The popular I am a Ukrainian video may have some powerful backers:
The video, entitled I am a Ukrainian, already has over 3 million views. It features an attractive woman insistently claiming that the Ukrainian uprising is solely about freedom and democracy.
The video is typically glib and simplified emotional propaganda which purports to explain that “there is only one reason” behind the protests in Ukraine, a bald faced lie which ignores the multi-faceted geopolitical factors behind the uprising, which center on the tug of war between the United States, the EU and Russia.
The woman encourages viewers to “help us only by telling this story….only by sharing this video,” thereby framing the debate around the naive narrative that the crisis is solely about Ukrainians wanting “freedom,” and in essence blacklisting the real reasons behind the western-instigated revolt, which focus on the geopolitical isolation of Russia.
The origins of the video are not quite as ‘grass roots’ as is portrayed. The clip was produced by the team behind A Whisper to a Roar, a documentary about the “fight for democracy” all over the world, which was funded by Prince Moulay Hicham of Morocco. The “inspiration” behind the documentary was none other than Larry Diamond, a Council on Foreign Relations member. The Council on Foreign Relations is considered to be America’s “most influential foreign-policy think tank” and has deep connections with the U.S. State Department.
Diamond has also worked closely with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The National Endowment for Democracy is considered to be the CIA’s “civilian arm” and has been deeply embroiled in innumerable instigated uprisings, attempted coups and acts of neo-colonial regime change since its creation in 1983, including the contrived 2004 “Orange Revolution” that brought US puppet Viktor Yushchenko to power in Ukraine.
Larry Diamond also played an instrumental role in the Arab Spring under the auspices of the NED, a series of supposedly grass roots revolts that were in fact organized and managed by some of the most powerful western institutions on the planet.
Diamond’s connection to the viral “I am a Ukrainian” video clearly suggests that the clip is a crude effort to convince an unthinking public that the Ukrainian uprising is completely organic and is not being instigated by western powers, when the opposite is in fact the case. The clip is reminiscent of the Kony 2012 scam, where a viral video utilized simplified propaganda and emotional manipulation to convince millions of people of the necessity of U.S. military involvement in Africa.
In a Huffington Post interview, the creator of the video admits that he was in Ukraine “preparing a film on democracy” before the protests even started.
Providing absolute confirmation that the video is a carefully thought out public relations stunt, the woman in the video was immediately invited to appear on CNN with Anderson Cooper in a segment that will be broadcast tonight. Cooper and CNN aggressively pushed the Kony 2012 hoax until it fell apart when one of the directors had a public breakdown. Cooper was also heavily involved in promoting the fake “Syria Danny” hoax that relied on staged footage to push for U.S. military intervention in Syria.
With clear evidence of protesters being paid amidst accusations that they were armed by the United States, the narrative behind the Ukraine crisis is clearly more complex than a mere grass roots revolt against corruption. The pro-EU protesters are bizarrely seeking closer ties with a European Union infamous for its institutionalized corruption, malfeasance which costs almost the same each year as Ukraine’s entire GDP.
Many of the activists taking over government buildings in Kiev are also from the Spilna Sprava group, which is an organization funded and supported by billionaire globalist George Soros’ Open Society Institute.
The stage was set for the Ukraine revolt to become violent in December when US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe Victoria Nuland announced that the U.S. would invest $5 billion in order to help Ukrainians achieve “a good form of government.” The true nature of that government was revealed earlier this month when leaked phone conversations emerged of Nuland conspiring with US ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt to pick Ukraine’s future puppet leaders, making good on John McCain’s vow to neutralize Russian influence.
Millions of people will never know the truth behind the Ukraine uprising because it is somewhat more complex than an attractive girl making glib statements about freedom and democracy for 2 minutes on a YouTube video. This is how propaganda works — the simpler the better.
In Ukraine, a different video is popular (if you care to call it that, graphic warning).
