Transnational Provocation
Russian Nationalists and Secret Agents in Ukraine
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine is supported by several groups. The first wave, in early April 2014, consisted mostly of journalists and local politicians who were integrated into transnational neo-Nazi, neo-Stalinist, and ultra-orthodox net-works operating out of Moscow. After the men of this first wave had been arrested, a second generation of separatists took its place. This group involves first and foremost heavily armed former soldiers of the wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya. In addition, it includes special units from Russia’s military intelligence service GRU, renegade members of Ukrainian police and security forces, Cossacks, radical right-wingers seeking adventure in war, and humiliated, violent young men from Ukraine and Russia.
(Osteuropa 5-6/2014, pp. 157–174)