Military Madness > Canadians Training Neo-Nazis in Ukraine; Austria's Neo-Nazi Arsenal; Latvia Wants NATO Troops at Belarus Border

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Canada checks whether its soldiers train Ukrainian neo-Nazis

9 Nov, 2021 15:04

Azov battalion members at a rally on Volunteer Day. March 14, 2020. © Reuters / Gleb Garanich

Stung by allegations that its troops trained neo-Nazis in Ukraine, Canada’s defense department has launched a review into the vetting process on its “mentoring” and “capacity building” programs for foreign military personnel.

In response to the bombshell accusations, defense department spokesman Dan Le Bouthillier revealed that an internal review had begun last month that will “look holistically at all missions” where the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) are involved with foreign military personnel.

However, he noted that some details would remain secret since “the specifics of the process by which the CAF verifies the suitability of training candidates is subject to operational security restrictions.”

Canada, which has been in Ukraine since 2015 as part of the joint task-force ‘Operation UNIFIER’, provides support and training to Ukrainian security forces. According to media reports, senior Canadian military leadership – including former defense minister Harjit Sajjan – have largely ignored warnings about far-right elements within the Ukrainian forces since then.

I'm thinking there was probably a rather uncomfortable meeting between Sajjan and our uber-Liberal Prime Minister recently.

In June 2018, Canadian diplomats and armed forces officers met and posed for photographs with members of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion – despite reportedly expressing concerns about the meeting being leaked to the media. The Azov Battalion then used the photo-op for propaganda purposes, according to an Ottawa Citizen report on Monday that cited newly released documents.

According to the paper, Lt. Col. Fraser Auld, then-commander of the task force, had warned that negative press coverage could prompt questions about the meeting from the Canadian government. In 2017, task force officers had apparently been briefed that “multiple members of Azov have described themselves as Nazis.” However, there was no condemnation from the top brass.

The paper revealed another previously unreported meeting in December 2018 attended by then-Canadian Army commander Lt. Gen. Jean-Marc Lanthier and members of the Azov Battalion. Again, there was no denouncement of its radical sympathies. Instead, Chris Henderson, the assistant deputy minister for public affairs at the time, reportedly emailed more than 20 defense department public relations officers about the “need to be ready” for media scrutiny.

In September, a study on the far-right in Ukraine’s military had first revealed that ‘Military Order Centuria,’ a neo-Nazi outfit of soldiers within the country’s National Army Academy linked to the Azov movement, had boasted online about receiving training from Canada and other NATO countries.

Le Bouthillier had previously noted that Canadian military officials had no prior knowledge of those who attended the 2018 meeting, which was apparently organized by Ukrainian authorities. He added that Canada “has not, does not, and will not be providing support to Azov and affiliated entities.”

Despite the announced review, critics told the paper that the CAF does not directly conduct vetting of the foreign troops it trains, leaving the responsibility to the nation providing the troops instead.

And yet, Le Bouthillier swears that Canada has never trained AZOV members. He also stated above, that the selection process is Secret! What selection process?

No wonder the Canadian military is in such trouble - IATT - Idiots at the top!

1,200kg of ammo: Austria busts suspected Nazi stash 

9 Nov, 2021 14:55

© Twitter / Polizei NÖ

Dozens of guns, Nazi memorabilia, and around 1,200 kg of ammunition were discovered by Austria’s domestic security agency and counter-terrorism unit during a house raid on Tuesday.

The arsenal was found at the home of a 53-year-old man from a spa town 26km south of Vienna, who is suspected of having far-right links.

Two illegally-owned machine guns, shotguns, assault and sniper rifles, pistols, pepper spray, tasers, and melee weapons were seized from him, the police said. Many of the firearms were loaded.

The weapons were accompanied by a whopping 1,200 kilograms of various ammunition, as well as a hand grenade, seven pipe bombs, and other pyrotechnic items.

