Italian police raid Neo-Nazis with ties to pro-Russian Ukranian groups, find combat-ready anti-air missile.

[The Romulan Republic]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48987723#

Anti-terrorism police in northern Italy have seized an air-to-air missile and other sophisticated weapons during raids on far-right extremist groups.

Three people were arrested, two of them near Forli airport. Neo-Nazi propaganda was also seized, in the raids.

The raids were part of an investigation into Italian far-right help for Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, local media said.

The missile was one of those used by the Qatari army, Italian police said.

The missile is reported to be in good condition for combat use

The Turin special police force, called Digos, led the operations, assisted by police in Milan, Varese, Forli and Novara.

Italian media named those arrested as Fabio Del Bergiolo, 50, an Italian ex-customs officer and far-right Forza Nuova party activist; Alessandro Monti, 42, a Swiss national; and Fabio Bernardi, 51, also Italian.

The missile appears to be a French-made Matra Super 530 F.

"During the operation, an air-to-air missile in perfect working order and used by the Qatari army was seized," police said in a statement.

On 3 July a court in Genoa jailed three men who were found guilty of fighting alongside the Russian-backed separatists who control a large swathe of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Turin police displayed this haul of Nazi memorabilia and weapons

In the Genoa case, two men - Italian Antonio Cataldo and Albanian-born Olsi Krutani - got terms of two years and eight months. The third, Moldovan citizen Vladimir Vrbitchii, got one year and four months.

More than 10,000 people have died in fighting since the heavily-armed separatists launched an insurgency in eastern Ukraine in April 2014. Skirmishes with Ukrainian government troops continue, but the frontline has remained generally static for more than a year.

So, the Neo-fascists have got their hands on more than just assault rifles now. Which makes me think its probably only a matter of time before one of the US groups gets caught with (or uses) something like this.

And the group has ties to pro-Russian Ukrainian groups. Could this end up being the first confirmation of Putin's regime actively arming Neo-Fascist insurgent groups in Western nations?

Nope, Russia isn't interfering and if they are its justified because America is just as bad. And anyone who disagrees is a Russophobic McCarthyist.

[Jub]

So, the Neo-fascists have got their hands on more than just assault rifles now. Which makes me think its probably only a matter of time before one of the US groups gets caught with (or uses) something like this.

'Possibly only a matter of time...' What a mealy-mouthed and worthless statement. It feels like you designed it so that you couldn't be called out on this when nothing happens in the US.

And the group has ties to pro-Russian Ukrainian groups. Could this end up being the first confirmation of Putin's regime actively arming Neo-Fascist insurgent groups in Western nations?

Could it? Who knows, one paper thin article doesn't really give us much to go on. It could be the Russians directly, though I don't see what they'd gain by downing a plane in northern Italy. It's more likely a little goodie passed along by another group with more direct support from Russia.

Nope, Russia isn't interfering and if they are its justified because America is just as bad. And anyone who disagrees is a Russophobic McCarthyist.

Not only can you not keep shit from other sites, which you can't even provide quotes from when called on it, but now you just preemptively strawman anybody who has a more nuanced view on geopolitics than you do. Cut the shit and stick to the facts TRR.

[Agent Sorchus]

Lets see, the article says that the missle in question is aan air to air weapon but also that it is an anti air missle. Eitherway they definitively say that itis a qatari army weapon. What a2a or anti airmissle do qatar use? According to wikipedia:French for their a2a missles and what few ground manpads they have are american stingers.

How very russian.

[Jub]

Lets see, the article says that the missle in question is aan air to air weapon but also that it is an anti air missle. Eitherway they definitively say that itis a qatari army weapon. What a2a or anti airmissle do qatar use? According to wikipedia:French for their a2a missles and what few ground manpads they have are american stingers.

How very russian.

The article tells us that it appears to be an air-to-air missile of the Super 530 F type. We don't know that they had the means to launch this weapon, let alone the radar equipment to provide it with targeting data, which makes their plans for this particular weapon rather perplexing. Even so, better to bust these idiots before they find a use for it.

