Is it true that the Ukrainian Azov regiment was included in the list of terrorist organizations in the United States and Japan?

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In an interview with the BBC channel, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Azov regiment was included in the list of terrorist organizations in a number of Western countries, including the United States and Japan. We checked whether the minister is right.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in interview The BBC British channel said that Russia was forced to declare a “special military operation” due to the “criminal activity” of the West, which took care of a neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine. As an illustration of this laurel regime brought The response of the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky to the question of the correspondent of CNN about Azov: “When he (Zelensky. - Approx. Ed.) The CNN correspondent said that the Azov regiment was included in some Western countries, in Japan, to the list of extremist, terrorist organizations, Zelensky shrugged and said that they had such battalions and regiments A lot, they are as they are. ” These words of Lavrov were quoted by many media outlets, including TASS, RIA "News", TV channel "360 °", "Arguments and Facts".

Since the beginning of hostilities, Zelensky has given several interview And comments to the American channel CNN. In none of them, we were not able to find the mention of the Azov regiment. Perhaps the Minister Lavrov meant interview Zelensky to another American channel - Fox News, which took place in April 2022. There, journalist Bret Bayer, asked Zelensky to comment on reports of the Azov connection with neo -Nazi ideology. Zelensky replied: “Azov was one of many of these (volunteer. - approx. Ed.) Battalions. They are what they are, they defended our country. Subsequently, all components of those volunteer battalions were included in the armed forces of Ukraine. These fighters of Azov are no longer an independent group, but part of the Ukrainian armed forces. Back in 2014, there were situations when these volunteers were surrounded and some of them really violated the laws, the laws of Ukraine, and they were really attracted to court and sentenced to prison terms. So the law is above all. ” At the same time, the host Fox News did not mention in which countries “Azov” is considered terrorist or extremist.

Lavrov separately mentioned that the Azov regiment was included in the list of terrorist groups in the USA and Japan. Nevertheless, the "Azov" could not be found either in list foreign terrorist organizations on the website of the US State Department, nor on site US National Intelligence Director. In 2019, a group of 40 members of the US House of Representatives I asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to explain why Azov is not included in the list of international terrorist organizations. It is unlikely that the lack of Azov on the US Black List was a secret for the Foreign Ministry. In 2021, a colleague Sergey Lavrova Maria Zakharova expressed perplexity about this.

The Japanese public security service under the Ministry of Justice also does not consider the Azov regiment a neo -Nazi organization. In 2021, the regiment was mentioned in reference book According to international terrorism, which gives data from various sources, including foreign and Japanese press. In April 2022, the Japanese Public Security Service She saidthat the information in this directory cannot be considered the official position of the Japanese government, and removed the mention of Azov from the reference book in order to prevent the “dissemination of actually incorrect information”. And again the speaker of the Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova Commented The exclusion of the mention of Azov from the directory of international terrorism, saying that Japan “integrated into the Russophobic ranks” and now occupies the first line in Asian expanses in this regard.

It is worth noting that in Russia the Azov regiment is also not recognized terroristnor extremist organization. According to law, Russian media always marks organizations from these two lists with a note “recognized as terrorist / extremist and prohibited in the Russian Federation”, as, for example, in case With META. Azov regiment of the media Mention Without any footnotes about prohibited organizations, only sometimes attributing that “criminal cases have been instituted against the Azov militants in the Russian Federation.”

Thus, in an interview with BBC, Lavrov, firstly, confused the name of the channel that asked Zelensky the question of the Azov shelf, and secondly, he thought up the introduction of Azov in the list of terrorist organizations in the United States and Japan, which does not correspond to reality.

Addition 02/08/2022: August 2, 2022 Supreme Court of Russia Recognized Azov with a terrorist organization banned its activities in Russia.

The image on the cover: a soldier of the Azov regiment. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

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