The suspect also owned a vast collection of Nazi memorabilia, including a steel helmet with a swastika, a bust of General Erwin Rommel, medals, coins, magazines, propaganda pamphlets, and other literature.

A provisional gun ban was imposed on the man and his wife while they await charges from the prosecutors.

The investigators are currently looking into their contacts in order track down anyone who assisted them in obtaining so many weapons.

The operation was praised by Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer, who said that “consistent action against right-wing extremism isn’t only part of our historical responsibility, but also a clear advocacy of our democratic coexistence in Austria.”

Latvia warns that NATO could be brought in

to ‘defend’ EU’s border with Belarus

11 Nov, 2021 14:29

A Polish soldier instals barbed wire on the Poland/Belarus border near Kuznica, Poland, in this photograph released by the Polish Defence Ministry, November 9, 2021. © Reuters / Irek Dorozanski

Latvia has cautioned that NATO could be called in to help protect the EU’s eastern border amid a rapidly escalating migrant crisis, with Brussels having accused Belarus of flying in refugees as part of a “hybrid war” campaign.

Speaking to local radio on Thursday, Defense Minister Artis Pabriks said that if Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko chooses to worsen the situation, then “I cannot rule out that even NATO could become involved, because we must defend our borders and will not open them.”

Now, what could possibly go wrong there?

According to him, the ongoing crisis should strengthen the EU’s resolve to build fortified fences along the border with the eastern European nation. In a broadside against the European Commission, he argued that officials were reacting “very slowly” to the stand-off. “If a way to respond faster isn’t found, the people of Europe will take a much dimmer view of the future potential of the EU,” he continued.

The row over the shared frontier has worsened in recent days, with neighboring Poland declaring a state of emergency and deploying thousands of troops, border guards, and police officers in response to a spike in attempted illegal crossings. Warsaw alleges that Belarusian officials are encouraging the crowds to reach the demarcation line, and using force to prevent them from turning back.

Officers deployed pepper spray and riot shields earlier this week to prevent groups of would-be asylum seekers reaching Poland. Several people are reported to have died on the Belarusian side of the border, having been forced to sleep rough in cold weather while attempting to get to safety.

Brussels is reportedly considering a package of economic measures, including against airlines it claims are responsible for ferrying desperate people to Minsk from troubled nations like Iraq, Syria, and Iran.

Lukashenko denies the claim that the worsening situation is retribution for EU sanctions, and has said his government is simply no longer prepared to stop refugees reaching the border.

Did they ever?

According to him, the crisis is one of the West’s own making, after years of foreign intervention. “What are people to do? They will go to Europe,” he insisted.

How Big a Threat is Russia to the Baltic States?

When Russia walked into Crimea and took over without firing a shot it was because Crimea is mainly Russian-speaking and they saw Russia as a better patron than Ukraine. Both countries are hopelessly corrupt, but Crimeans preferred Russia anyway.

In 2016, a UN vote was held calling Russia an occupying power, only 70 out of 193 voted in favor, 77 abstained and 26 nations voted against calling Russia an occupying power.

Consequently, there was no general condemnation for Russia moving into Crimea and protecting their only naval base on the Black Sea, after the western-backed coup that suddenly made Ukraine NATO-friendly. NATO, in their ambition to establish a raison d'etre, however, has been working feverishly in the last 2 years to demonize Russia pretending it is an imminent threat to Europe. They have been so effective at this that half of Europe is in near hysteria. Meanwhile, weapons manufacturers are getting even more filthy, and I mean 'filthy' rich than they already were.

I have accused Putin of desiring to rebuild the Soviet Empire and I'm not convinced that he has abandoned that ambition. But when I look for evidence of it, other than Crimea and eastern Ukraine, I'm hard pressed to see any.

The most obvious route of Russian expansion into Europe would come through the Baltic States: Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. They have a large number of Russian-speaking citizens and some history with the Soviet Union. I have been watching for unrest among Russian-speaking people in these countries and today I finally see it.