As for this not being a Russian weapon, that makes sense. There are plenty of older weapons from the west floating around that can be diverted. Why send one of your weapons when there's a larger degree of deniability gained by using something else that's equally available?

[The Romulan Republic]

I cannot tell you how much it pisses me off that a thread about Neo-Nazis having fucking anti-aircraft missiles took exactly one post to turn into another round of "why TRR sucks".

Suffice to say that anyone reading this thread can see for themselves that Jub altered my words from "probably" to "possibly" (while putting it in quotes as though I said it) to make it more, as he put it, "mealy-mouthed".

Lets see, the article says that the missle in question is aan air to air weapon but also that it is an anti air missle. Eitherway they definitively say that itis a qatari army weapon. What a2a or anti airmissle do qatar use? According to wikipedia:French for their a2a missles and what few ground manpads they have are american stingers.

How very russian.

Obviously it is impossible to say for certain who is behind this. But given its pattern of backing neo-fascist groups, attempting to destabilizing Western nations, the fact that it is the most well-armed and militarily powerful adversary Europe has, the fact that it has recently developed closer ties with Qatar, and the fact that some of its allies in the Ukraine were reportedly tied to this Italian group, Russia is a likely suspect, either directly or, more likely, indirectly via an intermediary.

The origin of the weapons is rather a moot point, as this system has clearly moved around a lot from its original manufacturer. Unless you care to argue that France is arming Nazis in Italy.

[Straha]

Obviously it is impossible to say for certain who is behind this. But given its pattern of backing neo-fascist groups, attempting to destabilizing Western nations, the fact that it is the most well-armed and militarily powerful adversary Europe has, the fact that it has recently developed closer ties with Qatar, and the fact that some of its allies in the Ukraine were reportedly tied to this Italian group, Russia is a likely suspect, either directly or, more likely, indirectly via an intermediary.

Boychik, you realize that Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East, is dependent on US support for its continued independence (see, most recently, the 2017 and 2018 Gulf crisis where only the presence of the US kept the rest of the GCC from going after Qatar), and despite some substantive attempts at rapprochement still thinks it's on thin ice with the Trump administration? The last thing the Qatari want to do is piss of their American and European allies by being caught proliferating advanced military tech. Don't jump at shadows like this when incompetence and greed are much more likely explanations for how the missile got out.

[The Romulan Republic]

Obviously it is impossible to say for certain who is behind this. But given its pattern of backing neo-fascist groups, attempting to destabilizing Western nations, the fact that it is the most well-armed and militarily powerful adversary Europe has, the fact that it has recently developed closer ties with Qatar, and the fact that some of its allies in the Ukraine were reportedly tied to this Italian group, Russia is a likely suspect, either directly or, more likely, indirectly via an intermediary.

Boychik, you realize that Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East, is dependent on US support for its continued independence (see, most recently, the 2017 and 2018 Gulf crisis where only the presence of the US kept the rest of the GCC from going after Qatar), and despite some substantive attempts at rapprochement still thinks it's on thin ice with the Trump administration? The last thing the Qatari want to do is piss of their American and European allies by being caught proliferating advanced military tech. Don't jump at shadows like this when incompetence and greed are much more likely explanations for how the missile got out.

There are multiple possibilities. Russian influence is one (with which greed and incompetence are not incompatible). Other possibilities could be imagined. Hopefully, thorough investigation will determine which one is correct.

[Jub]

Suffice to say that anyone reading this thread can see for themselves that Jub altered my words from "probably" to "possibly" (while putting it in quotes as though I said it) to make it more, as he put it, "mealy-mouthed".

I misread it and didn't copy paste the text I put in into single quotes in my reply, my bad on that one.

