Azov is obviously a problem but my understanding is that the Nazi ideology has been significantly toned down. In fact I suspect the characterization of Azov as a Nazi organization is profoundly exaggerated. If it was a clear Nazi organization today it would not have had numerous Jewish volunteers.
Israeli news also don’t seem to characterize them as Nazis. That does not mean they cannot commit atrocities or war crimes. However I don’t think they commit war crimes because they are Nazis.
The Red Army has been absolutely horrendous. Does that make them Nazis? You can be brutal sadists without being a Nazi.
I feel a lot of people are using the Nazi past of Azov as some sort of rhetorical device to justify anything Russia does in Ukraine. We know how this works. If you are a Nazi, then you no longer need to be treated as a human. By trying to paint the whole Ukrainian population as Nazis the Kremlin propaganda apparatus is trying to justify their war crimes.
We saw the same in Afghanistan and Iraq. By painting all opponents as terrorists one basically gave US armed forces a sort of license to do anything. I remember when complaining about torture, Abu Graib, Gitmo etc how many conservatives shrugged and said: “They are terrorists. They don’t deserve humane treatment.”
By sticking as ugly label as possible on each other one can justify crimes against humanity. Or rather one can get people to be indifferent. The Red Army raped millions of German women after WW2 but everybody shrugged: They were Nazis. They did the Holocaust. They are not humans.
My hope in this conflict is that we hold those who commit war crimes, whomever they are accountable, but that we abstain from labeling a whole people. Ukrainians are not Nazis or Nazi sympathizers. Not everyone in Azov are Nazis or war criminals. Just like not everyone in the Red Army are war criminals.
Considerable responsibility rests with leaders. They have an obligation to punish soldiers committing crimes against civilians.
Ukrainians no doubt are guilty of this as well. It is however hard to focus on at the moment since Russia will exploit any focus on Ukrainian atrocities to win a propaganda war. To me it is a question of priority. Russia is the primary aggressor at the moment and thus our sympathy should focus on Ukraine even if Russians surely suffer at the hands of Ukrainians.
I would rather focus on those Russians who suffer the oppression of Putin and who demonstrate of peace. Celebrating those Russian is more conducing to winning the propaganda war that derailing the narrative to talk about Nazis in Ukraine.