Colossally stupid!

The problem is, the unrest was provoked by unconstitutional education reforms by the government of Latvia. Their move against Russian speaking people was either provoked by the hysteria stirred up by NATO, or they were provoked by some more clandestine persuasion. In any event, it is a colossally stupid thing to do. It is poking the sleeping bear and daring him to respond. I have no doubt that NATO is behind this either overtly or covertly.

Russian-speaking minority in Latvia protests against new legislative attack on their identity

A protest in Riga against the introduction of Latvian as language of instruction in ethnic minorities schools

© Mikhail Korytov / Sputnik

Latvia’s largest opposition party has called for the reversal of education reforms that threaten Russian-language classes in the country’s schools, claiming they contradict the national constitution and international convention.

The Social Democratic Party, called "Harmony," represents the interests of Russian speakers that constitute up to 40 percent of Latvia’s population. The call to reverse the education reforms was made to President Raimonds Vejonis on Thursday.

Latvia 'purging unwanted media' by expelling Russian journalists over 'security threat' – Moscow

It followed a decision by the Latvian parliament to pass a bill that would exclude lessons in Russian from the curriculum in all of the country’s schools, including schools specifically for ethnic minorities. The only exception is for classes on Russian language and literature, or unspecified subjects “connected with culture and history.”

Unconstitutional law

“The bill in its new edition contradicts not only the Latvian constitution, but also Latvia-related international documents, such as the Council of Europe’s framework convention on protection of minorities, that was adopted and ratified by the Latvian parliament in 2005,” stated Harmony’s letter, as quoted by TASS.   

The convention mentioned by lawmakers provides that persons who belong to ethnic minorities have the right to study their languages, and the right to found private educational establishments. It also obliges national governments to undertake measures to give minorities such opportunities, especially in areas where the share of such minorities is large.

“The conditions set out in the convention fully match the situation in Latvia and the passed bill contradicts the convention because it provides that in several years all schools for ethnic minorities, in particular for Russians, should be banned, despite of the fact that historically there are a lot of Russian speakers living on Latvia’s territory. Apart from that, it is discriminating people on the basis of their ethnicity,” stated the open letter.

The first educational reform in Latvia that seriously undermined the teaching of Russians in the country’s schools was launched in 2004. After mass protests, the authorities adjusted the recommended curriculum and now the law allows about 40 percent of subjects in be taught in Russian.

The only official language in Latvia is Latvian and passing a language test is a strict requirement for receiving the Latvian citizenship. This has resulted in a situation whereby hundreds of thousands of people have to live with a “non-citizen” passport. Most of those non-citizens are ethnic Russians and large shares of them are Belarusians and Ukrainians, but there are also Poles and Lithuanians. Non-citizens have no voting rights, they cannot serve in the Latvian military and police and are officially banned from working as civil servants, lawyers or pharmacy salespersons.

Corruption is Everywhere - Russia, Argentina, North Korea, and even Latvia

Police bust cocaine ring at Russian Embassy

in Argentina

By Ray Downs 

Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich speaks during a press conference in Buenos Aires on February 22

after a policeman was arrested for trafficking 385 kilos of cocaine between Buenos Aires and Moscow.

Photo by David Fernández/EPA-EFE

UPI -- An international drug trafficking ring operating out of the Russian Embassy in Buenos Aires was dismantled and several arrests made, Argentine police announced on Thursday.

Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said the arrests mark the end of a 14-month investigation that began in December 2016 when Russian Embassy officials found 850 pounds of cocaine stashed in 16 pieces of luggage and alerted Argentine police. The police then switched the cocaine with flour, inserted a tracking device and waited until the bags were moved.

The suspected traffickers attempted to move the bags several times, but weren't able to do so until December 2017, The New York Times reported. At that time, the bags were put on a plane to Moscow. Three Argentine customs officials traveled with the bags to monitor them.