Either way, 'probably only a matter of time' is still a pretty weak statement. You either believe that this will happen in a reasonable time frame or you don't. So, with that said, do you believe that it is likely that a weapon of the same size and destructive power as this captured air-to-air missile enters the United States before the 2020 election?

[The Romulan Republic]

Jub, I'm not going to get drawn into a thread derail. I am not the topic here. But I will say that it is not "weak", nor dishonest, to acknowledge multiple possible outcomes. I am not psychic. I cannot predict the future. All I can do is make (hopefully) educated guesses. "Probably" (which is a synonym for "likely") is about the strongest statement I can make about something like that without engaging in clear hyperbole or hubris.

Anyway, I'm seeing some people online alleging that they were actually tied to anti-Russian far Right groups in the Ukraine and that the news is lying, but every major news outlet I've seen (including the non-western Al Jazeera, for those who think anything Western is a Russophobic conspiracy), says Russian-linked:

Here's Al Jazeera: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/07/ ... 14911.html

Italian police have seized a large arsenal of weapons, including an air-to-air missile and rocket launchers, in raids on neo-Nazi sympathisers in an arms haul that authorities said was almost without precedent.

Elite police forces searched properties across northern Italy following an investigation into Italians who had fought alongside Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, a police statement said on Monday.

Among other weapons uncovered were 26 guns, 20 bayonets, 306 gun parts, including silencers and rifle scopes, and more than 800 bullets of various calibres. The arms were primarily from Austria, Germany and the United States.

"This is a significant seizure, with few precedents in Italy," said Turin police commissioner Giuseppe De Matteis.

This is a significant seizure, with few precedents in Italy

"During the operation, an air-to-air missile in perfect working order and used by the Qatari army was seized," police said of the 245km Matra missile.

Italian Police handout shows a large arsenal of weapons, including an air-to-air missile, that they say they seized in raids on neo-Nazi sympathisers in Turin [Polizia di Stato/Handout via Reuters]

They also found automatic assault rifles that they described as "latest generation" among the cache.

At least three people, including Fabio Del Bergiolo - 50, a former candidate for the neo-fascist New Force, or Forza Nuova party (FN) - have been arrested.

The missile, 3.54 metres long was made in France and Del Bergiolo had been hoping to sell it for 470,000 euros ($529,000), according to Italian media reports.

The missile was "without explosive charge, but re-armable by people specialised in the field," police said.

"For now, nothing leads us to suspect" an active plot to use the weapons, said Eugenio Spina, head of the counterterrorism unit.

The other arrests were a Swiss, 42, and an Italian, 51, accused of holding and marketing the missile, which was found by police at a warehouse near the small Rivanazzano Terme airport in the Pavia province.

The Mantra Super 530 F was a modernisation of the R530 missile that went into service in 1980, and has a range of 25km, with an explosive charge of 30 kilos.

"It is extremely dangerous and risky to turn it into a missile to fire from the ground, unless you have good engineers and equipment," a missile expert who asked not to be named told the AFP.

Similarly, because of its age, it is "extremely unlikely that it can be used, but its use can be changed," he added.

Messages intercepted by the police led them to investigate Del Bergiolo, who had sent photographs of the missile for sale through the Whatsapp messaging service.

Among other weapons uncovered were 26 guns, 20 bayonets, 306 gun parts, including silencers and rifle scopes, and more than 800 bullets of various calibres [Polizia di Stato/Handout via Reuters]

Del Bergiolo's home was found to contain a huge stash of arms as well as neo-Nazi propaganda and Hitler memorabilia.

They put him under surveillance before raiding his home and finding a stash of weapons including a Scorpion machine gun, 306 firearm parts and 20 bayonets.

His collection included street signs from the Nazi era, including one reading "Adolf-Hitler Platz".

Police in Pavia also found the cockpit of a military plane.

The Digos law enforcement agency, which deals largely with terrorism and organised crime, led the operation from Turin with assistance from police in Forli, Milan, Novara and Varese.

"We have some idea about what the seized equipment could be used for, but will not speculate," De Matteis told reporters.

