Shekhovtsov’s attempt to downplay the murder of two Ukrainian nationalists in Ukraine when I discussed the absence of any murders of Russian nationalist counterparts in Ukraine.  Shekhovtsov came as close as I have ever heard anyone say that the murder in Odessa was undertaken by an "anti-fascist" defending himself against a "fascist" Maksym Chayka (in other words, that it was justified).  Shekhovtsov ignored the fact that the murderer was a member of the national Bolshevik Rodina Party which has ties to local organized crime and was funded by Russian intelligence services (two Russian diplomats were expelled from Ukraine in summer 2009 for providing covert support to extremist and separatist groups in Odessa and Crimea).

I never justified the murder of Maksym Chayka, so Kuzio is lying again. For some reason, Chayka provides some kind of fascination to Kuzio. He refers to him as "member of the patriotic youth movement Sich Maksym Chaika". See here and here. Posted below are three pictures of the "patriot" Maksym Chayka (on the left in all pictures):

On Taras Kuzio, an academic fraudster

Commenting on the workshop "Russian and Ukrainian Nationalism: Entangled Histories" that took place at Columbia University's Harriman Institute on 22-23 April 2013, Taras Kuzio, one of the participants, published an article in The Ukrainian Weekly (No. 20, 19 May 2013). In this article, he, in particular, writes:

"Another workshop presenter, Anton Shekhovtsov (Vienna Institute for Human Sciences) — who although from Sevastopol, which has the greatest number of xenophobes and extremists in Ukraine — focused his entire talk instead on Western Ukraine and "Svoboda."  He refuses to accept the existence of xenophobia, racism and anti-Semitism anywhere in Ukraine, except that which may be found in Western Ukraine.  Because he had not read my paper prior to the workshop, I had to repeat what was there, namely:  the US State Department, Council of Europe, US diplomatic cables (Wikileaks) and the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) have reported the highest levels of xenophobia in Ukraine are to be found in Crimea, and that the greatest number of skinheads is found in Eastern Ukraine (usually with ties to Russia)."

This is essentially a lie. Or really bad research, which is worse.

No Platform!

В контексте скандала с присуждением премии "The Bobs" украинской праворадикальной блоггерше, публикую часть Введения к одной из своих статей, которая в скором времени будет опубликована на украинском языке в журнале "Україна Модерна".

В европейских либеральных демократиях крайне правые партии чаще других сталкиваются с проблемой легитимности на самых разных уровнях – от юридического и политического до социального и культурного. В 1989 году крупнейшие бельгийские партии ввели в политический лексикон понятие «санитарный кордон» (фр. cordon sanitaire), которое предусматривало отказ от какого-либо сотрудничества умеренных партий с набиравшим тогда популярность праворадикальным «Фламандским блоком» (Vlaams Blok). Несмотря на то, что понятие «санитарного кордона» было введено в отношении крайне правых впервые в 1989 году, подобная практика не была новой. Такой «кордон», например, существовал в Норвегии относительно Партии прогресса (Fremskrittspartiet) с момента ее основания в 1973 году вплоть до недавнего времени.

Conference: Fascist Ideologues Past and Present, Teesside University, 4-5 July 2013

Conference: Fascist Ideologues Past and Present
Teesside University
4-5 July 2013

This groundbreaking conference will present a variety of perspectives on leading fascist and far-right ideologues. Focussing upon the historical impact and contemporary influence of key radical right figures and 'intellectual' trends, such as transnationalism, metapolitics and White Power music, this event promises to bring together cutting-edge themes and speakers over two days of academic discussion.

With contributions ranging from internationally-renowned researchers to British postgraduates, this event is intended to serve several purposes: to examine the continuities and changes to (neo-)fascist ideology over the last century; to present reports and interviews on key aspects of the contemporary far-right – especially regarding the turn toward anti-Muslim prejudice and responses to Britain's PREVENT strategy – and more generally, to formally launch the UK's first research centre dedicated to these issues: the Centre for Fascist, Anti-fascist and Post-fascist studies at Teesside University.