When the bags arrived at the Moscow airport, two Russian men there to pick them up were arrested.

Two dual citizens of Russia and Argentina -- Ivan Blizniouk and Alexander Chikalo -- were also arrested, according to Argentine newspaper, Clarín. Blizniouk is a Buenos Aires police officer accused of facilitating the shipment to get through customs. Chikalo is suspected of handling the logistics.

Ali Abyanov, a former Russian embassy official in Buenos Aires, was arrested in Moscow on Thursday. He is suspected of being the contact person at the embassy for the cocaine shipment, which came from a person police only named as "Mr. K."

Mr. K remains at large and an international warrant was put out for his arrest.

North Korean agents demanding more bribes

from defector networks

By Elizabeth Shim  

North Korea is increasingly targeting defector networks and siphoning funds meant for defector families.

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

UPI -- North Korea state security agents are increasingly profiting from money defectors in the South are wiring to their families, a sign bribery and corruption is rising among state authorities.

Brokers who are entrusted to transfer funds coming from South Korea to families in the North are being targeted and threatened, but North Korean security agents are willing to go easy on brokers if they obtain a greater cut of the funds, Daily NK reported Friday.

A source in North Hamgyong Province told the South Korean news service on Thursday authorities want more, and that for every $1,000 wired to the North, security agents take as much as $500 to enrich themselves, according to the report.

"As recently as two months ago the fee they asked was about 25-30 percent of funds being transferred from South Korea or China," the source said. "Now it is normal to ask for 40 percent."

The cut of money being pocketed by state authorities is rising because agents now have to send money to their senior supervisors as well, according to the report.

Most defectors in the South send money to their families in the North. According to the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights in Seoul, more than 60 percent of defectors in a 2016 survey said they have sent money to the North at least once.

About 30 percent said they send about $2,500 each time they make a transfer, and most said they send money once or twice a year.

It is unclear whether money transfers will become easier as détente continues on the peninsula.

South Korean news service OhMyNews reported Friday Pyongyang's decision to send Kim Yong Chol, the North Korean vice chairman of the ruling Workers' Party Central Committee, is a sign Kim Jong Un is prioritizing improved relations with the South over seeking immediate dialogue with the United States. Kim is to attend the Winter Olympics' closing ceremony on Sunday.

Latvian bank linked to N. Korea money laundering ordered closed

By Allen Cone 

Pedestrians walk past a branch of the Norvik bank in Riga, Latvia, on Wednesday. The European Central Bank on Saturday announced the bank, which has been linked to accusations of money laundering involving North Korea, would close.

Photo by Valda Kalnina/EPA

UPI -- The European Central Bank on Saturday announced it plans to close a Latvian bank linked to claims of money laundering involving North Korea.

The European regulator said Latvia's third-largest lender, ABLV Bank, was "failing or likely to fail" and its assets will be wound up, meaning they will liquidated, and they will be taken over by the laws of Latvia and Luxembourg, where one branch is located.

Earlier the central bank froze ABLV payments after an exodus of withdrawals. Latvia's representative on the ECB Governing Council, Ilmars Rimsevics, was released Monday after being detained on bribery allegations. Investigators are looking in whether he sought a bribe of $124,100.

More than $700 million in deposits and securities -- 18 percent of its liabilities at end-September -- were withdrawn after the U.S. Treasury described the bank's practices as "institutionalized money laundering." It added that the bank helped fund the North Korean missile program. Most of the bank's customers were shell companies registered outside Latvia, the Treasury Department said.

Although ABLV said it raised more than $1.67 billion, over four business days, the ECB said it lacked adequate cash liquidity. It referred the lender to Europe's Single Resolution Board.

"The bank is likely unable to pay its debts or other liabilities as they fall due," the ECB said in a statement on Saturday in Frankfurt, Germany. "The bank did not have sufficient funds which are immediately available to withstand stressed outflows of deposits before the payout procedure of the Latvian deposit-guarantee fund starts."

