1. This is a good & balanced report on Chrystia Freeland's twitter account posting a photo of her with a scarf that was an emblem of the UPA, a Ukrainian fascist paramilitary group once aligned with the Nazis.https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2022/03/02/the-controversy-over-chrystia-freeland-and-the-ukrainian-scarf-explained.html?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=SocialMedia&utm_campaign=Federalpolitics&utm_content=freelandscarf&utm_source=twitter&source=torontostar&utm_medium=SocialMedia&utm_campaign=&utm_campaign_id=&utm_content= …
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4. Is it true that KGB in past and Putin now try to smear all Ukrainian nationalism as fascistic. Yes, absolutely. But are all attempts to investigate and marginalize Ukrainian fascism driven by KGB/Putin. No. Lots driven by Ukrainian anti-fascists (both Jews & gentile).
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5. There were in fact historically Ukrainians who were fascists, some of whom aligned with Nazis. (One of those was Freeland's maternal grandfather). Recording the deeds of this faction & keeping them marginalized remains politically imperative. That's not a KGB agenda.
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6. Right now, Putin is smearing the whole of Ukrainian nationalism as being fascistic, arguing he's "de-nazifying" country. That's cynical and vile propaganda. But Freeland by posing with UPA colors & her office tweeting out image, is feeding into propaganda.
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7. To put it another way, the very fact that Putin is engaged in smearing Ukrainian nationalism (and denying Ukraine's right to exist) makes it more imperative, not less, that prominent Canadian politician Freeland to make clear distance from fascist group.
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8. More broadly, the whole story shows how the claim of Russian disinformation (sometimes real, sometimes not) is used as a smokescreen to hide real problems that deserve scrutiny & criticism.
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I've been wondering about the flag-wavers themselves, Jeet. When we saw swastikas in Ottawa, it was easy to conclude they were being waved by committed Canadian white nationalists, about whom we know a little bit. Does Canada's Ukrainian diaspora include hardline UPA zealots?
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Is Southern Saskatchewan a hotbed of anti-Catholic violence? This is what I wonder about. Like, ok these flags are popping up. Who is waving them and why? That's what's missing from this discussion to date. Just: the flags!
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This is predictable, to be fair - it is almost the exact same response they gave to questions back in 2017 about her grandfather.
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