He said he joined the [Azov Regiment] because of the soldiers’ professional and intellectual prowess. “Because I am motivated, dedicated, self-proven, and I matched the people just like me, people who constantly training, who have big ideas in their heads. A lot of intellectual people. A lot of people who willingly came to military service.”

[...] Samoilenko said that he has overcome the mental damage from solitary confinement. He remembers a moment when he was able to laugh at an internet meme, and felt like he had returned to himself.

He sees Israel and Ukraine on the same side, the civilized battling the uncivilized in a struggle for the future of humanity.

“We have prosperity, beautiful, prosperous, beautiful civilization, and they have medieval cavemen,” he said, mixing historical metaphors.

    • huf [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      yeah but

      “The rest of the right-wing radicals, who clearly articulated their views, were deliberately cleaned out by the new commandant of the regiment in 2017,” Lykhachov explained.

      they got some media training in 2017. that's what i'm reading here. so they're not nazis anymore, shut up.

      • TornadoThompson [none/use name]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        That's pretty much how it goes.

        '...lads. Lads! This whole Nazi thing is making us look bad, what do?' '...look, just get a haircut and longsleeve shirt to cover up all those tattoos and it'll be golden, right? We change a few words here and there in our press releases and... - wait, is that Samoilenko on tv? He said the caveman thing? For fuck's sake!'

        • huf [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          nah, saying the caveman stuff is fine. so are the tattoos, actually. you see, liberals will never turn on a nazi unless they say "i love hitler" or wave an actual swastika.

          and not even then, sometimes.

          so yeah, all those nazi tatoo dudes in all those photo ops are AFTER a successful media training. this is good enough for libs.

          imagine the kind of nazi they had to kick out... literally constantly :frothingfash:

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Yeah, cleaned out and then spread around the military to ensure ideological compliance.