The bank said the allegations are politically motivated.

"It was absolutely sufficient for the bank to resume executing payments and meet all obligations toward its clients," ABLV said in a statement. "Yet due to political considerations the bank was not given a chance to do it."

Peters Putnins, who's also a member of the ECB's supervisory board, said officials don't anticipate tapping into nation's deposit insurance fund for payouts that must be started no later than March 7.

"Taxpayers don't have to worry: the bank itself will make these payments with its own resources," Putnins told reporters.

I thought they had insufficient resources? Hmmm. 

Deposits of as much as $123,000 are protected under Latvian and Luxembourg laws.

Americans Pushed into Pro-War Frenzy by Elite-Controlled MSM & NATO – Max Blumenthal

Just when I start to think that maybe my Deep State theories are a bit paranoid, someone credible comes along and agrees with them

Max Blumenthal is a New York Times bestseller political writer. His father was an aide to President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He is worth reading.

U.S. soldiers attend welcoming ceremony for U.S.-led NATO troops at polygon near Orzysz, Poland, April 13, 2017.

© Kacper Pempel / Reuters

Years of Russia hysteria and North Korea fear-mongering led by the US mainstream media and NATO propaganda have built support for war among Americans, making them ready to “fight and die” in overseas lands, author and journalist Max Blumenthal told RT.

A recent study by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs has pointed at a shift in the collective thinking and feeling of Americans, when it comes how they view global conflict.

The study was conducted over the last two years leading up to the elections in 2016 and found that Americans seem to have found a new appetite for war. 

Blumenthal, who co-hosts the “Moderate Rebels” podcast focused on US interventions and is the Senior Editor of AlterNet’s Grayzone Project, spoke to RT America’s Manila Chan about these developments.

RT: What do you make of this Chicago Council study?

Max Blumenthal: The Washington Post in a commentary framed these numbers as kind of the failure of Donald Trump’s America First policy. And I think Trump has done a pretty horrible job selling his policy. There was a non-interventionist component that he campaigned on, which proved pretty popular, particularly in places like the Rust Belt.

However, I really think that if you look at these numbers, you should look at the internals, and look at when the poll was taken, and when the numbers started to shift. They started to shift when the election campaign began. They reflect a concerted campaign by the mainstream media and by the national security state, which has unprecedented access and control over mainstream media – particularly CNN and MSNBC – to bring the American public’s views in line with the elites’ [views] of our interventionist bipartisan foreign policy consensus in Washington. Two years of non-stop red-baiting, Russia hysteria, and fear-mongering over North Korea have done the trick, particularly among Democrats.

RT: Speaking of the mainstream media, why do liberals tend to support interventionist policies at higher rates than even Republicans? It’s unusual, isn’t it?

MB: Yes, it is unusual. We should just talk about some of the numbers first. From 2015 to this summer we saw a 20 percent surge in the number of Americans who would support sending troops to defend South Korea. We also see, for the first time in history, a majority of Americans willing to send US troops to fight and die for Latvia against Russia, and that is a reflection of their support for NATO. 

Liberals disproportionately support these militaristic policies, which seem to suggest support for a hot war with Russia, and even hot war with China. It would be disastrous if they took place. So why didn’t that take place? Because of the partisan war against Trump, who has been portrayed as an enemy of NATO – even though he is now as supportive of NATO as ever; as someone who is a Manchurian candidate of Russia, who is controlled by Putin’s nine-dimensional chess and has colluded with Russia. So, Democrats tend to see Russia in a negative light, and they support interventionist policies.

But if you also look at CNN and MSNBC versus Fox News, which is the de-facto channel of the Republican Party and Trump, you see non-stop contributors from the national security state – like James Clapper, Michael Hayden, the former CIA director – pushing these kinds of militaristic policies. So, these are the channels that Democrats watch. Their media, including the Washington Post and the New York Times, has really stepped up the fear-mongering and militarism.

