Azov Lobby Goes to Brussels

 

A couple days ago, representatives of the notorious Azov Brigade in the National Guard of Ukraine (NGU) “held numerous meetings at the NATO headquarters” in Brussels. Among other NATO officials, the Azov delegation met with Marie-Doha Besancenot, the Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy. They also participated in an event at the European Policy Centre, a think tank partially funded by the EU. Yesterday they met with the “Group of Friends of Ukraine in the European Parliament,” and Marta Wytrykowska, deputy head of the Ukraine division at the Diplomatic Service of the European Union.

“Jedi,” whose real name is Serhii Rotchuk, or Serhii Grushin, led the delegation. He was one of the Azovites invited to play golf at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington earlier this year. “Jedi” is one of the leaders of the NGU Azov brigade’s medical service. He emphasized that Azov trains according to NATO standards. In his oldest Instagram post, from 2019, he is wearing a “Rock Against Communism” shirt produced by a National Socialist Black Metal brand affiliated with the hardcore neo-Nazi group “Wotanjugend,” which originated in Russia. Last year, he expressed interest in a book by Léon Degrelle, the Nazi collaborator who led the far-right Rexist Party in Belgium.

The more surprising Azov representative was Nestor Barchuk, who seemed out of place as an alleged “fighter.” Other reports have clarified that he is Azov’s “coordinator of international relations,” or perhaps more likely, “the brigade’s legal advisor.” Barchuk is the international relations manager of the DEJURE Foundation, a “leading NGO in judicial reform” with numerous international backers, including the EU, Council of Europe, U.S. National Endowment for Democracy, the Netherlands, and Germany. Since 2021, Barchuk has written at least four articles (three with his boss, Mykhailo Zhernakov) for the Atlantic Council, an influential Washington think tank that counts NATO among its financial supporters.

“Russian propaganda was successful,” Barchuk told the European Policy Centre, referring to “those narratives of Russian propaganda that we are Nazi, and we are far-right.” Sitting next to him, “Jedi” reached for a glass of water, and looked like he might burst out laughing.  (more...)

Azov Lobby Goes to Brussels