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Right Sector

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Right Sector
LeaderDmytro Yarosh
Ukrainian Yarosh
FoundedLate November 2013
HeadquartersKiev
Ideology
ColorsBlack and Red
SloganGlory to Ukraine
Website
PravyySektor.info

Right Sector (Ukrainian: Пра́вий се́ктор, Pravyi Sektor) is a Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary and political opposition collective of several organizations, described by some major newspapers as having far right to neofascist views.[1][2][3][4][5][6] The organization has 5,000 members and is quickly growing.[7] The group first emerged at the end of November 2013 at the Euromaidan protests in Kiev, as an alliance of far-right or extreme-right Ukrainian nationalist groups, as well as the Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian National Self Defence (UNA-UNSO).[8][9]

History

Origins

Right Sector views itself within the tradition of Ukrainian partisans who fought in the Second World War against the forces of both the Axis and the Soviet Union.[7] The Ukrainian Insurgent Army, with which Right Sector identifies, fought alongside Axis forces.[10] Dmytro Yarosh, Right Sector's leader, has trained armed nationalists in military exercises since the collapse of the Soviet Union.[11]

According to Yarosh and some other members, the organization formed in affiliation with or has been composed of several smaller, extreme-right and nationalist groups including Trident of Stepan Bandera (Yarosh), White Hammer,[12] Patriot of Ukraine (Andriy Belitsky), and the Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian National Self Defence (Yuriy Shukhevych).[13][14] One Right Sector member, Andriy Tarasenko, has stated that the organization was set up in late November 2013 and "most participants are just ordinary citizens having no relation to any organizations."[13] On 6 March 2014 Right Sector announced on its website that it was dissociating itself from White Hammer, citing the group's presence as defaming, and an inability to discipline it.[15]

Entry into Maidan

Right Sector became one of the main actors in the January 2014 Hrushevskoho Street riots, a part of the Euromaidan protests, in their later and more violent stages.[1][16][17][18] On 19 January 2014 Right Sector encouraged its members to bring bottles to the protests in order to produce Molotov cocktails and bombs.[13] The Yanukovich government classified Right Sector as an extremist movement, threatening its members with imprisonment.[19]

According to Volodymyr Ishchenko, in an op-ed piece in The Guardian, Right Sector was responsible for the violent 1 December 2013 attack on the Ukrainian administration, and according to Ishchenko has also led another violent provocation against the police.[20] The leader of Right Sector, Dmitro Yarosh, has stated that Right Sector has amassed a lethal arsenal of weapons.[2]

In February 2014, Right Sector issued a statement warning of the possibility of attack by Russian or Ukrainian police operatives, leading the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) to announce that it was on heightened alert.[21] In response, fearing a staged provocation for which it could be blamed, Right Sector stated that it was planning no terrorist attacks and that it opposed terrorist political tactics.[22]

After Yanukovych

Right Sector has been described as the most organized and most effective of the Maidan forces. Following the collapse of the Yanukovych government in 2014, with militia (police) having largely abandoned the streets of Kiev, groups of young men, including the members of Right Sector, patrol the streets armed mostly with baseball bats.[23][24]

On February 26, 2014, Right Sector leaders visited the Israeli embassy in Ukraine, telling Israeli ambassador Reuven Din-El that the group rejects anti-semitism, chauvinism, and xenophobia.[25]

In the aftermath of the collapse of the Yanukovych government, Yarosh and Victoria Siumar were proposed as possible deputies to the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council,[26] however, only Siumar, who is not affiliated with the Right Sector, was appointed.[27][full citation needed] After that, Yarosh tried to negotiate for himself a position of the deputy head of the State Security Service[28] but has not been able to get himself appointed.[29]

Right Sector has criticized the appointment of Volodymyr Zamana, who had been the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Army for two years under Yanukovych, to the position of the Parliament's commissioner for the control over the Armed Forces[30] (as of March 6, 2014, Zamana is one of the deputies to the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council).[27][full citation needed]

In a poll conducted by the "Socis" research center from February 25 to March 4, 2014, Right Sector's leader Dmytro Yarosh's possible candidacy in the upcoming presidential elections (planned for May 25, 2014) received the support of 1.6% of the people who were surveyed.[31]

Ideology

Right Sector activists. Euromaidan, Kiev. February 22, 2014.