So, you see a total reversal from the Bush period, the Bush era – when Democrats were staunchly against the Iraq war, because it was Bush’s war. And now you see the people that are against guns that are against mass shooting – favoring pointing guns and committing mass shootings abroad. 

RT: How do you view the posture of the American people on defending eastern European countries like Lithuania and Latvia, who are members of NATO?

MB: In 2014, Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State, wife of the neo-conservative Robert Kagan, said that Americans were ready to fight and die for Latvia. That wasn’t true at the time. Now it is. These attitudes have been manufactured.

They’ve been partly manufactured by NATO propaganda. We heard at lot – especially on CNN from figures like Jake Tapper, “Deep State Jake,” who almost every show is pushing regime change in one of the non-compliant states. We heard a lot about the Zapad [West] military exercises, thinking Romania, where Russia was said to have amassed 100,000 troops on NATO borders – even “Democracy Now!” reported that.

It turns out that Jens Stoltenberg, the head of NATO, was pushing this lie – that there will be 100,000 troops. I think less than 10,000 troops in the end appeared for these military exercises. This was supposed to terrify the states. It was absolute blaster and pro-war propaganda. We’ve seen that reflected in these attitudes.

Burqa Ban Legislation Gains Enough Support to Pass in Denmark

Danish burqa ban: Which EU states is Denmark set to join with face veil restrictions?

© Global Look Press

The Danish ruling coalition parties have expressed their support for the full-face veil ban. As Denmark is set to ban the Muslim conservative garb, which EU countries will it join?

The liberal Venstre Party, the senior member of the ruling coalition, has announced its support for the ban on wearing full-face veils in public places following a party meeting dedicated to the issue Friday.

“The forthcoming ban on face covering will receive backing from Venstre,” the liberal party’s spokesman, Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, told the Danish broadcaster DR, adding that it will be “not a religiously defined ban but it will still obviously cover burqa and niqab.”

Earlier, some high-ranking members of the party, including its deputy leader, Kristian Jensen, and the Higher Education and Science Minister Soren Pind, opposed the measures but now Ellemann-Jensen said the party is “united” in its support for the move.

The stance of another coalition member, the libertarian Liberal Alliance (LA), has also drastically changed. The party that opposed the ban just last month, arguing that it might isolate Muslim women and prevent them from leaving their homes altogether, now also said it would back such an initiative.

“Everyone agrees that the burqa is an expression of extreme oppression of women,” the party leader, Anders Samuelsen, wrote Friday in a Facebook post. He went on to say that his party is “in favor” of the ban, if the Danish authorities could impose it “without harming ourselves and our values.”

By expressing their support for the ban, the Liberals and the LA join the Conservatives and the right-wing populist Danish People’s Party who already back it, thus securing a parliamentary majority and opening the way for Denmark to become the latest European country to introduce such a ban.

A recent poll commissioned by DR in late September showed that 62 percent of the Danish population are in favor of such a ban, while fewer than one in four oppose it.

In the meantime, half a dozen EU states have already introduced similar nationwide bans, while in some other countries restrictions on wearing face-covering veils exist at a regional level.

Which EU states have nationwide bans?

Austria has so far become the latest European country to ban wearing full-face veils in public places as the law called the ‘Anti-Face-Veiling Act’ came into force in the Alpine country on October 1. Those found in violation of the legislation could face a fine of €150 ($175).

The law defined by the authorities as “religiously neutral” and also banning people from wearing balaclavas, covering their faces with scarves or even wearing medical masks without sufficient reasons still provoked an angry reaction from the local Muslims.

The first country to introduce the ban, which is still often deemed to be controversial, was France that barred Muslim women from wearing full-face veils in public as early as in 2011. Belgium almost immediately followed suit and introduced a similar ban later the same year.