The FN released a statement on Monday distancing itself from Del Bergiolo.

Police have carried out several raids in recent weeks on far-right targets around Turin, with a man arrested earlier this month for advocating fascism and possessing illegal weapons.

While Italy's far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, was uncharacteristically quiet following the raid, the opposition centre-left Democratic Party (PD) urged the country's populist government to do more to tackle right-wing extremists.

"The far right in this country trafficks weapons of war, and even missiles. It's an incredible, very serious event," said Maurizio Martina, the PD's former party head

Looks like the neo-fascists in the Italian government are keeping fairly quiet, rather than the condemnation and strong response you'd expect from the government. The group also had a wide variety of other weapons, including rocket launchers.

The missile being unusable does suggest that this was not a serious attempt to arm Right-wing extremists, or else one that was interrupted early on. The most worrying thing is probably that this group had the money and connections to get a missile of any kind. That suggests either political, corporate, or organized crime backing, not just a few nut bars.

[Jub]

Jub, I'm not going to get drawn into a thread derail. I am not the topic here. But I will say that it is not "weak", nor dishonest, to acknowledge multiple possible outcomes. I am not psychic. I cannot predict the future. All I can do is make (hopefully) educated guesses. "Probably" (which is a synonym for "likely") is about the strongest statement I can make about something like that without engaging in clear hyperbole or hubris.

Here's a hot tip: If you don't want threads to be about you, maybe don't end your opening post with a fucking strawman. You make threads about yourself by, as Straha and others have pointed out many times, taking things too personally throwing around wild accusations and generally debating in a very hysterical emotions over facts style.

Now, let me ask you again, do you believe that it is likely that a weapon of the same size and destructive power as this captured air-to-air missile enters the United States before the 2020 election? If not what does your definition of 'probably just a matter of time' actually mean? This isn't off-topic the comment I'm asking you about is about a third of the non-quoted portion of your first post in this thread.

Are we not allowed to comment on the content of your posts now? If so, perhaps you should stick to quoting stories without comment.

[The Romulan Republic]

Here's a hot tip: If you don't want threads to be about you, maybe don't end your opening post with a fucking strawman. You make threads about yourself by, as Straha and others have pointed out many times, taking things too personally throwing around wild accusations and generally debating in a very hysterical emotions over facts style.

Pretty much all the things I described (including collusion denialism, Both Sides narratives that deflect blame onto America whenever the Kremlin's crimes are brought up, accusations of Russophobia and McCarthyism) are stock-in-trade for Kremlin apologists, and I have been on the receiving end of them all on multiple occasions on this board*. There was no straw man. And I cannot help it if others choose to respond to my posts with personal attacks.

Now, let me ask you again, do you believe that it is likely that a weapon of the same size and destructive power as this captured air-to-air missile enters the United States before the 2020 election? If not what does your definition of 'probably just a matter of time' actually mean? This isn't off-topic the comment I'm asking you about is about a third of the non-quoted portion of your first post in this thread.

Are we not allowed to comment on the content of your posts now? If so, perhaps you should stick to quoting stories without comment.

You know as well as I do that offering a specific probability of such an event happening by a specific date is impossible.

Regarding the probability of such an event, I already gave the only honest answer that I can, I have no other to add, and I will not allow you to bog me down in answering endless, increasingly nitpicky demands.

Also, again, "likely" and "probably" are synonyms, so (aside from offering a specific date) I already answered your question in the affirmative in my OP.

[Jub]

Pretty much all the things I described (including collusion denialism, Both Sides narratives that deflect blame onto America whenever the Kremlin's crimes are brought up, accusations of Russophobia and McCarthyism) are stock-in-trade for Kremlin apologists, and I have been on the receiving end of them all on multiple occasions on this board*. There was no straw man. And I cannot help it if others choose to respond to my posts with personal attacks.

So that means you should bring it up unbidden at the start of every thread?

