17 March 2014

Pro-Russian extremists observe the illegitimate Crimean "referendum"

The illegitimate "referendum" in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, which was held in this Ukrainian region at the gunpoint of Russian invaders on Sunday, has proven my point again. Supported by the pariah states such as North Korea and Assad's Syria, yet strongly defied by the civilised world that is beginning to understand the terrifying nature of Putin's Russia, the Crimean "referendum" has, however, been hailed as "fair" and "legitimate" by a number of European "election monitors" who have been hired by dubious European structures and who have clear links to the extreme right, extreme left, and pro-Russian organisations/companies.

The main organisation which invited right-wing and left-wing extremists to monitor the Crimean "referendum" is the Eurasian Observatory For Democracy & Elections (EODE). It is headed by Luc Michel (1958) and Jean-Pierre Vandersmissen (???). Both are followers of the major Belgian collaborationist and neo-Nazi Jean-François Thiriart and members of the extreme right Parti Communautaire National-Européen (PCN-NCP).

Luc Michel

Jean-Pierre Vandersmissen and Fabrice Beaur (PCN-NCP) in the break-away "state" of Transnistria

The list of the "monitors" invited by the EODE has not been published in full, but - thanks to various sources - the following observers of the Crimean "referendum" have been identified.


Johannes Hübner (1956), member of the radical right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ).

Johannes Hübner

Johann Gudenus (1976), member of the radical right-wing populist FPÖ.

Johann Gudenus
Ewald Johann Stadler (1961), former member of the FPÖ, current member of the radical right-wing populist Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ).

Johann Stadler


Frank Creyelman (1961), former member of the extreme right Vlaams Blok, current member of the extreme right Vlaams Belang.

Frank Creyelman
Luc Michel (1958), former member of the neo-Nazi Fédération d'action nationale et européenne (FANE), current member of the extreme right Parti Communautaire National-Européen (PCN-NCP).

Luc Michel

Jan Penris (1964), member of the extreme right Vlaams Belang.

Jan Penris

Christian Verougstraete (1950), member of the extreme right Vlaams Belang, member of the pan-European radical right-wing Alliance of European National Movements (AENM).

Christian Verougstraete


Pavel Chernev (1969), member of the extreme right Ataka party.

Pavel Chernev
Kiril Kolev (1990), member the extreme right Ataka party.

Kiril Kolev

Erkki Johan Bäckman (1971), neo-Stalinist who does not recognise Estonia and Latvia as states.

Johan Johan Bäckman


Aymeric Chauprade (1969), member of the radical right-wing populist National Front, adviser on international issues.

Aymeric Chauprade


Hikmat Al-Sabty (1954), Iraq-born member of the left-wing Die Linke.

Hikmat Al-Sabty
Torsten Koplin (1962), former unofficial member of Stasi (East German secret police), current member of the left-wing Die Linke.

Torsten Koplin

Piotr Luczak (???), member of the left-wing Die Linke, 2nd Chair of the European Centre for Geopolitical Analysis, which cooperates with the EODE.

Piotr Luczak

Monika Merk (1963), member of the left-wing Die Linke, Secretary of the European Centre for Geopolitical Analysis, which cooperates with the EODE.

Monika Merk

Manuel Ochsenreiter (1976), far-right journalist, member of the New Right (Neue Rechte) movement.

Manuel Ochsenreiter


Charalampos Angourakis (1951), member of the neo-Stalinist, eurosceptic Communist Party of Greece (KKE).
Charalampos Angourakis


Béla Kovács (1960), member of extreme right Jobbik, Treasurer of the AENM.

Béla Kovács

Lev Malinsky (Avenais) (1946), journalist, head of the Russian-language communications department at BenOr Consulting.

Lev Malinsky
Sergey Podrazhansky (???), right-wing journalist, former editor-in-chief of the Israeli Russian-language Vesti newspaper.

Sergey Podrazhansky


Fabrizio Bertot (1967), member of mafia boss Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing Forza Italia.

Fabrizio Bertot

Claudio D'Amico (1965), member of the radical right-wing populist Lega Nord.

Claudio D'Amico
Valerio Cignetti (1962), member of the extreme right Fiamma Tricolore, General Secretary of the AENM.

