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 of Antiwar.com.