Both countries, however, eventually landed in court over the controversial move. In both cases, Muslim women challenged the bans in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). However, the judicial body upheld France’s burqa ban in 2014, ruling that the preservation of an idea of social cohesion was a “legitimate aim" of the French authorities.

In 2017, the court also ruled in favor of Belgian authorities in a similar case by saying that the ban “doesn’t violate European human rights law.” In the meantime, opponents of the ban also found more ingenious ways to express their discontent with it. 

A French businessman of Algerian origin, Rachid Nekkaz, has long been calling on Muslim women to defy the face veil bans introduced in European countries. He also offered to pay their fines and even established a special fund to deal with the issue.

According to Nekkaz, he already pays fines for Muslim women wearing face veils in public places in defiance of the ban in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. In his latest move, he also vowed to do the same for women in Austria.

Dutch lawmakers approved a ban on wearing face veils and other face-covering garments in certain public places such as schools, hospitals or government buildings in November 2016. The ban, however, does not cover such situations as wearing burqas on the street, but applies only to specific situations, in which face recognition and proper communication are “essential.”

Bulgaria outlawed “wearing in public clothing that partially or completely covers the face” in public places just months before the Netherlands, in September 2016, citing security concerns. Those found in defiance of the ban in Bulgaria could face fines of up to 1,500 leva (about $860) and be stripped of social benefits.

According to some reports, Latvia also failed to overcome temptation to ban the controversial peace of closing even though only three women reportedly wear the garment in the entire Baltic state. This fact, however, did not stop the Latvian lawmakers from claiming that burqa poses a “serious” security risk for Latvia and undermines its culture. 

Germany is likely to follow soon.

VE-Day Tarnished by New War of Words Between Russia, the West

Once joint celebration has become new high-water mark in 

Cold War II

What if you had a parade and nobody came?

Russian soldiers march in a rehearsal for the Victory Day Parade on May 9,
a national holiday to commemorate the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany

By Brian Stewart,
CBC News 
Only a few years ago it was still possible to imagine Russia and the West coming together to celebrate a shared moment of history — the end of the Second World War in Europe 70 years ago.

That was then. Now we're in a much harsher world in which this week's normal celebratory sentiments have been swept aside by bickering and official snubs as the U.S. and most European leaders make it clear they want nothing to do with Russia's massive military "victory parade" in Red Square on May 9.

There's a stark sadness to such infighting in this of all weeks, which, after all, commemorates the greatest combined achievement of Russia and its war-time allies: their destruction of the genocidal Nazi regime at such enormous sacrifice.

The official surrender took effect late on May 8, but it was already the 9th in Moscow, which explains the later VE-Day there, a national holiday of almost spiritual importance for Russians.

This difference always made it possible for Western leaders to celebrate both anniversaries, first at home and later in Russia. But not this year.

To get a sense of how far relations have soured, consider that a decade ago then U.S. president George W Bush made a point of flying to Moscow to stand with "my friend" Vladimir Putin during the victory parade in order to thank the Russian people directly "for their sacrifice."

Such niceties already seem quaint, part of a brief interregnum before this new Cold War II that we seem to be entering.

Regrets only

In the wake of the Crimea and Ukraine crises and resulting Western sanctions, Europe's leaders certainly don't want to be in Moscow, to be pictured lined up in the shadow of the Kremlin applauding impressive displays of Russian military might and Putin's muscular brand of nationalist fervour.

Almost all European leaders have spurned his invite outright, though German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced she will travel to Russia a day later for a relatively modest wreath-laying, which hardly appeases Russian anger.

Russia's Vladimir Putin has lashed out at the
West for not sending high-level delegations
to his VE-Day commemorations this year.
Even North Korea backed out,
for reasons of its own. (Associated Press)

This cascade of snubs has Russia seething, and Putin has responded by stirring up more anti-EU and anti-U.S. sentiment in the Russian media, which is not difficult given how much VE-Day means in that country.

