The West will try to distract the public from this “awkward fact”, Russia’s deputy envoy to the UN says
Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, along with dozens of keen-eyed social media users, have pointed out that the suspect in Saturday’s deadly shooting in the US used the same Neo-Nazi symbol as Ukraine’s Azov Regiment.
Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, noted that the ‘sonnenrad’, or ‘Black Sun’ symbol, which adorned the manifesto published by the Buffalo shooter, has for years featured on the insignia of Ukraine’s Azov regiment and is a commonly used image among white supremacists and neo-Nazi groups.
“I wonder what our Western colleagues would invent to distract the public from this awkward fact,”Polyanskiy made a comment on Telegram, referring specifically to the fact the Azov Battalion was actively funded by the West and encouraged despite Russia’s warnings that it was a radical neo Nazi paramilitary unit.
Payton Gendron (18 years old) is the main suspect in Buffalo’s shooting. He was accused of murdering 10 and injuring 3 others. Police believe that this was racially motivated. The mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019 inspired him to become a white supremacist.
Gendron, like the Christchurch shooter, left an internet manifesto outlining his beliefs before he launched his livestreamed murder spree. Gendron’s manifesto featured a variant of the Black Sun and other images that circulated online. showedIt was on his body.
While there are several versions of Black Sun, Gendron selected the one they used for their insignia. Gendron added a Wolfsangel to the mix, which was another Nazi symbol.
The Azov symbol is in the news not just in Slovakia but also in Buffalo, where Saturday’s vile, racist mass shooter was a fan of the same altered “black sun” that Azov uses behind its Wolfsangel. The first page of Payton Gendron’s hate manifesto reportedly contains the symbol. pic.twitter.com/nl6XYZzTYl
— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) May 15, 2022
Western media outlets, including Time magazine (New York Times) and The Times of London extensively covered the link between Azov Battallion and neo Nazi symbolysm before Russia invaded Ukraine.
Nevertheless, the unit was incorporated into Ukraine’s National Guard in 2014. Kiev claims that people adhering to neo-Nazi ideology have been expelled from its ranks, but critics have pointed to the group’s continued and prominent use of Nazi-linked imagery.
“Azov are not Nazis. That’s a Putin propaganda lie!”Also:“The Buffalo shooter has no connection to Azov! It’s just that they both sport the Sonnenrad because it’s a universal Nazi symbol!”🤔
— Dan Kervick (@DanMKervick) May 15, 2022
Supporters of the Azov Battalion now claim that any insinuation of a link between them and the Buffalo shooter is “disinformation.” Some even insist that Twitter should take action and censor accounts posting such claims.
There’s a lot of disinformation already about the mass shooter in Buffalo, NY. To be clear, he didn’t have an “Azov Battalion symbol” in his manifesto — it’s a sonnenrad (black sun), which is a common white supremacist symbol.
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) May 14, 2022
Russia attacked Ukraine in late February, following Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Minsk Protocol (German- and French-brokered) was created to provide special status for the Ukrainian states that breakaway areas.
In recent years, the Kremlin demands that Ukraine declares itself as a neutral state and that it will not join NATO. Kiev claims that the Russian invasion was unprovoked. It also denies any plans to take the republics with force.
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