June 21, the major Portuguese newspaper Publico published blatantly incompetent material against the volunteer Azov Regiment of the National Guard of Ukraine, rightly condemned by Ukraine’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Portugal Inna Ognivets as a manifestation of the Kremlin’s hybrid warfare. Pro-Kremlin propagandist Anatoliy Shariy, in fact, confirmed it, having promised to exploit for his own purposes all such pseudo-investigations by “journalists” who present this exemplary unit of the NGU as a “training ground for paramilitary extremists” and an analogue of “ISIS in Syria.”
The formal reason for providing the site to the well-known pro-Russian journalist was the participation of International Secretary of National Corps Olena Semenyaka at the Forum Prisma Actual on May 4, 2019 in Lisbon at the invitation of Escudo Identitário, during which she presented the program of the Intermarium Support Group.
Having barely handled a few pages of this frankly belated “investigation” in the spirit of tabloid detectives, we repeat the following:
- the Azov special purpose detachment of the military unit #3057 of the National Guard of Ukraine has long denied slander about its ties with terrorist Brenton Tarrant and “organization of paramilitary training” for foreigners;
- National Corps is a political party that in principle has nothing to do with paramilitary activities;
- due to the lack of any evidence base, both on the alleged “paramilitary training” for foreigners by the Azov Regiment and on Brenton Tarrant’s ties to it (a slander spread by another violator of journalistic standards, Ali Sufan), the only formation recently recognized by the US State Department as a foreign terrorist organization turned out to be the Russian Imperial Movement https://www.state.gov/united-states-designates-russian-imperial-movement-and-leaders-as- global-terrorists/;
- International Secretary of National Corps Olena Semenyaka, who even “before the Maidan” has never supported neo-Eurasianism and crossed paths with Aleksander Dugin only at a conference on traditionalist studies in 2011, back in 2018 called on conference participants in Germany to distance themselves from the RIM delegates. Her recent interview for the Counter Extremism Project, among others, formed the basis of an expert opinion on the need to shift the focus from pro-Ukrainian foreign volunteers to foreign extremists on the side of “Novorossiya” as a threat to public order and international security https://www.counterextremism.com/press/new-cep-report-career-break-or-new-career-extremist-foreign-fighters-ukraine;
- situational cooperation of International Secretary of National Corps Olena Semenyaka with Denis Nikitin and Alexei Levkin was aimed only at bringing the voice of Russian political emigrants to foreign audiences;
- members of the American organization Rise Above Movement, one of whom took part in a sports tournament at the Reconquista Club in Kyiv (currently inactive), according to a statement by National Corps which was made two years ago, did not participate in any “paramilitary training” in Ukraine and eventually were acquitted of terrorist charges by the US court https://nationalcorps.org/ram-vdvdali-ukranu-suto-dlja-uchast-v-sportivnomu-turnr/;
- Intermarium Support Group, established by National Corps, is not responsible for the activities of independent communities like the Misanthropic Division and does not cooperate with them.
Well aware of the real reasons for the intensification of Kremlin’s lobbyists, we promise to continue fruitful communication with the Portuguese allies and beyond, thus implementing a strategy of the transition from regional to pan-European cooperation.