He accused Washington of orchestrating the European attempt to besmirch even "this day of pride for our entire nation, a day of supreme veneration of the victorious generation."

"Their goal is obvious: to undermine Russia's power and moral authority," he said, "to divide peoples and set them against each other and use historical speculation in their geopolitical games."

Putin gave no example of this "historical speculation," though it seems to refer to Western attempts to downplay the Soviet Union's pre-eminent role in Nazi Germany's destruction.

There is little evidence for this charge, however, for few in the West and no serious historian would deny the Soviet Union's crucial part in winning that war.

The mighty Red Army

Russians bore the brunt of fighting Germany's massive ground forces, and best estimates are that 25 million Russian soldiers and civilians died in that conflict.

Without Soviet endurance and fighting power it's hard to see how the Western allies, including Canada, could have forced Germany's unconditional surrender.

Fully 80 per cent of all German soldiers killed in the Second World War died fighting the Soviets, causing even British leader Winston Churchill to remark, "It was the Red Army that tore the guts out of the Wehrmacht."

A profound ceremony on all sides.
A member of Germany's armed forces lays a
cardboard coffin containing the remains of
recently discovered World War II
German war dead last week. (Getty Images)

Today, it is certainly not denial of Russia's war sacrifices that is behind the boycott of the Moscow parade.

Rather it is the growing concern that Putin's aggressive foreign policy may again threaten large parts of Eastern Europe and is primarily responsible for the nervous Cold War-like distrust settling over the continent.

What's more, combative rhetoric on both sides of the divide has stirred up the kinds of dark WW2 emotions that divide rather than unite.

In recent months, Moscow has accused the Ukrainian government of being dominated by Fascists and neo-Nazis, and Putin has pushed overstatement to the point of comparing the Ukrainian army's campaign in the eastern breakaway belt to the Nazi siege of Leningrad — which killed over 700,000 civilians.

For their part, the leaders of those Eastern European nations that were occupied by the Soviets after Germany's defeat have been unnerved by this new hostility and some are firing back in kind.

The Polish government infuriated Russia by pointing out Germany started the war by invading Poland in 1939 only after Hitler and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact in order to brutally split Eastern Europe between them.

It has also reminded neighbours that the entry of Soviet troops in 1944-45 essentially replaced German tyranny with an oppressive Soviet one that lasted decades.

'Revision is provocation'

Moscow's full sensitivity was on display last week when its foreign ministry denounced, as "sacrilegious," Warsaw's refusal to allow a small pro-Putin motorcycle club to enter Poland on the way to VE-Day events in Berlin.  

Some nations, including China and India, will still send leaders or their representatives to the Kremlin parade. But Moscow's anger is undiminished.

Alexander Zaldostanov (front) also known as "Khirurg" (The Surgeon),
leader of the pro-Kremlin Night Wolves bikers' club, heads to a press conference
 in Brest on April 28. Ten of the pro-Kremlin bikers, on a controversial ride
to Berlin for VE-Day, were denied entry into Poland. (AFP/Getty Images)

When Latvia, one of the three Baltic states once occupied by the Soviets, suggested recently it might even remove Soviet-era war memorials from its territory, Moscow roared an ominous warning: "Revision of history is a provocation, and Russia cannot tolerate this."

Given the current poor climate of East-West antagonism, this infighting over VE-Day is a very worrying development.  

Soon after the end of the Cold War, VE-Day became one of the key occasions to bring Russia and the West together.

If it is now to become a week simply to recharge and unleash old historical feuds, we're in even more trouble than we realize. 

Brian Stewart

One of Canada's most experienced journalists and foreign correspondents, Brian Stewart is currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Munk School for Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. He also sits on the advisory board of Human Rights Watch Canada. In almost four decades of reporting, he has covered many of the world's conflicts and reported from 10 war zones, from El Salvador to Beirut and Afghanistan.