Senator McCain mixes with Nazis?

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Russian Jewish organizations in the US are indignant about the conduct of Senator John McCain. The support which he offered to a Ukrainian opposition leader, Oleg Tyagnibok, has served as a reason for their criticism. The point is that the Ukrainian opposition leader is well known for his nationalist, to be more exact, anti-Semitic views.

In both Ukraine and abroad he has gained renown for his politically incorrect statements. Admiring the fighters of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), he said that they had fought against the "moskali" (Russians), the Germans, the Yids, and other scum of the earth. In many countries the use of such words by a politician would mean the end of his (her) career, and he (she) would be jailed. However, as it appears, John McCain found nothing insulting in these words.

The Republican Senator who arrived in Ukraine to support the participants of the Maidan events and who was due to make a speech on the Independence Square in Kiev, decided that there was nothing in these words to be ashamed of and appeared on the same stage with the leader of the Ukrainian Svoboda Party Oleg Tyagnibok. Such unscrupulousness in the choice of partners has angered the Jewish organizations in the US, Israel and Russia. It would be good to mention here that some time ago the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation put Oleg Tyagnibok on the list of the top 10 anti-Semites. Commenting on the situation, the head of the Holocaust Foundation Alla Gerber says:

"I know very well that this Ukrainian politician is really a monstrous anti-Semite. He is a Nazi, not an anti-Semite. And I know very well what anti-Semitic statements he made earlier. I am a normal person. I am not anti-American, and I don’t have anything against America or any Western country. I am a tolerant person. We know that the situation in Ukraine is very difficult now and that they want to back the pro-EU protesters but there are moments when one must stop. And this is exactly the case."

Some time ago, in response to Putin’s article that was published in "The New York Times" McCain wrote an article for the newspaper "Pravda". At that time political analysts rebuked the US senator, saying that he "had bogged down" in the cold war epoch. They found it strange that he continued to believe that "Pravda" was still the main newspaper in Russia. In view of the above-mentioned, one can assume that McCain knows very little about Ukraine and its politicians.

However, there is reason to believe that McCain knew very well who Oleg Tyagnibok is. Surely, this scandal will not be fraught with serious consequences for the US Republican Senator, Chair of the Department of General Political Sciences at the Faculty of Applied Politology of the Higher School of Economics Leonid Polyakov says.

"He is a very experienced politician and he will be able to explain why he came into contact with Oleg Tyagnibok. Really, the leaders of the "Svoboda" Party - Tyagnibok and Miroshnichenko - have been put on the list of the top 10 Anti-Semites. Of course, John McCain is well aware of that. However, his goal was to create a belt of political instability around Russia. Therefore, it is absolutely clear why the Jewish organizations were angered. The "real policy" principles McCain is guided by is the prevailing factor here.

Europe’s conduct is causing certain puzzlement though. Some time ago the European Parliament passed a resolution, urging the Ukrainian parties not to cooperate with the Svoboda Party. Even the members of the European ultra -right organizations find its slogans excessively radical. Suffice it to mention here that the Svoboda Party was expelled from the Alliance of European National Movements. Despite that after the supporters of closer ties between Ukraine and the European Union began to stage rallies on the Independence Square in Kiev, European politicians started to make visits to Kiev. And although they faced the necessity to voice their support to Oleg Tyagnibok, none of them gave up the idea.