Over the past month, Ukrainian-Canadians have been protesting a speaking tour of a man who visited Russia and occupied Ukraine and returned to Canada to speak on his experiences abroad, simply for the crime of wanting peace. Or at least, that's what he really, really wants you to think. Who is this man, and why are Ukrainian-Canadians and antifascist activists protesting him?
Dimitri Lascaris is a lawyer and self-professed "ecosocialist" activist and journalist who was a former leadership candidate for the 2020 Green Party of Canada leadership race and made it to the eighth and final round of voting in a 50-42% vote. The remainder went to a “None of the Above” option. Lascaris’ campaign for leadership included University of Manitoba professor Radhika Desai and her collaborator Alan Freeman as part of the campaign’s platform committee, which was chaired by Desai. Desai is a primary actor involved in organising conferences and seminars supportive of the interests of the Russian and Chinese governments, and likely will be covered in a future blog post. Prior to the race, Lascaris was a staffer for the pro-Kremlin website The Real News, on which he interviewed such disreputable people as far-right paedophile Scott Ritter, and former US Army officer and antisemitic conspiracy theorist Lawrence Wilkerson, who has blamed the Assad regime’s chemical weapons attacks in Ghouta on a false-flag operation perpetrated by Israel. A self-proclaimed “ecosocialist,” Lascaris has been an active and extremely prominent supporter of the Russian Federation -the world's second largest exporter of fossil fuels- before and during its invasion of Ukraine, even in the face of overwhelming evidence of war crimes and neo-Nazi collaboration.
There is no way in hell Dimitri Lascaris does not know about Ritter's criminal past. That has not stopped Lascaris from being invited to speak at events for a dedicated transphobic organisation like Plebity, which funds TERF activism.
On his blog, Lascaris writes that he is “convinced” that the invasion of Ukraine is actually due to the machinations of the American and British governments, a narrative that strips primary involved actors of their agency and assigns the entirety of their actions to often unspecified foreign policy actions. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and its causes relate instead to the imperialist ambitions of the Russian Federation, as well as domestic issues such as economic stagnation, a perceived demographic crisis, a decline of Russian imperial prestige, and the ascension of fascist ideology within Russia’s domestic political, military, and economic elite. The single Ukrainian cause for the invasion has been the swell in support for democratisation in Ukraine that culminated in the overthrow of the right-wing autocrat Viktor Yanukovitch, who was backed by the Putin regime. In the same blog post, Lascaris reiterates a statement he made to AcTVism Munich that Ukraine’s right to defend itself is not in its self-interest, and should instead pursue “compromise with the enemy,” in effect stating that Ukraine should submit to the demands of a genocidal irredentist dictatorship that has explicitly stated that its goal is to wipe out Ukrainian identity. This is a position that Lascaris just coincidentally does not hold in any other similar circumstance, and sure seems more than fine with advocating that Palestinians and Houthis fight against their "self-interests." Lascaris has refused to acknowledge the genocidal actions of the Russian government, often deploying whataboutism to complain about Israeli and Saudi actions in Palestine and Yemen. Clearly, the crimes of genocide (and their victims!) matter little to Lascaris, rather what is important to him is who those perpetrators are and their relationship to Lascaris’ preferred empire(s).
Lascaris’ loyalty and dedication to promoting Russian interests were recognised in April 2023 when Lascaris took a trip to Russia, where he met with officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and spoke at the Valdai Conference. Presenting alongside Radhika Desai, Lascaris had very little to do with “peace” or even Ukraine, rather being about “de-Dollarization,” in other words being about the Russian strategic goal of establishing a reserve currency to compete with the US dollar. In a May 28 interview with former Communist Party of Canada member Rob Rousseau, Lascaris admits he organised his trip in part with the Russian embassy in Ottawa and met with a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official previously staffed at the Ottawa embassy who claimed to Lascaris to be behind the Russian information warfare narratives portraying Chrystia Freeland’s grandfather as a Nazi collaborator as a means of discrediting Canadian support for a democratic Ukraine.
Dimitri Lascaris with Radhika Desai (second from right) at the Valdai Discussion Club, a propaganda initiative run by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Telegram posts from the channel of "We Are Together - Sevastopol," describing the procurement of rail systems for accessorising machine guns, as well as flame arresters.
The leader of Мы вместе – Севастополь is Victoria Kashlyakova, the woman interviewed by Lascaris. According to the organisation's social media, Мы вместе – Севастополь was formed upon decree by the occupation government's appointed "governor" of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev. It's a government-funded entity that does much more than simply provide aid, and it's extremely disingenuous to portray it as simply being a refugee centre. As admitted in the video by Kashlyakova, the organisation participates in support roles in Russia's occupation by supplying the military, as well as the ongoing efforts of the Russian Federation to weaponise education to, as put by Lily Hyde, "erase Ukrainian identity and militarise children." Kashlyakova states that the amount of people aided by her organisation is much larger once one factors in the cultural "help" provided.
A June 8, 2023, Telegram post by Мы вместе – Севастополь shows the organisation is supplying schools in occupied Melitopol with propaganda materials such as board games
Another post describes the procurement of walkie-talkies and medicine for Russian forces.