Other Ukrainians and political parties

In an interview, Yarosh has stated that Right Sector and Svoboda "have a lot of common positions when it comes to ideological questions," but that Right Sector “absolutely do[es]n’t accept certain racist things they [Svoboda] share.”[32]

Speaking about his attitude towards non-Ukrainians, Yarosh referred to controversial WWII figure Stepan Bandera as a model. For those fighting with Right Sector "for Ukraine," Yarosh stated that they should be treated "as comrades." For those opposing "the Ukrainian people's national liberation struggle," Yarosh stated that they should be treated "in a hostile way."[32]

Journalist Oleg Shynkarenko has written that Right Sector's support for "traditional morals and family values, against the cult of profit and depravity," implies opposition to homosexuality, and the estimation of the "rights of the nation" against "human rights."[18] Right Sector rejects multiculturalism as "responsible for the disappearance of the crucifix" and the arrival of burkas in schools.[5]

Right Sector defines itself as neither xenophobic nor anti-Semitic, but instead as "nationalist, defending the values of white, Christian Europe against the loss of the nation and deregionalization."[5] Its social network page contains extensive neo-Nazi imagery,[6] and Haaretz, Israel's oldest newspaper, reports that Right Sector has distributed translations of Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in Maidan Square.[33]

Attitude towards Europe

Right Sector does not support Ukraine's entry into the European Union, which it views as "liberal totalitarianism" without God or proper values.[5][11] Yarosh describes the EU as a "bureaucratic monster" in Brussels.[11]

Right Sector's official website states that its members fear the imperial ambitions of both Moscow and the West.[24]

In Ukraine today

Right Sector is now considered the largest far-right group in Ukraine.[23]

Oleksandr Muzychko, a Right Sector leader, was videotaped physically assaulting a Ukrainian public prosecutor in his office, threatening to pull him to Maidan square with a rope.[18]

According to Russian political activist Maria Baronova, Right Sector has promised to deal with Russian forces in Ukraine, and has called upon Chechen Doku Umarov, considered a terrorist by Russia, to help.[10] She apparently refers to the so called "appeal of Right Sector to Doku Umarov" that is a known fake.[34][35][36] The growth of the extreme right in Ukraine has been used by Russia to legitimize its intervention in Crimea.[37]

According to the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS, the Yatsenyuk Government dismissed three deputies of Ukraine's defense minister after they opposed giving Right Sector militias the status of regular military units in Ukraine.[38]