Valerio Cignetti


Miroslavs Mitrofanovs (1966), co-chair of the pro-Russian party For Human Rights in United Latvia.
Miroslavs Mitrofanovs
Tatjana Ždanoka (1950), former member of the Communist Party of Latvia, former member of the  Interfront that opposed Latvia's independence from the Soviet Union, current member of the pro-Russian party For Human Rights in United Latvia.

Tatjana Ždanoka


Adam Krzysztof Kępiński (1975), member of the left-wing Democratic Left Alliance.

Adam Krzysztof Kępiński

Mateusz Piskorski (1977), member of the radical right-wing Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland.

Mateusz Piskorski
Andrzej Romanek (1967), member of the right-wing Solidary Poland.

Andrzej Romanek


Milenko Baborac (1966), member of the far right, ultra-Orthodox Dveri Movement.

Milenko Baborac
Nenad Popović (1966), vice-president of the right-wing eurosceptic Democratic Party of Serbia, president of the honorary council of the Russian-Serbian Friendship Society.

Nenad Popović
Zoran Radojicic (???), member of the far right, ultra-Orthodox Dveri Movement.

Zoran Radojicic


Oleg Denisenko (1962), member of the neo-Stalinist, national-bolshevik Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

Oleg Denisenko


Pedro Mouriño (1974), member of the right-wing Partido Popular, President of the Mediasiete Corporation, a PR company that focuses, in particular, on the Russian-speaking markets.

Pedro Mouriño

Enrique Ravello (1968), former member of the neo-Nazi CEDADE, former member of the extreme right, neo-pagan Terre et Peuple organisation, current member of the extreme right Plataforma per Catalunya.

Enrique Ravello


Srđa Trifković (1954), Serbia-born anti-Semitic and Islamophobic writer. Known as an advocate of Slobodan Milošević's regime.

Srđa Trifković

This list gives us a very accurate idea of who Putin's allies are: right-wing extremists, neo-Stalinists, eurosceptics, neo-Nazis, etc.* One question remains unanswered though: When approached by the EODE, a number of European far right parties officially declined to send their representatives to observe the Crimean "referendum", but "monitors" from the National Front, Freedom Party of Austria and Vlaams Belang did go to the Crimea. The answer seems to lie in the European Parliament elections that will be held in May 2014. Since, in Europe, Putin's Russia is being increasingly considered a very dangerous pariah state, it seems reasonable to suggest that far right parties do not want to risk alienating their potential voters and, instead, allowed their members to make individual decisions as to whether become observers at the illegal "referendum" or not.

In conclusion, some sad humour: many European "observers" were allowed to enter Ukraine so easily, because Ukraine had liberated the visa regime for EU nationals. They can freely travel to Ukraine and stay in the country up to three months. (The EU has not returned the favour to Ukrainians yet.) Russia has no such liberal norms, and the process of obtaining Russian visas is very complicated. If the Crimea becomes Russian, the extremist "observers" will have to arrange Russian visas to enter the region again. However, I doubt they would want to go to the Crimea: their task was to disrupt the peace in the region, rather than contribute to its prosperity and flourishing.

* - I should stress that this list is not complete (various sources claim that there were 50 international "monitors"), and I will be grateful for verifiable additions to this list, as well as relevant corrections and amendments.



  1. Many thanks, Anton! Especially for compiling the list, and for the last remark about such an easy entry to Ukraine (compared to Russia), and lack of the reciprocity from the EU...

  2. Ukrainian nationalistic Svoboda party seems to distant itself from National Front and Austrian Freedom Party. I take it positively.

    1. Svoboda hasn't distanced itself from the radical right-wing ideology.

  3. You can add another Spaniard to your list : Pedro Mouriño, current member of Partido Popular, wich is the party of Mariano Rajoy, president of the Spanish Government in office .

  4. It is somewhat incorrect to characterise Johan Bäckman as a neo-Stalinist, as he recently gave out an interview where he questioned Finland's independence due to it being granted by illegitimate Soviet regime. Of course, this characterisation hasn't stopped him from also considering Estonia's and Latvia's independence as illegitimate. He's flirted with the left previously, but nowadays he's openly a pro-Russian, authoritarian conservative right-winger.

    1. Well, neo-Stalinism is exactly about being "pro-Russian, authoritarian conservative right-winger".

  5. From Germany Torsten Koplin and Hikmat Al-Sabty, both member of parliament of Mecklenburg Vorpommern for the left wing party "DIE LINKE." traveled to Crimea to monitor the referendum.

