this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
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Weird how they only use symbols that are widely used by neo-Nazi groups.
https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/wolfsangel
Arguing "well actshually they used a bunch of different symbols" is more Nazi apologia since very few symbols were used as widely by the Nazis as the swastika or the wolfsangel. There's a reason you don't see neo-Nazis tattooing antifa flags on their bodies.
In the US, that might be true. Germany doesn't recognise it as such (page 82, "only illegal in connection with outlawed organisations, otherwise legal"), and neither does Ukraine. Context matters.
You can consider it more akin to the Iron Cross, just less common, which the ADL has a much better take on: "[...] an Iron Cross in isolation (i.e., without a superimposed swastika or without other accompanying hate symbols) cannot be determined to be a hate symbol. Care must therefore be used to correctly interpret this symbol in whatever context in which it may be found."
So they change their flag from one symbol widely used by Nazis to another symbol widely used by Nazis, but somehow that doesn't make them Nazis.
The context is it's a widely-known Nazi symbol on a flag for a battalion whose members frequently express neo-Nazi views. What other fucking context do you need?
No the interior ministry kept the non-Nazi part of their emblem. They also kept the name, which also isn't Nazi but the name of the Azov Sea (east of Crimea, north of the Kerch straight). When Azov got integrated into state structure tons of Nazis left because they didn't want to be under state control and be told what they could and couldn't do politically etc, some stayed but the state imposed strict "don't do Nazi things" controls. In the beginning (2016 or such) it was about 20% Nazis left over so even back then a minority, there's been churn and growth since then so it should be quite a bit lower by now.
The old pre-national guard Azov was definitely a Nazi cesspool, yes, and alas one of the very few capable fighting forces at the start of the Russian invasion (for the record, that's 2014). Then regular people joined because they also wanted to fight and could look past the iffiness, that's why Azov already hadn't been purely Nazi at the time the Ukrainian state integrated and denazified them.
But all that nuance is lost in both Russian propaganda and also western media, where some libs found themselves a juicy topic to sell clicks with.