Ukraine Right Sector Leader Rails Against ‘Jewish Oligarchs’

Insists He Has a Half-Jewish Friend, So He Can't Be Anti-Semite

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.”

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.