Ever since US Special Envoy on Anti-Semitism Ira Forman declared claims of anti-Semitism in the Ukrainian neo-Nazi movement “groundless,” the leaders of the Right Sector, which makes up a good chunk of that movement, have tried to play up their role as a respectable brand of pro-West fascists.
But even in between the occasional trouncing of Kievan rabbis, the Right Sector isn’t very good at brand management, as today’s interview of a top Right Sector leader, Igor Mazur, demonstrates.
Mazur was quick to insist it was impossible for him to be an anti-Semite, insisting that his “son’s godfather is half-Jewish.” Apparently figuring that should cover it, Mazur followed this with a protracted diatribe on “Jewish oligarchs.”
Mazur declared that all the major business leaders in Ukraine are secretly Jewish and “only care for their trans-national business empires.” He went on to say that the Right Sector thinks Yulia Tymoshenko, the pro-West billionaire recently freed from prison, “has some Jewish blood in her.”
