Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN says the West will try to mislead the public with this “awful truth”
Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, along with dozens of sharp-eyed social media users, noted that the suspect used the same neo-Nazi symbol as the Azov Regiment in Ukraine during Saturday’s deadly shooting in the United States.
Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, noted that the “Sonenrad” or “Black Sun” symbol, which adorned the manifesto published by the Buffalo shooter, had been displayed on the Azov Regiment of Ukraine for years and was white supremacist and neo-liberal. A commonly used image between groups.
“I wonder what our Western colleagues will come up with to distract the public from this awful incident.” Polyansky commented on his telegram channel that despite Russia’s warnings that the Azov Battalion was actively funded and promoted by the West, it was an extremist neo-Nazi paramilitary unit.
The main suspect in the Buffalo shootings, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, has been charged with killing 10 people and injuring three others, which police believe is a racially motivated crime. He is known to have been a white supremacist inspired by mass shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019.
Like the perpetrators of the Christchurch shooting, Gendron posted an online statement explaining his ideology before launching his live-streamed murder. The manifesto featured an alternate version of the Black Sun and images posted online Showed She wore it on her clothes.
There are different versions of the Black Sun design; However, the one Jendron chose was the Azov Battalion, similar to the one used for their original symbol, a wolfsangel, another Nazi-linked symbol.
The Azov symbol is in the news not only in Slovakia but also in Buffalo, where Saturday’s heinous, racist mass shooter was a fan of the same modified “black sun” that Azov uses on the back of his Wolfsangel. The symbol is said to be on the front page of Peyton Gendron’s Hate Manifesto. pic.twitter.com/nl6XYZzTYl
– Kevin Rothrock (@ Kevin Rothrock) May 15, 2022
The connection between the Azov Battalion and neo-Nazi symbolism was widely covered by Western media outlets, including Time Magazine and the New York Times, before Russia invaded Ukraine.
Nevertheless, the unit was incorporated into the National Guard of Ukraine in 2014. Kyiv has claimed that neo-Nazi ideologues have been expelled from its post, but critics point to the continued and prominent use of the Nazi-linked image group.
“Azov is not a Nazi. This is a Putin propaganda lie!” Also: “The Buffalo shooter has nothing to do with Azov! It’s just that they both play Sonnarad because it’s a universal Nazi symbol!”
– Dan Karvik (এমDanMarvik) May 15, 2022
Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. Some should even take action on Twitter and censor accounts that post such claims.
There is already a lot of confusion about mass shooters in Buffalo, NY. To be clear, his manifesto did not include the “Azov Battalion Symbol” – it was a sonnrad (black sun), a common white hegemonic symbol.
– Caroline Or Bueno, PhD (VRVAwonk) May 14, 2022
Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, following Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the first Minsk agreement signed in 2014 and the final recognition of Moscow’s Donetsk and Lugansk’s Donbas republics. The German- and French-brokered Minsk protocol was designed to give special status to isolated territories within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine formally declare itself a neutral state that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kyiv has insisted that the Russian invasion was completely unpopular and has denied claims that it is planning to forcibly retake the two republics.
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