Foreign Intervention and the Ukraine Crisis

by | Mar 5, 2014 | Videos | 3 comments

by James Corbett
GRTV.ca
March 5, 2014

[CLICK HERE to watch this video on GRTV’s YouTube channel or HERE to watch on Odysee]

In late 2004, protests erupted after Viktor Yanukovych won the 2004 Ukrainian Presidential election, with protestors claiming that the vote had been rigged. The protests forced a revote, in which Yanukovych’s rival, Viktor Yuschenko, was elected president. This movement, dubbed the Orange Revolution for the orange ribbons and clothing sported by its members, was one of a series of so-called colour revolutions which swept the former Soviet Republics in the last decade.

The two events are not unrelated. As The Guardian noted at the time of the protests:

“[…]the campaign [Orange Revolution] is an American creation, a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in western branding and mass marketing that, in four countries in four years, has been used to try to salvage rigged elections and topple unsavoury regimes.[…]The Democratic parrty’s National Democratic Institute, the Republican party’s International Republican Institute, the US state department and USAid are the main agencies involved in these grassroots campaigns.”

So it is not without reason that seasoned political observers looked for outside connections to the recent protests in Ukraine that has, in an almost exact repeat of the 2004 protests, sought to overthrow the elected government of Viktor Yanukovych in order to install Viktor Yuschenko’s political allies. Those connections have not been difficult to find.

Audio of Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland apparently dictating who the US wanted “in” and “out” of the supposedly grassroots-supported interim government only came as a surprise to those who did not believe Washington or its allies in the Washington Consensus were actively involved with the ongoing protests in the country. As did the revelation of her admission last December that the US had already pumped $5 billion into the funding of the Ukrainian opposition.

As did the appearance of confirmed terrorist supporter John McCain at a rally with the leader of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi Svoboda party leader. As did the appointment of a central banker as the interim Prime Minister and his immediate announcement that the country was in talks with the US, EU, and IMF for emergency loans. As did the appearance of a slick new viral propaganda video in English promoting the supposedly grassroots uprising which was immediately exposed as finding its “inspiration” in Council on Foreign Relations member Larry Diamond, who has worked closely with the same N.E.D. and USAid that were linked to the 2004 Orange Revolution.

In the latest startling revelation, Pando.com has published documents implicating the Omidyar Network in the funding of the current Ukrainian protest movement. The Omidyar Network is the NGO of billionaire Ebay co-founder Pierre Omidyar, who recently set up “First Look” as an outlet for (among others) Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill and Laura Poitras to selectively publish some of the Snowden document archive, 99% of which continues to be withheld from the public.

As geopolitical analysts from across the board explain, the Ukrainian coup has been deliberately provoked by outside agents to promote a combination of US, EU, NATO and IMF interests.

Perhaps more worrying than the interference itself are its potential implications. As Russia’s every move is now being scrutinized for a possible military response to the ongoing crisis, the specter of a larger military operation now hangs over Eastern Europe. Part of the decade-long encirclement of Russia by NATO and deliberate provocations on Russia’s doorstep, this process of brinksmanship now threatens to plunge the region into a war the consequences of which cannot be foreseen, let alone contained.

As supposedly “progressive” outlets once again scramble to throw their support behind the billionaire oligarchs and NGOs that have helped to destabilize the country, and as neocons unite with neoliberals in their agenda to carve up Ukraine for western interests, it remains to be seen what genuine alternative outlets will stand up against this blatant interference and stand up for the principle that it is up to the Ukrainian people, and no one else, to decide what happens in their country.

3 Comments

  1. not sure where the appropriate place to dump ukraine research is but this video seems appropriate.

    Looks like John McCain found some time while in Ukraine to not only meet with neo-nazis, but also with the man who would go on to become the fifth president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko.

    —–

    JOHN MCCAIN DELIVERS REMARKS ON UKRAINE AT THE ATLANTIC COUNCIL
    DEC 19, 2013

    QUESTION: Bruce Jackson, Project on Transitional Democracies.

    Senator, in addition to the opposition and the administration, you also met with the business leaders on both sides of the issue in Kiev, you and Senator Murphy probably met with more business leaders than any senior Americans have ever done.

    Is there is a future in Europe? Or is there a future in Russia? What was your impression of these men that play such an impact on Ukrainian politics?

    MCCAIN: Thank you, Bruce. I probably should have mentioned that in my remarks.

    It sort of varies to the degree of which they have been affected by Russia. Now, one of the oligarchs who has had a — whose empire was based originally on chocolate, and since that has been cut off, embargoed by Putin and the Russians, that has had more of an effect.

    —–

    You can watch the snooze fest here:
    https://youtu.be/R7OSAfN_IVY

  2. Isa Munayev’s War
    https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/27/isa-munayevs-war/

    An older article on Chechens fighting in Ukraine. But wait, whats this in the first paragraph?

    IN SEPTEMBER OF 2014, I found myself standing on a narrow, potholed street in Kiev, east of the Dnieper River, in an area known as the Left Bank. I didn’t even know, at that point, whom I was meeting. I knew only that Khalid, my contact in Turkey with the Islamic State, had told me his “brothers” were in Ukraine, and I could trust them.

    Hmm…curious. The Intercept, owned by that Omidyar guy, has contacts with the Islamic State in Turkey, who has “bothers,” who are fighting in Ukraine? Talk about coincidences…

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