The Intro and the Bottom Line is interesting to read also...
http://www.internationalman.com/articles/five-facts-the-media-isnt-telling-you-about-ukraineFact #1: Yanukovych Was Legitimately Elected
Ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was elected in 2010 in an election that was deemed “transparent and honest” by hundreds of international election observers. That of course is not my personal endorsement of the man or of democracy (I am a fan of neither). In fact, I’m sympathetic to H.L. Mencken’s view that “Democracy, too, is a religion. It is the worship of jackals by jackasses.” But that’s a story for another day.
Bottom line, regardless of whether one loves him or hates him, one cannot deny that Yanukovych was elected fair and square.
Fact #2: Billions Spent Stirring Up Trouble
The US has spent $5 billion since the 1990s on “democratization” programs in Ukraine. (What would the US reaction be if Russia spent $5 billion promoting communism in Mexico?)
In addition to overt US government programs from the US State Department, USAID, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the International Republican Institute, nominally nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) like Freedom House, George Soros’ Open Society Institute, and the National Endowment for Democracy have all been heavily involved in “promoting democracy” in Ukraine for many years.
Fact #3: Yanukovych’s Ouster Had No Basis in Law
When Yanukovych was overthrown in February, it was done in a fashion that didn’t really comply with Ukrainian law. In effect, what happened was an illegal overthrow of a legitimately elected government. There’s a word for this—coup. And I bet it would have been labeled as such by the US media had it happened to a pro-US leader instead of a pro-Russian leader.
So what was the real objective of all those sneaky NGOs and the billions of dollars in covert and overt aid if its ultimate effect was to overthrow a legitimately elected government? Sounds like the exact opposite of their stated goal of “promoting democracy,” if you ask me.
Fact #4: The Sniper Killings, a Known Unknown
The real push for the immediate overthrow of Yanukovych came after the mysterious deaths of 75 or so people in the streets of Kiev by unknown snipers in late February 2014. The protesters blamed the government. However, later a leaked phone call between the Estonian foreign minister and Catherine Ashton (the EU foreign policy chief) showed that both the police and protestors were shot by the same people, leading these two EU officials (who are very anti-Russian, by the way) to think that this incident was some sort of false flag provocation.
The Estonian foreign minister said, “So there is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovych, but it was somebody from the new coalition.”
The fact is, to this day we really don’t know who was behind the sniper attacks. But this deep uncertainty didn’t prevent the incident from being used as a casus belli to remove the Yanukovych government.
Fact #5: Neo-Nazi Shock Troops
The two most prominent neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine are the Right Sector and Svoboda, which hold positions in the new government. While they aren’t the main political force, their power shouldn’t be underestimated. Just because the new Ukrainian government has a bunch of outwardly facing, pro-EU, empty-suit bureaucrats, that isn’t necessarily reflective of who has the real power on the streets. Right Sector and Svoboda were the real armed muscle on the ground—like the shock troops of the opposition—during the unrest that overthrew Yanukovych. Absent their help, it’s questionable whether the uprising would have succeeded.
