How the Deep State is Helping Re-Brand the Azov Battalion and Other Extremist Groups

José Alberto Niño

Jun 25, 2022

Politics and international conflicts sure do seem to make strange bedfellows, don’t they?

One of the most amusing piece of news to have surfaced during this current Russo-Ukrainian War was the Azov battalion’s decision to remove a Neo-Nazi symbol from its insignia, in addition to the corporate press’ decision to intentionaly label them as simply “far-right” as opposed to Neo-Nazis. It’s rather ironic when you think about it, given how the ruling class in the progressive and “tolerant” West is committed to fighting anti-fascism and looking for Nazi boogieman around every corner.

The Azov Battalion were comprised of former members of Patriot of Ukraine a neo-Nazi paramilitary group. Hilariously, The Times reported that “The Azov Battalion has removed a neo-Nazi symbol from its insignia that has helped perpetuate Russian propaganda about Ukraine being in the grip of far-right nationalism.”

The battalion has scrapped its previous “wolfsangel” patches, a symbol from German culture that was later embraced by the Nazis and eventually by members of the battalion since 2014. Now, Azov units have an insignia that features a gold trident, a national symbol that other Ukrainian regiments don that has much less ideological baggage.

These members were galvanized by the Maidan Revolution of 2014 when President Viktor Yanukovych was forced to flee after protests in Kiev’s central square, Maidan Nezalezhnosti, got out of control.

Azov earned its stripes by aiding the Ukrainian military in its various battles against Russian-speaking separatist forces in eastern Ukraine. Known for their raw ferocity, Azov units proved their worth as they helped Ukrainian conventional forces retake the city of Mariupol. They were rewarded handsomely for their efforts in November 2014, when they were integrated into the National Guard of Ukraine. In a piece for Harper’s Magazine, journalist Aris Roussisnos noted how Azov was able to get its own armored units and artillery battery through its new position in the National Guard.

Rousinos added that “Since then, it has built a wide-ranging infrastructure of civil and military groups—including the National Militia, an auxiliary police force—and spawned a variety of summer camps, training centers, and veterans’ programs.”

Since the initial stages of the 2020 pandemic, Azov has tried improving its optics by putting out social media propaganda that highlighted its humanitarian projects directed towards Ukraine’s working class. Roussinos highlighted how “Azov press releases showed masked volunteers disinfecting trams and common spaces in apartment buildings, handing out packages of food to families and retirees under quarantine, and delivering surgical masks to underfunded clinics and hospitals in neglected provincial towns.”

The irony of the Azov battalion is how they’re serving under a Jewish president in Volodmyr Zelensky. However, politics is a game of strange bedfellows as I mentioned before. The fact is, that Azov and similar far-right organizations are muscle, a necessary means to a necessary end. In politics, muscle is what counts irrespective of how unsavory the goons dishing out the punishment are.

Azov’s rebrand is nothing new, however.

For example, Syria’s al-Qaeda franchise, Al Nusra Front went through a rebrand by going under the banner of Hay-at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

Last year, Ben Norton and Max Blumenthal of The GrayZone did a fantastic job exposing how a consortium of actors have worked to rehabilitate the image of a terrorist organization.

Since then, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, with the help of NATO and Atlanticist think tanks, has used a PR campaign to improve his optics and get legitimized in the eyes of the public. The primary think tank that helped rehabilitate Jolani and his organization was International Crisis Group, a think tank based in Brussels with close connections to the Biden regime and NATO.

Starting to see a trend?

One of the most notable instances of this was when al-Jolani sat down on PBS Frontline’s special, “The Jihadist” where he was able to clean up his image and give his audience a fresh perspective on his case.

Donning professional attire, Jolani was in the spotlight making the case that HTS did not threaten American interests or the American people because the organization was solely dedicated to fighting the Assad regime in Syria.

And just like that, a well-run public relations campaign turned a branch of Al-Qaeda, the organization responsible for carrying out the 9/11 attacks into a “de facto US asset”, as Norton and Blumenthal put it.

Jolani originally belonged to al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, an extremist organization that attacked US forces and Iraqi civilians of Shia confession across the country. In 2012, Jolani and his forces crossed into Syria to help topple the Assad regime.

As it looks like Russia will make significant territorial gains in Ukraine, Azov will likely be used as irregular forces that the US Deep State can tap into whether it be in a quixotic insurgency in what’s left of Ukraine to bleed Russia out, or used as transnational shock troops to wreak havoc against Russia in other theaters such as Central Asia for example.

The war has only just started.