Just as ominous is the following. As noted in an Oriental Review op-ed earlier this year, a new neo-Nazi revival is clearly in the offing. This is in a country where fascist/Nazi/extreme right sentiment, especially in the western regions, has a long, storied, and ugly history, one that rarely bubbles far from the surface.
Again, this "ugly history" was laid bare in Ukraine on Fire. After concluding that the current situation in Ukraine is 'painfully reminiscent' of Germany in the 1920s, the OR op-ed attributes,
'...poor governance on the heels of a lost war, which -- added to the sense of betrayed hopes and the sharp decline in average incomes coupled with rising prices -- is all driving a critical mass of the Ukrainian population toward an overwhelming feeling of desperation." [My emphasis]
In an observation attended by a profound sense of deja-vu for even casual students of history, the op-ed goes on to say that '[A] demand from the public for a "strong hand" -- a new, authoritarian ruler -- is rapidly coalescing, due to their dissatisfaction with President Poroshenko and all the other jokers they've been dealt from that shabby deck of political cards.'
According to the op-ed, a man like that already exists in this 'destitute and disintegrating' country. Known as the "White Fuhrer" to his comrades-in-arms, this man is Andriy Biletsky, the commander of the Azov Battalion who is making an ever-bigger name for himself in the Ukrainian parliament and across the broader political arena.
-- Open Season on Russia --
Of course all this only serves to highlight the pressures being brought to bear within the country itself; it is also those from without (not entirely unrelated to be sure) that are -- or should be -- of equal concern. Herein Doctorow again provides an alarming reveal. Although there are indications Washington is 'fed up' with the Kiev regime (and as Ukraine on Fire demonstrates conclusively, one it was responsible for installing in the first instance in 2014), he says,
'...the United States has doubled down in its support for a military solution to the conflict. With military trainers now on the ground (does this development itself not have an ominously familiar ring to it?), and the U.S. budgeting $350m for security assistance to Ukraine, Washington has also recently started delivering lethal weapons, including the Javelin anti-tank missile system, free of charge to Kiev.' [My emphasis].
In a Strategic Culture report, Robert Bridge recently offered an additional reality check on those external pressures. Instead of opting for a more balanced and cooperative foreign policy in its conduct of affairs in Eastern Europe, and specifically in its bilateral relationship with Russia, in his view, it was via the furphy of "Russia[n] aggression" -- an allegation he says was 'peddled to the unsuspecting masses based on fake news of a Russian 'invasion' of Ukraine and Crimea" -- [that] the U.S. and NATO 'dropped all pretensions [to cooperation] and declared open season on Russia." [My emphasis]
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