I would also like to serve infowars and Paul Craig Roberts a big hearty helping of crow, but if they listen to Glaziev’s accusations they already have their mouths full, and I’m afraid it’s not crow. If these gentlemen know where you could hire people to go with at most a low-grade body armor and surplus army helmet, armed with a stick and a molotov, to go face AK-47s, 12mm pump-action guns and snipers (snipers killed about 70 people since the 18th) for $30 a day, I’d like them to go live there.
I have been noticing infowars’ pro-Russian bias since a while back. I understand they hate USG’s guts, but they shouldn’t embrace any USG’s enemies as bosom friends just to soothe their feelings. It’s apt to backfire badly. I recommend anyone interested to read the comment thread over at Jim’s where this same question was discussed.
Given that Stalin and his filthy NKVD minions starved 4-6 million Ukranians to death back in the ’30′s, I can’t blame anyone in Ukraine for not trusting Russia. But the situation over there is complex, and there’s no doubt that it’s more complicated than the narrative being pitched in the Western media. Ukraine has a history of being torn to pieces by Great Power rivalries, let’s hope that doesn’t happen here. Either way, the U.S. should butt out, as should Russia. We don’t understand that part of the world well, and I fear that we’ll only make things worse. And Putin needs to give up the idea of empire, and start trying to build a normal, functional country. We might try that, too, while we’re at it…
Watson’s narrative — that the protestors are astroturfed crowds assembled by American funds — is just as false, and probably more so. Most of the MSM pieces on the story at least mention Ukraine’s ethnic and economic divides. Not Mr Watson, no! Only the CIA and evil billionaire globalist George Soros could motivate Ukrainians to march on armed men!
There are no “organic” revolutions that do not have powerful forces backing them. Uprisings and revolutions cannot occur without the money, means, and education of a dissatisfied elite faction.
But they also cannot occur unless a large percentage of the masses agree with what those with the money and brains have to say.
The only correction, or rather elaboration, of this point is that the elite faction in question need not be in power. This was the case in Ukraine. Mid-level businessmen, STEM professors, IT professionals, artists, that was who both participated in and supported the Ukrainian uprising with money and education, as you put it.
If the ethnic Ukrainian demonstrators had majority support and were in fact democrats, they would wait until the next election and vote Yanukovych and his party out of power. The fact they have opted for a coup d’etat indicates they are a radical, violent minority. As to US and EU involvement, after Iraq, Libya, Syria and Iran — all Russian allies — the suspicion that there is outside meddling is hard to set aside.
Bob: you are too used to reasonably fair elections and to a reasonably apolitical judiciary. In Ukraine, judges are not elected, they are appointed from the center. Yanukovich’s party had packed the Constitutional Court (that’s how he got back the extensive presidential powers, he just had the court restore the 1996 Constitution after he was elected) monopolized the Supreme Court and apellate courts, and predominated in lower courts as well. Ukrainians had ample experience of elections in such an environment. Even if local election committees could be prevailed upon to submit unfalsified data (in the face of bandits and special forces carrying out ballot boxes etc.), the Central election committee could (and did) simply ‘correct’ the data as it wishes, and any judicial challenges fall flat. There just wasn’t any readily visible democratic mechanism for the opposition to use.
As for outside meddling: sure, there was and is some outside meddling. Visa sanctions and asset freezes, and threats of same, are clearly meddling. Trade restrictions, gas price hikes and high-handed debt collection are also meddling. Statements of concern from EU structures and the USA (Ukrainians treat these with derision now) are meddling. Glaziev’s and other senior Putin’s advisors’ and newsmen’s statements on the Russian media are meddling. But Putin is far less scrupulous in applying pressure than Obama or, heaven forfend, the Eurocommission.
The above exchange pretty much proves my point. We don’t understand the realities of that part of the world enough to start messing around with it, intelligent people like Bob and Candide can’t even agree what the facts are, let alone what should be done about them.
If I were a Ukranian, I would hope that I would have the guts to be one of those heroes battling the riot police in Kiev. But I’m an American, and as such, it’s none of my, or my country’s business. We’re not the world’s 911, and pretending that we can be is bankrupting us, killing our young men, and earning us precisely nothing.
For what it’s worth, I agree, Paul Craig Roberts went off the deep end several years ago.