Kashlyakova's organisation is affiliated with the #Мывместе campaign, which was formed by the All-Russia Peoples Front (ONF) to assist the families of "mobilised" fighters. Far from being a legitimate aid organisation, this is a government-sanctioned institution for supporting the Russian occupation of Ukraine through volunteer work. It is also deeply tied to the Russian government, not simply being funded by it but featuring primarily government figures in its events. For instance, the 2023 volunteer award's organising committee was headed by First Deputy Chief of Staff Sergey Kiriyenko (who also served as Prime Minister for Boris Yeltsin), All-Russia Peoples Front chairman Mikhail Kuznetsov, and Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova.
We Are Together- Sevastopol is affiliated with the broader #Мывместе campaign, which is organised in part by the All-Russia Peoples Front.
According to the website of the Crimean Center for Investigative Reporting, the #Мывместе campaign is integrated into the police state and paramilitary structures of Russia. This seems to be true, judging by the Wagner recruitment posters Lascaris managed to film inside the "refugee centre," and by the role the organisation plays in securing materials for Russian fighters. Kashlyakova's organisation also participates in and heavily promotes an "Initial Military Training" programme called Rokot, which trains cadets to fight. While Kashlyakova claims it aids the front line, this "help" goes much further than simply aiding the injured, and includes sourcing weapons equipment to the Russian Army. As mentioned before, on his train from Moscow to Simferopol, Lascaris interviews a Wagner sniper, during which he does not offer any real criticism of the Wagner Group's involvement in war crimes or the predominance of neo-Nazism within the Wagner Group. In fact, Lascaris offers virtually no substantial criticism of Russia's genocidal invasion.
A June 11 2023 post by Rokot Sevastopol promoting "We Are Together- Sevastopol" as a partner. Posts between both channels reveal a longstanding partnership since early on in the war.
Despite calling himself an ecosocialist, Lacaris has had nothing to say about Russia's demolition of the Nova Kakhovka dam, an ecocidal act designed to make areas of Ukraine uninhabitable. Instead, Lascaris has taken to retweeting Mikael Valtersson, a former chief of staff for the far-right Sweden Democrats who sits on the board of Wiking Minerals, a mining company known for its support of the Swedish far-right. Vatlersson denies the role of Russia in the demolition, and instead tries to blame Ukraine as the "prime suspect." Neo-Nazi Daniel Friberg, of Artkos infamy, also sat on the board of Wiking alongside Valtersson. Lascaris is citing a fascist politician sitting on mining wealth in Lascaris' efforts to shamelessly shill for the second largest exporter of fossil fuels, a country known for its denial of climate change. What kind of ecosocialist would do that?
Lascaris' overt support for Russia has seen him align with far-right conspiracy theorists and politicians.
So how did we get here? Lascaris writes that his translator and driver were both recommended by Regis Tremblay, an American on the "coordinating board" of the Friends of Crimea International Association, which interviewed Lascaris as part of their web series "Dateline News and Conversation." Alongside Tremblay on the board is far-right activist Patrick Poppel, the former director of the Suworow Institute in Austria and a known Russian asset who is infamous for inviting Aleksandr Dugin to speak in Austria. Another is Hendrik Weber, a Norwegian politician for the Red Party that visited the Artek camp for the "reeducation" of children. Tremblay functions as a sort of American representative for the Friends of Crimea now, but has been involved in pro-Russian organising in the past. Other pro-Putin activism Tremblay was involved in includes a trip to Odessa in a delegation for the Marcyite United National Antiwar Coalition, upon invitation from the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, during which Tremblay recorded videos for Bruce Gagnon and Phil Wilayto, who would go on to found the Odessa Solidarity Campaign, a campaign within UNAC to support the Mothers Council of Odessa. The Mothers Council of Odessa has been involved in several efforts to influence politics in Western countries (with varying success), including a meeting with members of Poland's neo-Nazi ONR and a bizarre presentation held with the French fake election observer Xavier Moreau. Moreau's role as an "election observer" for the Russian Federation in the occupied Ukrainian territories demonstrates that the Russians feel Moreau can be trusted to reliably justify Russia's invasion and declared annexations. Tremblay, who was affiliated with UNAC and Veterans for Peace, is now living in occupied Crimea. Tremblay's role in creating forward-facing propaganda as an occupier is just another fact inconvenient to Lascaris' attempts to portray himself as a neutral "peace activist" or "citizen diplomat."
In summary, Lascaris’ portrayal of his trip is flagrantly disingenuous. Rather than seeking peace or anything resembling the sort, Lascaris has shamelessly acted to propagandise for the Russian Federation at a time when it is responsible for perpetrating heinous atrocities against Ukrainians in pursuit of imperialist glory, and utilising several neo-Nazi paramilitary organisations to accomplish this goal. Lascaris's trip embedded him with Russian government-tied entities involved in Russia's war machine and ongoing genocide of Ukrainians, entities which he presented in overly flattering terms. Far from being “convinced” of anything, Lascaris came to Russia and occupied Ukrainian territory in order to promote Russian narratives to Canadian audiences. His leadership campaign will be remembered in Canadian history as the time a modern federal party was almost captured by hostile foreign interests.
Other images:
"Sevastopol- the patriotic capital of Russia" is an assimilationist education programme that includes providing materials to schools on occupied Ukrainian land. Мы вместе – Севастополь is a participant in Russia's cultural genocide of Ukrainians.
Victoria Kashlyakova, the same woman interviewed for the "refugee centre," shot a video alongside a rail system and flame arresters for PKM machine guns collected by her organisation for use by Russian forces.
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