On October 14, the Azov Battalion – Ukraine’s controversial ultranationalist paramilitary group that has been fighting in the Donbas as part of the National Guard – entered the political fray. Registered as a political party under the name National Corps, the new party proposes an ambitious military and nationalist agenda, including a re-nationalization of Ukraine’s private sector and nuclear re-arming. Azov counts some unsavory members among its ranks, including self-proclaimed fascists, but its main front has been the battlefield. In August 2014, Azov’s fighters were reportedly key in helping fend off a major Russian offensive on Mariupol. Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has hailed the battalion for its military prowess. But unlike Azov’s achievements on the battlefield, its time in politics is likely to be very short lived.
Ultranationalist parties have never been popular in Ukraine, and Azov is just another boogieman in a long line of failed ultranationalist groups that have tried their hand at politics. Before Azov, the boogieman and darling of the Kremlin’s propaganda machine was the Right Sector. During the Maidan protests, Right Sector, with which Azov coordinates some of its activities, received a disproportionate amount of media attention (partially due to its prime location on Kyiv’s Independence Square close to international journalists). In reality, Right Sector members, who share some ideological leanings with Azov, were a tiny presence on the Maidan. While leaders of the group boasted membership of more than 10,000, most experts at the time estimated that the number was closer to 300 to 500. Like Azov, Right Sector became a political party in May 2014. Right Sector’s leader, Dmitry Yarosh, ran for president in May 2014 and received less than one percent of the vote. According to polls at the time, 1.7 percent of Ukrainians supported Right Sector. The party did eventually win two seats in parliament (one is Yarosh’s) in October 2014, but they have acted mainly as backbench MPs and refused to join any political faction. Yarosh left the party in 2015. Today, Right Sector has little influence in Ukrainian politics.