References

  1. ^ a b Profile: Ukraine's key protest figures, BBC News (27 January 2014)
  2. ^ a b Shuster, Simon (4 February 2014). "Exclusive: Leader of Far-Right Ukrainian Militant Group Talks Revolution With TIME". TIME. Retrieved 21 February 2014. Pravy Sektor's ideology borders on fascism, and it enjoys support only from Ukraine's most hard-line nationalists, a group too small to secure them a place in parliament.
  3. ^ Ishchenko, Volodymyr (7 February 2014). "Ukrainian protesters must make a decisive break with the far right". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 February 2014. Previously marginal neofascists from the militant Pravy Sektor (the Right Sector) are now involved in negotiations with Ukrainian law-enforcement bodies. They will be among the undisputable leaders of the more radical part of the movement who will not be satisfied with a narrow rearrangement of powers as demanded by the opposition.
  4. ^ McPhedran, Charles; Luigi Serenelli (27 February 2014). "Ukraine protesters unsatisfied with presidential field". USA Today. Retrieved 2 March 2014. Right Sector has also been labeled as neo-fascist. "Their agenda is on the one hand pro-European — they would very much join the European Union," said Vesna Popovski, researcher at the European Institute of the London School of Economics. "On the other hand, they are anti-Semitic, anti-gay and anti-Russian."
  5. ^ a b c d Dreyfus, Emmanuel (2 March 2014). "Ukraine Beyond Politics". Le Monde Diplomatique. Retrieved 6 March 2014. Svoboda's success over the past few years and the presence of neo-fascist groups such as Pravy Sektor in Independence Square are signs of a crisis in Ukrainian society. It is first and foremost a crisis of identity: in 22 years of independence, Ukraine has not managed to develop an unbiased historical narrative presenting a positive view of all its regions and citizens: even today, the Ukrainians are seen as liberators in Galicia but as fascists in Donbass.
  6. ^ a b Luhn, Alec (4 March 2014). "As Far-Right Groups Infiltrate Kiev's Institutions, the Student Movement Pushes Back". The Nation. Retrieved 6 March 2014. Meanwhile, ultranationalists and neo-Nazis from groups like Svoboda and Right Sector took over Euromaidan's self-defense forces, and leaders linked to these two groups were appointed to high-ranking security positions in the new government.
  7. ^ a b "The radical Ukrainian group Right Sector". Die Welt. 22 February 2014. Der Rechte Sektor (Prawy Sektor) ist eine informelle Vereinigung von rechtsradikalen und neofaschistischen Splittergruppen.
  8. ^ Groups at the sharp end of Ukraine unrest, BBC am 1. Februar 2014
  9. ^ Die Extremisten vom Majdan, FAZ vom 23. Februar 2014
  10. ^ a b Baranova, Maria (3 March 2014). "No One Has Done More for Ukrainian Nationalism than Vladimir Putin". The New Republic. Retrieved 6 March 2014. Members of "Right Sector," an organization which was victorious on the Maidan, do not hide the fact that they are heirs to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which fought on the side of the Axis in the Second World War. They've promised to deal with the Russians and have even called on Doku Umarov to help.
  11. ^ a b c Klußmann, Uwe (3 March 2014). "Conflict with Russia". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
  12. ^ Official announcement of the Right Sector. Right Sector. March 6, 2014
  13. ^ a b c Groups at the sharp end of Ukraine unrest, BBC News (1 February 2014)
  14. ^ "Opposition in western Ukrainian region sets up self-defence units". BBC Monitoring Kiev Unit. 10 February 2013. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  15. ^ "ОФІЦІЙНА ЗАЯВА "ПРАВОГО СЕКТОРУ"". Політрада «Правого сектору». Right Sector. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
  16. ^ "Right Sector confirms its participation in events at Hrushevskoho". Radio Svoboda. 23 January 2014.
  17. ^ Radicals a wild card in Ukraine’s protests, The Washington Post (2 February 2014)
  18. ^ a b c Shynkarenko, Oleg (3 March 2014). "Can Ukraine Control Its Far Right Ultranationalists?". Retrieved 4 March 2014.
  19. ^ Eugen Theise, "Radical 'Pravy Sektor' group shifts Kyiv protests to the right," Deutsche Welle World (11 February 2014). Retrieved 01 March 2014.
  20. ^ Ishchenko, Volodymyr (22 January 2014). "Ukraine protests are no longer just about Europe". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  21. ^ "Ukrainian emergencies service put on heightened alert amid protests". BBC Monitoring Kiev Unit. 12 February. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ "Ukrainian right-wing group denies plotting terrorist attacks". BBC Monitoring Kiev Unit. 12 February 2013. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  23. ^ a b Gatehouse, Gabriel (1 March 2014). "Ukraine: Far-right armed with bats patrol Kiev". BBC. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
  24. ^ a b Petro, Nicolai (3 March 2014). "Threat of Military Confrontation Grows in Ukraine". The Nation. Retrieved 6 March 2014. Meanwhile, ultranationalists and neo-Nazis from groups like Svoboda and Right Sector took over Euromaidan's self-defense forces, and leaders linked to these two groups were appointed to high-ranking security positions in the new government… Right Sector, whose social network page features extensive neo-Nazi imagery, has been patrolling alongside police and has ties to the new security service head, while a founding member of the neo-Nazi party that became Svoboda has been appointed head of the national security and defense council.
  25. ^ Template:Uk icon "Правий сектор" запевнив посла Ізраїлю, що відкидає антисемітизм, Ukrainian Pravda (27 February 2014). Retrieved 3 March 2014.
  26. ^ Olearchyk, Roman (26 February 2014). "Arseniy Yatseniuk poised to become Ukraine prime minister". Financial Times. Retrieved 27 February 2014. In a bid to appease protesters demanding an end to government corruption, Mr Yatseniuk's cabinet will have civic activists to oversee it. Andriy Parubiy, a lawmaker who served as commander of the protest movement's guards, was chosen to serve as chair of the national security and defence council. Victoria Siumar, a civil society activist, and Dmytro Yarosh, head of Right Sector, a militant protest group, were proposed as his deputies.
  27. ^ a b Template:Uk icon"Official Website of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine". Retrieved 6 March 2014.
  28. ^ Template:Uk icon"Ярош веде перемовини щодо його призначення замглави СБУ- журналіст". Unian. 28 February 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  29. ^ "Official Website of the State Security Service of Ukraine". Retrieved 6 March 2014.
  30. ^ Template:Uk icon"Правий сектор не погоджується з призначенням В. Замани уповноваженим Верховної Ради по контролю за Збройними силами України". 28 February 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2014. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  31. ^ "Порошенко лидирует в президентском рейтинге". LB.ua. 5 March 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  32. ^ a b English translation of an interview with the leader of Right Sector by Ukrayinska Pravda's Mustafa Nayem and Oksana Kovalenko. Ukrainian original published by Ukrayinska Pravda on 4 February 2014. English translation by William J Risch, published by Sean Guillory on his blog on 7 February 2014.
  33. ^ Pfeffer, Anshel (25 February 2014). "The new dilemma for Jews in Ukraine". Haaretz. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
  34. ^ "FAKE: Right Sector (Pravyu Sector) appeal to Doku Umarov".
  35. ^ "«Правый сектор» опровергает обращение за помощью к Доку Умарову". Argumenty i Fakty. 2 March 2014.
  36. ^ ""Правый сектор" не обращался к Умарову". Komsomolskaya Pravda. 2 March 2014.
  37. ^ Whelan, Brian (5 March 2014). "How the far-right took top posts in Ukraine's power vacuum". Channel 4 News. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
  38. ^ "Yatsenyuk dismisses generals that opposed to Right Sector's legal status". ITAR-TASS. 6 March 2014. Retrieved 6 March 2014.


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