Protests in Ukraine supported by US and EU, both Covert and Overt

In-depth Report:

There is ample evidence of Western support of protesters in Ukraine – both covert support through intelligence ops as well as diplomatic support through the US State Department and the EU. 

 It is possible to say that this is the scenario of an Orange Revolution although it doesn’t have quite the same logic but the forces behind the Orange Revolution are very similar and the main actors involved, Michel Chossudovsky, professor of economics at the University of Ottawa, Canada, and an advisor to governments of developing countries, told the Voice of Russia.

Do you think that the West planned Euromaidan a long time ago? Could it have any connection to Orange Revolution?

It was confirmed by Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland that key organizations in Ukraine including the neo-Nazi party Svoboda were generously supported by Washington. And I quote Victoria Nuland: “We have invested more than $5 billion to help Ukraine to achieve this and other goals.” That refers to a period extending from the 2004 Color Revolution to the present. And there is ample evidence of Western support – both covert support through intelligence ops as well as diplomatic support through the US State Department and the EU of course.

Protests in Ukraine supported by US and EU, both covert and overt - Canadian prof Chossudovsky

Could it have any connection to the Orange Revolution?

Absolutely. I mean, this is in a sense, we could say that this is an Orange Revolution although it doesn’t have quite the same logic but the forces behind the Orange Revolution in 2004 – you know, the confrontations are very similar and the main actors involved. And I would say that when we talk about the main actors we are talking about US intelligence, we are talking about the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and various foundations which support extremist groups, we are talking about the role of the International Monetary Fund and the creditor institutions, which have already positioned themselves, threatening, devastating conditions on a new coalition government in the context of debt restructuring and so on.

What reasons could the West have for pushing the neo-Nazis to power in Ukraine?

Well, the West wants to destabilize the entire region and there is of course a geopolitical battle between Russia and the West. It wants of course to take control of the Black Sea basin and that actually goes back to an agreement signed in 1999 which is the GUUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova).

It was a military cooperation agreement, it was directed against the Russian Federation, it was intended to militarize both the Caspian Sea basin and the Black Sea and eventually bring these countries into NATO. That agreement was signed in 1999, it was a partnership between NATO and those five countries. Subsequently, that agreement subsided but the intent on the part of NATO and the US is eventually to gain control over that region and also to integrate Ukraine into the European space but more specifically into NATO. I think the integration into NATO is far more crucial than the integration into the EU.

In your opinion is there any way to protect the rights of the Ukrainian people and to prevent extremism from thriving in Ukraine?

I think the Ukrainian people have been misled as to the nature of this protest movement. The protest movement was led by neo-Nazis, we have ample evidence that the Svoboda Party as well as the Right Sector were involved in leading this insurrection. We also have evidence that the snipers from the roof tops were led by neo-Nazi elements and specifically the UNA-UNSO which is a politically defunct organization but which apparently was behind those sniper shootings on the protestors, all of which was intended to install a coalition government.

And I should mention that –and this has to be understood by people in Ukraine–, that the neo-Nazis are not on the fringe of the coalition government. The neo-Nazi elements, namely Svoboda, Right Sector and elements linked to UNA-UNSO are in control of key positions within the government which grant them control over the arm forces, police, justice and national security.

And they are also in a process of establishing of a witch hunt against various sectors of the Ukrainian population including of course a campaign directed against Communists, Russians, members of the Jewish community and generally opponents within Ukrainian society. It is called  ‘lustration’.  The individual who was put in charge of Lustration, Egor Sobolev was a leader of a civic movement within the Euromaidan protest movement. He is in charge of establishing purges, witch hunts against opponents of the regime.

And then you have another initiative which is essentially to clamp down on people who integrated the former government.So we are at very dangerous cross-roads.

There are two individuals connected to the neo-Nazi parties who are slated to play a central role. Andriy Parubiy, who was the co-founder of the neo-Nazi Social-National party of Ukraine which was subsequently renamed Svoboda. He was appointed Secretary to the National Security and National Defense Committee (the RNBOU) and this organization oversees the Ministry of Defense, arm forces, law enforcement, national security, intelligence and it is a very central decision-making body. And his Deputy is a notorious individual Dmitry Yarosh who was leader of the Right Sector during the Euromaidan protests, he was the leader of the neo-Nazi paramilitary during EuroMaidan. He has been appointed number two of the RNBOU.

These two individuals are essentially thugs, I wouldn’t say that they are  bona fide politicians, their appointment gives them the authority to take decisions pertaining to the deployment of troops, police, law enforcement, intelligence and so on.

And what I’m saying is that this is not a coalition government with neo-Nazi elements integrating one or two portfolios, these neo-Nazi elements are in control of key positions, not necessarily key ministries. It is important to point out that the neo-Nazis are also in control of the office of the prosecutor general, in other words they are in effect controlling the judicial process. Oleh  Makhnitsky of the Svoboda Party was appointed to the position of Prosecutor General of Ukraine. And then we might ask ourselves: what kind of justice will prevail when known neo-Nazi is in charge of the prosecutor’s office of Ukraine?  So that there we have criminals in charge of justice ?

The last question would be just briefly in two words- how do you expect the events in Ukraine, Crimea, to develop in the future?

This is a very critical question. I will respond that first of all the world is at a very dangerous crossroad because the very structures and composition of this government installed by the West doesn’t favor diplomacy, it doesn’t favor dialogue with the Russian government and military. There is the possibility of military escalation leading to confrontation between Russia and NATO – that is a distinct possibility.

It should be understood as I mentioned earlier that the control over Ukraine’s National Security and National Defence Committee by the neo-Nazis plays a central role in our assessment of the future because these individuals will be taking decisions in consultation of course with Washington and NATO headquarters in Brussels, which could have devastating consequences.

What also concerns me is that there is not a word about neo-Nazi elements in the coalition government in the Western media, there is no discussion, there is no debate. We can review all the mainstream media, the New York Times, the Washington Post – not a word is mentioned as if the word had been removed from the dictionary of journalism.


About the author:

Michel Chossudovsky is an award-winning author, Professor of Economics (emeritus) at the University of Ottawa, Founder and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montreal, Editor of Global Research. He has taught as visiting professor in Western Europe, Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Latin America. He has served as economic adviser to governments of developing countries and has acted as a consultant for several international organizations. He is the author of 13 books. He is a contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His writings have been published in more than twenty languages. In 2014, he was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit of the Republic of Serbia for his writings on NATO's war of aggression against Yugoslavia. He can be reached at [email protected]

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