Kyiv, 27 May, 2014. An early presidential election took place in Ukraine on May 25. Despite ongoing instability and violence in the east of the country, a record-breaking turnout of voters – more than 61% – came out to vote nationwide. According to preliminary results, the vast majority of Ukrainians – nearly 60% – have voted for Petro Poroshenko, an active participant in the Euromaidan protests and a multi-millionaire businessman. The two far-right nationalist parties, Svoboda and Right Sector, received less than 2 percent of the votes between them. These results debunk the Kremlin-sponsored myth about neo-Nazis coming to power in Ukraine.
The May 25 presidential elections ended a transitional period in Ukrainian politics: since former president Viktor Yanukovych fled the country in late February, Ukraine has been governed by an Acting Head of State, an Acting Prime Minister and an Acting Government. Under these circumstances, with only the Parliament being without the prefix “Acting”, some have raised questions about the legitimacy of Ukraine’s institutions of power.
Others, primarily Russian propagandists and their apologists in the West, have gone even further, stating that Ukraine’s new government was not only illegitimate, but nationalist and fascist. To justify their blatant propagandistic rhetoric, the Kremlin’s advocates pointed to an alleged dominance of ultra-right political forces in the government, allegedly formed at gun-point by the “radical” leaders of the Euromaidan protests.
The prime targets of the “outbreak of fascism in Ukraine” line of argument were the Ukrainian nationalist party Svoboda and the radical revolutionary movement Right Sector. Over the last six months both have been vilified and demonized – largely unjustly – by Putin’s propaganda and its western stooges.
More importantly, the myth about Neo-nazis roaming and ravaging the streets of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities was the main weapon of a mass-media campaign intended to delude the local population, and used by Putin in Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, as well as in Russia’s military subversion aimed at destabilizing the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donbass and Luhansk. All of Putin’s recent public statements about Ukraine, without exception, were peppered with insulting – and inaccurate – references to fascists and blood-thirsty Gestapo torturers in the illegitimate Ukrainian government, who torment and kill peaceful Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine.
The outcome of the early presidential elections, however, has blown Russian propagandists out of the water: the core, as Kremlin would have the world believe, of Ukraine’s new fascists – Svoboda and Right Sector – received a mere 1,9 percent of the votes nationwide.
At the same time, far-right nationalist parties in other European countries are on the unprecedented rise. In the most recent European Parliament elections, which took place on the same day as Ukraine’s Presidential vote, right-wing forces have caused what some commentators have described as a “political earthquake” or a “tsunami”.
Nationalist parties claimed astonishingly high results in such countries as France (25 percent), Denmark (23 percent), Austria (20 percent) and Belgium (30-32 percent). These are results Ukrainian “fascists” could only dream of.
Ukraine’s Presidential elections, therefore, pose an awkward challenge for Putin’s propagandists: how to explain, at least to their domestic audience, the absence of fascists in Ukraine, the crusade against whom was used by Putin as a justification for most of his recent internationally-recognized crimes against the Ukrainian people.
Source: uacrisis
_______________________________________
EuromaidanPR is a public initiative that, in line with the spirit of Maidan, provides truthful, reliable and accurate information on developments in Ukraine. If you would like to support our activities you can do so here.
_______________________________________
Join EuromaidanPR & stay with us: Web, YouTube, Twitter ENG, Twitter RUS, Facebook ENG, Facebook DE, Facebook IT, Instagram: euromaidan_pr
_______________________________________
Reblogged this on Voices of Ukraine.
So the fascists only have 1-2% support in Ukraine. Then please tell me, why did they control the most important ministries in the Ukraine government for the last 3-4 months?
Parce qu’ils ne sont tout simplement pas fascistes ! Et qu’est-ce donc, le fascisme ? essayez de démontrer que les Ukrainiens ont un comportement fasciste…sans vous appuyer sur les groupuscules de voyous russes infiltrés…
La “National Guard” a été formée le 23 fevrier avec des membres du Right Sector. Dmytro Yarosh, du right sector: National Defense and Security Council. Andriy Parubiy, du right-sector aussi: National Defense and Security Council. Sans parler des membres du Party Svoboda qui était considéré comme anti-sémites par l’O.N.U. il y a 2 ans. Démontrer que la nazional guard a des comportements facistes? juste a regarder ce qui est arrivé a Odessa et à Mariupol. Sans parler du fait que les membres du Right Sector étaient toujours aux premières lignes a Kiev…combien de membre du Right Sector se sont fait tirer par les snipers a Kiev? Très peu, parce qu’ils n’étaient plus la, ils étaient déguisés en policiers et tiraient sur ceux qui protestaient avec eux. La propragande de RT est tellement grande que votre tentative de faire banir RT au Canada a un gros total de 1086 signatures en plus que 2 mois alors qu’il y a 120 000 ukrainiens au Canada; ça en dit gros.
Fine, let’s not call them fascists. It does not affect the question I asked.
The “Right Sector”, and the Svoboda (“Freedom”) Party. Both scored 1-2% in the election, yet their leaders held the most powerful security-related minister positions in the post-Maidan revolution government, and as far as I can tell are STILL there.
This seems to completely destroy the claims by our leaders here in the USA that the old Yanukovich regime, evil and corrupt though it may have been, was replaced by a “popular democratic uprising”. Utter rubbish. It was replaced by simply the group who was the most willing to break some heads. And now that they control the machinery of Ukraine’s central government, they continue to use their methods against their countrymen, as their first, last, and only tool.
As usual, the distinguished leaders of the US welcome such people as “partners”. It reminds me a lot of the history of Latin America in the 1980’s … Death squads killing priests and nuns, right-wing counter revolutionaries, fine friends of Ronald Reagan, if you remember.
Dmytro Yarosh National Defense and Security Council
Andriy Parubiy National Defense and Security Council
Ihor Tenyukh Minister of Defense
Oleksandr Sych one of three Vice Prime Ministers
Oleg Makhnitsky Prosecutor-General
Stop supporting Kiev’s propaganda and get Harper out of office.
Reblogged this on rovitothis201.
It’s a shame that you are supporting the regime that is killing it’s own citizens be that in the east or west of Ukraine. It’s doesn’t have anything to do with Russia and Putin , really. They are Ukrainean citizens. If you say that Right wing and Svoboda has won 1-2% of votes it says nothing. The war against their own people, children and civilan is on. How come! In the country that want to be a European one. You, Ukraneans, I met you everywhere in Europe and the USA. I found You there speaking Russian language. Ukranieans, please, address your elected government to stop killing people of your country. And as a ordinary citizen of Russia, living in the Republic of Buryatia I address the sober thinking international community to launch a campaign to stop the war in Ukraine. Do you Europeans want an aggressive highly nationalistic and nazi minded neighbours? As for Americans, what about your motto “Think globally, act locally!” Now you are not only thinking globally but acting globally. You have a high satandards of living, please, don’t poke your nose in the countries far away from your borders.
Reblogged this on Zenobiusz.