A research group associated with Stanford University recently removed the Azov Brigade from its list of “extremist organizations.” This preceded, by about a month, the recent announcement by the U.S. State Department that the notorious Ukrainian neo-Nazi Azov Brigade would be eligible to receive U.S. military aid.
The research group Mapping Militants Project is funded by the Pentagon and U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and has been overseen by faculty associated with Stanford University. According to its website, this included Stanford CISAC-FSI Senior Fellow Emerita Martha Crenshaw, since its inception in 2009, and has been co-directed by Kaitlyn Robinson, Assistant Professor at Rice University, since 2023. Stanford includes a brief biography of Crenshaw.
Its website explains that the MMP “traces the evolution of violent militant or extremist organizations in specified conflict theaters and analyzes their interactions. It presents uniquely accessible and clear genealogical and network information.… Project findings demonstrate how groups form, split, merge, collaborate, compete, shift ideological direction, adopt or renounce violence, grow, shrink, and decline or transform themselves over time.”
RT reported yesterday that “the removal of the Azov Brigade from the MMP was spotted last week by independent journalists Sam Carlen and Iain Carlos, who drew attention to a social media post by Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova earlier this month, in which she thanked Stanford for the move. “Markarova described the removal as a ‘response’ to her staff ‘constantly drawing attention’ to ‘Russian propaganda and disinformation,’ suggesting that they lobbied the university to have the page taken down.”
