A much-vaunted anti-Russia rally in late February which was headlined by Samantha Power, the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, was organized by avowed supporters of Nazi militants in Ukraine, a new report has revealed.
An exposé by journalist Alex Rubinstein for independent American investigative outlet The Grayzone found that both a key organizer and a speaker at what USAID billed as a “public rally” on February 25 to “stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people” have proudly and publicly declared their allegiance to war criminals and notorious Nazi collaborators.
Arguably most alarming conduct came from Nadiya Shaporynska, the founder of an aggressively Russophobic group known as US Ukrainian Activists, which was reportedly the main organizing force behind the demonstration.
As the outlet explains, “Shaporynska’s Facebook posts over the years reveal her enthusiastic support and fundraising for avowedly fascist Ukrainian militias including Right Sector and its leader, Dymtro Yarosh, the Azov Battalion*, the Aidar Battalion, and former Donbas Battalion commander Semen Semenchenko.“
According to the Grayzone, Shaporynska “organized a charity concert for Azov and the Aidar Battalion in January of 2015,” under the auspices of another group she founded called United Help for Ukraine.
“United Help for Ukraine has described its co-founder, Tanya Aldave, as a 'true Banderite,' – in other words, an admirer of the Ukrainian Nazi collaborator Bandera,” Rubinstein notes.
Such “Banderite activists constantly appear alongside Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, in photos posted to social media,” the outlet observes – a fact which the Grayzone says shows “their close working relationship with Zelensky’s government in Kiev.”
Shaporynska and her colleagues previously published photographs of themselves clad in red and black in posts describing the group as the “Washington DC Right Sector Branch” in which they vowed their “support” for the then-leader of the notorious Nazi militia in 2015 as well, Rubinstein reports.
Months later, “Shaporynska threw yet another 'charity concert,' this time featuring Georgian warlord Mamuka Mamulashvili as its guest of honor". Last year, the infamous Mamulashvili promised to execute every single Russian service member who was captured by his forces.
But the principal organizer of the rally wasn’t the only one with a not-so-hidden inclination towards self-declared Nazi militants. Also speaking were USAID Administrator Power, Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Marakova, Biden’s Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Karen Donfried, District of Columbia Secretary of State Kimberly Bassett, US Chamber of Commerce Board Chairman Mark Ordan, EU Ambassador to the United States Stavros Lambrinidis, and Paul Grod, President of the Ukrainian World Congress.
As Rubinstein points out, “Grod has made a career out of defending the legacy of Nazi collaborators, and even once petitioned the Canadian government to officially recognize the genocidal Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, or OUN, as ‘designated resistance fighters’” – a designation which he notes “would have funneled Canadian tax dollars directly into the pension accounts of Nazi collaborators.”
What’s more, in 2010, Grod reportedly “honored the legacy of the Waffen SS Galicia, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists as heroes who fought 'for the freedom of their ancestral Ukrainian homeland.'”
Reached for comment by Sputnik News, Rubinstein explained that having “seen the pictures of our current commander-in-chief with neo-Nazi Oleh Tiahnybok,” it should come as no surprise that we “see members of the US government collaborating with fascists.”
“Those who paid any attention” during the ‘Maidan’ coup of 2014 are “well aware of how the US partnered with so-called 'civil society' to be the face of the protests as violent ultranationalists rampaged just off camera,” the journalist notes.
"This partnership between US regime change agencies like USAID and so-called 'democracy' activists was a feature of the Obama Administration and, with Samantha Power at USAID, it's clear the Biden Administration is trying to bring it back".
“She’ll work with anyone that may be useful for the American empire - cultists, jihadists, Banderites,” Rubinstein says, noting a previous story he published which revealed Power once spoke at “a conference hosted by the Church of Scientology".
Rubinstein blasted corporate media coverage of the pro-war rally, which universally ignored the fascist sympathies of its organizers and speakers.
“The mainstream corporate media acted dutifully in omitting any mentions of ultranationalist elements, merely referring to the organizers and protesters as the “Ukrainian community,”” Rubinstein says.
“Despite the abundance of fascist red and black flags at the rally,” a reader would have “come away from consuming media coverage with a righteous anger over their hardships” – a phenomenon which occurs “by design,” he says.
By contrast, the recent Rage Against the War Machine rally, which saw anti-war voices including former US Representatives Tulsi Gabbard, Ron Paul, and Dennis Kucinich gathered at the Lincoln Memorial just a few days prior, was “attacked ruthlessly and relentlessly” by corporate news outlets.
The disparity in coverage shows that “the White House and the mainstream media are clearly doing everything in their power to elevate pro-war voices and censor anyone who threatens their huge wartime profits,” he adds.
*Azov Battalion is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.