Regarding the probability of such an event, I already gave the only honest answer that I can, I have no other to add, and I will not allow you to bog me down in answering endless, increasingly nitpicky demands.

So 'probably just a matter of time' actually just means that you have a bad feeling and wanted to vent. Glad we cleared that up!

[The Romulan Republic]

Pretty much all the things I described (including collusion denialism, Both Sides narratives that deflect blame onto America whenever the Kremlin's crimes are brought up, accusations of Russophobia and McCarthyism) are stock-in-trade for Kremlin apologists, and I have been on the receiving end of them all on multiple occasions on this board*. There was no straw man. And I cannot help it if others choose to respond to my posts with personal attacks.

So that means you should bring it up unbidden at the start of every thread?

Regarding the probability of such an event, I already gave the only honest answer that I can, I have no other to add, and I will not allow you to bog me down in answering endless, increasingly nitpicky demands.

So 'probably just a matter of time' actually just means that you have a bad feeling and wanted to vent. Glad we cleared that up!

Its going to come up anyway; might as well preempt the bullshit.

And I am unaware that discussing possible future scenarios is prohibited on this board.

[aerius]

Something doesn't jibe here. The official Italian Press release doesn't say anything about who the weapons were being sold to, merely that they had taken part in armed conflicts in the Donbass region. Read the 2nd paragraph or plug it into Google translate.
https://www.poliziadistato.it/articolo/ ... f299497390

Le indagini erano iniziate circa un anno fa quando la questura di Torino, coordinata dalla Direzione centrale della Polizia di prevenzione, aveva monitorato alcuni combattenti italiani con ideologie oltranziste responsabili in passato di aver preso parte al conflitto armato nella regione ucraina del Donbass.

Even more interesting is that the original press release was scrubbed from the internet because it would blow the narrative out of the water. We can't have them saying that Neo-Nazis were trying to sell arms to Ukrainian militant groups who were fighting against the pro-Russian separatists. Once again, read that 2nd paragraph or plug it into a translator.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190715140 ... f299497390

Le indagini erano iniziate circa un anno fa quando la questura di Torino, coordinata dalla Direzione centrale della Polizia di prevenzione, aveva monitorato alcune persone legate a movimenti politici dell’ultra destra e che avevano combattuto nella regione ucraina del Donbass contro gli indipendentisti.

It's like certain folks aren't even the least bit suspicious when Neo-Nazis automatically get linked to Russian separatists instead of their fellow Nazis on the Ukrainian side. Either that or they're completely ignorant of politics and ideologies.

[Straha]

It's like certain folks aren't even the least bit suspicious when Neo-Nazis automatically get linked to Russian separatists instead of their fellow Nazis on the Ukrainian side. Either that or they're completely ignorant of politics and ideologies.

That sounds like some Russki apologeticism there. Have you denounced the Putin regime yet, buddy? Or should I say Tovarich?

Seriously though, Italy is a clearing house of all sorts of black market military junk. The mafia even got their hands on HEU ten or fifteen years ago. It makes no sense to jump to conclusions about this until we actually get some work product of the investigation beyond "We found a missile."

[Broomstick]

The article tells us that it appears to be an air-to-air missile of the Super 530 F type. We don't know that they had the means to launch this weapon, let alone the radar equipment to provide it with targeting data, which makes their plans for this particular weapon rather perplexing. Even so, better to bust these idiots before they find a use for it.

I'm not an expert on missile guidance systems or the details of any 530 type missiles (super or otherwise), but as far back as 2001 - nearly 20 years ago - I could confidently state I could come up with some very nasty uses of a small missile combined with a small aircraft (I was thinking more MANPADS at that point). IF these guys could come up with a way of targeting this thing... well, there have been a lot of advances and increased accessibility of things like remote control for drones and GPS chips for the civilian world. The chief obstacle to "deployment" is figuring out how to bring everything together. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to do that (although it would help, there being some rocketry involved).

