Authors:
The data gathered for use in this repo was collected by Massimiliano Camassa (aka Cheecken) and Elwood, the co-writers and researchers of the MEGA documentary series.
Summary:
This section of the Repo is a resource created as part of the MEGA: Ukrainian Divide project, the purpose of the repo is to document the connections between far-right political organisations and the legal and extralegal militant groups operating in Ukraine and Russia, as it focuses only on this purpose it does not include data on military/paramilitary or political groups we do not believe to have far right links, such as the Liberal/Pro-EU volunteers on the Pro-Ukraine camp, or Far-Left volunteers of the Pro-Russian camp.
Context:
We believe:
- That Ukraine has a diverse political sphere including parties of numerous ideologies across the political spectrum
- That most of its citizens and soldiers have no connection to far right groups or far right views
- That most countries (especially in Europe) have a far right presence, this issue is not unique to Ukraine
- That the far right is not politically popular in Ukraine (as demonstrated by the country’s election results)
But we believe that Ukraine’s far right is most worthy of being documented due to its ability to form military and paramilitary leanings and operate with a degree of state tolerance and collaboration, providing it with a disproportionate level of national influence using “state within a state” type structures, the Ukrainian far right’s anti state, revolutionary attitudes, and connections with far right organisations with a similar mindset in other countries make its activities a cause for concern.
We also believe that the far right groups have formed similar “state within a state” type structures in Russia, and have received a similar kind of state tolerance and collaboration from the Russian authorities.
This phenomenon is especially worthy of being documented both to show the spread and state legitimisation of vigilantism and extremism on both sides of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, to demonstrate the hypocrisy and misinformation of the Russian government (which has frequently used the presence of the far right in Ukraine’s forces to justify its invasion of Ukraine even though it has similarly incorporated far right units into its own ranks) and to demonstrate how the international far right has exploited the Ukraine conflict for its own benefits, often collaborating with both Pro-Russian and Pro-Ukrainian far right forces in order to receive military training and political connections.
Disclaimer:
We are not responsible for the content of external websites linked on this resource, our use of a website as a source or reference does not mean we endorse the opinions expressed on the site, we also do not claim that this is an exhaustive data set regarding Ukrainian, Russian or international Far-Right and Neo-Nazi organisations, as it is only the product of our individual research rather than that of a larger research team, it is both possible and likely there will be information we missed despite our lengthy and dedicated research work.
How to Support:
- Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cheecken/about (Early Access to videos for a monthly Subscription)
- YouTube Membership - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYfHday3b78 (Early Access to videos for a monthly Subscription)
- Gumroad - https://cheecken.gumroad.com (Early Access to videos for a monthly Subscription or Special Editions of documentaries for a One Time Payment)
Content:
To start reading the contents of this repo, click on any of its pages in graph view or navigate using the 000. INDEX