Putin spots "Nazism" in Ukrainian Edelweiss Brigade, but Russian National Guard had a unit with same name

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the appearance of the Edelweiss brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine "a manifestation of neo-Nazism" in his address, but the Russian dictator forgot that units called Edelweiss also existed in the Federal Penitentiary Service and the Russian National Guard.

Source: Putin during his address to the Federal Assembly on 21 February; Russian media outlet Agenstvo (Agency)

Quote from Putin: "Recently, one of the brigades of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, I'm ashamed to say, was named Edelweiss, same as a Hitler's division that participated in the deportation of Jews, executions of prisoners of war, and punitive operations against partisans in Yugoslavia, Italy, Czechoslovakia, and Greece. Neo-Nazis do not hide whose heirs they consider themselves to be. It is strange that no one in the West notices this."

Details: Agenstvo notes that Putin actually quoted the words of Russian propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov, voiced on 19 February in the Vesti Nedeli (News of the week) program. At that time, Russian television accused the Ukrainian authorities of allegedly "legalising" the "fascist Edelweiss". 

At the same time, the media outlet reminds that a few years ago, the internal troops, which were part of the Russian National Guard, also had their own Edelweiss unit in Russia. In particular, in the 2010s, this was the name of a special purpose unit of the internal troops, which is now called Avangard. This unit is stationed in Stavropol Krai. The chevron of the unit had a picture of a flower on it. According to the Agenstvo, the Russian Edelweiss changed its name no later than 2018.

It is also reported that another Edelweiss unit was created in Altai in 1993 in the Federal Penitentiary Service and existed at least until 2018. It was the special forces of the service of the Republic of Altai.

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