And, personally, I'm not interested in pursing that line of thought further because I'd prefer to not attract certain types of attention. Suffice to say I'm a bit puzzled why these sorts of things haven't been involved in terrorist attacks. Well, car bombs, idiots with suicide vests, and running pedestrians down with trucks are probably still cheaper, that's probably it.

[aerius]

It's like certain folks aren't even the least bit suspicious when Neo-Nazis automatically get linked to Russian separatists instead of their fellow Nazis on the Ukrainian side. Either that or they're completely ignorant of politics and ideologies.

That sounds like some Russki apologeticism there. Have you denounced the Putin regime yet, buddy? Or should I say Tovarich?

I'd like to do that, but you know what I like even more? That sweet, juicy Russian Oligarch money that's flowing into my secret offshore banking accounts. You wouldn't believe what they pay me to post pro-Russian opinions on random message boards!

In all seriousness, the real story here is that the Ministry of Truth works way faster in the internet age than Orwell could ever have imagined. If it weren't for a lucky well-timed snapshot from the Internet Archive machine, none of us would ever know that the Italian police press releases had been sanitized to fit the narrative of Russians = Nazis.

[TimothyC]

The article tells us that it appears to be an air-to-air missile of the Super 530 F type. We don't know that they had the means to launch this weapon, let alone the radar equipment to provide it with targeting data, which makes their plans for this particular weapon rather perplexing. Even so, better to bust these idiots before they find a use for it.

I'm not an expert on missile guidance systems or the details of any 530 type missiles (super or otherwise), but as far back as 2001 - nearly 20 years ago - I could confidently state I could come up with some very nasty uses of a small missile combined with a small aircraft (I was thinking more MANPADS at that point).

The Super 530F is a Semi-Active Radar Homing missile designed to be launched from a French Mirage F.1. The guidance system works by homing in on the reflected radar return from a target illuminated by the Mirage's Cyrano IV radar. While it would probably be possible to make it work off of any I/J band radar, that's another bit of hardware that the police didn't show off (if it was handed over to another nation-state aligned force that might be a possibility), but would require some software development to make the missile and the radar talk to each other. It could probably also be fired off in an unguided fashion, but then it could go anywhere rather than directly to the target.

[Elfdart]

It's like certain folks aren't even the least bit suspicious when Neo-Nazis automatically get linked to Russian separatists instead of their fellow Nazis on the Ukrainian side. Either that or they're completely ignorant of politics and ideologies.

That sounds like some Russki apologeticism there. Have you denounced the Putin regime yet, buddy? Or should I say Tovarich?

I'd like to do that, but you know what I like even more? That sweet, juicy Russian Oligarch money that's flowing into my secret offshore banking accounts. You wouldn't believe what they pay me to post pro-Russian opinions on random message boards!

In all seriousness, the real story here is that the Ministry of Truth works way faster in the internet age than Orwell could ever have imagined. If it weren't for a lucky well-timed snapshot from the Internet Archive machine, none of us would ever know that the Italian police press releases had been sanitized to fit the narrative of Russians = Nazis.

Not just the Italian police: the BBC has also been busy trying to "revise" their bullshit story:

How The News About Italian Far-Right Fighters In Ukraine Got Confused

Fast pacing news can be confusing. Reports appear which contradict each other. They miss some significant details. News that was fake news can suddenly becomes right. Correct versions of the news can become fake news.

Here is a live case that shows how and why this can happen.

Yesterday the Italian state police arrested a number of neo-nazis who had fought against the Russian supported separatists in Ukraine. The police found their large weapon cache. The arrest became international news because the haul included a complete French air-to-air missile that was originally delivered to Qatar. (It was likely sent from Qatar to Libya, in support of the Muslim Brotherhood side of the conflict there, and then sold off to some Italian smugglers.)

