A populist party that locates its support in the western (predominantly Ukrainian-speaking) part of Ukraine, Svoboda traces its roots to a variety of extreme right movements and militias that formed in the era of post-Soviet independence. Anti-Semitic and racist statements by its leaders, calls for ‘Ukrainophobia’ to be criminally prosecuted, a political programme predicated largely on ethnic grievance, and a reverence for the Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, have earned Svoboda a fascist reputation, a status that has become even more prominent with Moscow’s incessant propagandising.
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