    Torsten Koplin had been an informer to the "Staatssicherheit" (Ministry of State Security in the GDR) in 1987/88.

    I disagree that Al-Sabty is "know for Anti-Israel activities" All "Israel-activities" that I found have been his participation at "Welcome to Palestine 2011", a nonviolent action against the occupation of Palestine, but not against Israel. I think it is necessary to differentiate. I for example am very much against the russian occupation of Crimea, but not against Russia or the Russian people.

    The party DIE LINKE. has renounced the Crimea referendum as illegal and undemocratic.

  6. In addition to the two politicians named above, two more local politicians from DIE LINKE. Monika Merk and Piotr Luczak, bith from Berlin-Spandau participated at the Monitoring trip.

    1. Where did you find about the cooperation between the "European Center for Geopolitical Analysis" in Berlin and the Eurasian Observatory For Democracy & Elections (EODE)?

      I checked their websites and didn't find any mentioning of each other (although a lot of EODE is in french, so I cant guarantee. I also found no other clue of their cooperation.

      On the other hand the four German "monitored" in Yalta, while the EODE had been in Simferopol (as far as I understood) and I did not find a photo showing the two delegations together.

      Therefore I think it is more likely that Crimea/Russia invited monitors from different organizations

    2. Here you go: http://vimeo.com/31205864

      "The NGO ECGA (“European Centre of Geopolitical Analysis” based in Poland) along with the Russian Association “CIVIC CONTROL”, and with the participation of NGO EODE (European Observatory for Democracy and Elections), prepare for the Russian parliamentary elections a monitoring mission in the Russian Federation."

    3. Ah there seems to be a confusion with names the Europejskie Centrum Analiz Geopolitycznych in Poland http://www.geopolityka.org/ and the Europäisches Zentrum für geopolitische Analysen in Berlin http://geopolitik-studien.de/ are two different organisations.

    4. There is no confusion. Piotr Luczak, who is 2nd Chair of the EZfGA, is a frequent participant of the events co-organised by the EODE.


      Moreover, the German and Polish "geopolitical centres" seem to be connected - either via the EODE or between themselves as Piotr Luczak and Mateusz Piskorski often participate in the same events, e.g. http://b.vimeocdn.com/ts/239/565/239565977_640.jpg

  7. How many foreign observers total were observing this referendum (do the ultranationalists form a fration of the observers, or are they in the majority)?

    1. The official list of the "observers" has not been published. The list presented here is not complete (and I still have to add more names considering the comments here and additional research) and was compiled on the basis of various sources. Right-wing extremists, however, were clearly a majority, because most of them were invited by an "NGO" headed by a neo-Nazi (Luc Michel).

  8. And yet another German, a pretty well-known journalist of the "Neue Rechte" (New Right movement): Manuel Ochsenreiter, former editor at the weekly "Junge Freiheit", later editor-in-chief of the magazines "Deutsche Militärzeitschrift" and "Zuerst!".
    For the latter magazine he did interviews with Alexander Dugin and Dmitrij Chmelnizki.
    More info: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Ochsenreiter
    Source: http://www.stopptdierechten.at/2014/03/18/krim-die-rechten-beobachter/
    See also: http://www.stopptdierechten.at/2014/03/19/krim-eine-bunte-beobachter-truppe/

    1. Danke sehr!
      I will add him, as well as two Israeili "observers", to the list soon.

  9. Current Spanish Partido Popular is central-right party and not right-wing.

  10. I "trolled" these 2 "observers" from Serbia at press conference in Simferopol on 16.03.2014 and it was shown on Russian TV, and accessible at YouTube: youtu.be/XaDhS5AzrNo (after 6 min. 20 sec.) Baborac and Radojicic. I traveled from Finland to this "referendum" and their answers to my questions clearly show that these people were paid for "monitoring".

    1. According to my sources, they were paid USD 1600 for the four-day trip, and USD 250 per diem. This is true, at least, for one particular category of the "observers".

  11. I'm a little late to the party, but it's worth pointing out that Srdja Trifković was a member of Radovan Karadžić's wartime Republika Srpska regime, and testified in his defense at the Hague.