Mark Ames noted that the reporting about the case seemed to contradict the Italian police statement:

Mark Ames @MarkAmesExiled - 20:34 UTC - 15 Jul 2019

Official Italian police statement says the Nazis with the missiles fought "against [pro-Russian] separatists". But BBC says the Italian Nazis fought *for* Russian-backed separatists. Someone's dezinformatsiya-ing https://www.poliziadistato.it/articolo/ ... f299497390 …

Ames added screenshots of several retweets of the BBC report and of the original police statement. They support his assertion.

There's more at the link. The notion that Italian fascists would be in cahoots with the Russian government against Ukrainian fascists shouldn't have passed the smell test for anyone who isn't a crackpot.

[Dominus Atheos]

I'm sorry, you're saying that any sane person should be able to realize that the Ukrainian government is obviously fascist while the Russian government obviously isn't, and anyone who can't recognize those obviously obvious facts is a crackpot?

[Straha]

I'm sorry, you're saying that any sane person should be able to realize that the Ukrainian government is obviously fascist while the Russian government obviously isn't, and anyone who can't recognize those obviously obvious facts is a crackpot?

No. They're saying that there are neo-nazi paramilitaries in the Ukraine who have been antagonistic to the Russian separatists in the Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict. Also they're using 'nazi' here to actually mean people who believe themselves to be the political and intellectual heirs of Hitler and his race theories and not as a metonym for broad nationalist movements a la Putin.

[The Romulan Republic]

There are unfortunately a lot of fascists in both the Ukraine and Russia. The Russian government, however, definitely fits numerous criteria for a fascist state.

[Elfdart]

I'm sorry, you're saying that any sane person should be able to realize that the Ukrainian government is obviously fascist while the Russian government obviously isn't, and anyone who can't recognize those obviously obvious facts is a crackpot?

Or completely uninformed.

Russia hasn't gone fascist -not yet, anyway -though the vicious state-sanctioned homophobia of a few years ago is one of the early warning signs they're on the fast train to black shirts and castor oil. For now at least, Putin runs Russia the way Third World despots run their countries: as kleptocratic thug regimes.

Ukraine on the other hand is busy rehabilitating the image of Nazis and Nazi collaborators like OUN and Stepan Bandera, erecting monuments to Ukrainians who helped carry out the Final Solution and so on. They also have the Azov Battalion, which has become part of the regular national guard:

Post-Maidan Ukraine is the world’s only nation to have a neo-Nazi formation in its armed forces. The Azov Battalion was initially formed out of the neo-Nazi gang Patriot of Ukraine. Andriy Biletsky, the gang’s leader who became Azov’s commander, once wrote that Ukraine’s mission is to “lead the White Races of the world in a final crusade…against the Semite-led Untermenschen.” Biletsky is now a deputy in Ukraine’s parliament.

In the fall of 2014, Azov—which is accused of human-rights abuses, including torture, by Human Rights Watch and the United Nations—was incorporated into Ukraine’s National Guard.
While the group officially denies any neo-Nazi connections, Azov’s nature has been confirmed by multiple Western outlets: The New York Times called the battalion “openly neo-Nazi,” while USA Today, The Daily Beast, The Telegraph, and Haaretz documented group members’ proclivity for swastikas, salutes, and other Nazi symbols, and individual fighters have also acknowledged being neo-Nazis.
In January 2018, Azov rolled out its National Druzhina street patrol unit whose members swore personal fealty to Biletsky and pledged to “restore Ukrainian order” to the streets. The Druzhina quickly distinguished itself by carrying out pogroms against the Roma and LGBT organizations and storming a municipal council. Earlier this year, Kiev announced the neo-Nazi unit will be monitoring polls in next month’s presidential election.
In 2017, Congressman Ro Khanna led the effort to ban Azov from receiving U.S. arms and training. But the damage has already been done: The research group Bellingcat proved that Azov had already received access to American grenade launchers, while a Daily Beast investigation showed that US trainers are unable to prevent aid from reaching white supremacists. And Azov itself had proudly posted a video of the unit welcoming NATO representatives.