![\"ukraine-protest\"](\"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/ukraine-protest-300x150.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPresident Viktor Yanukovych\u2019s government forces are\u00a0certainly guilty of using excessive force against the\u00a0rioters, and accusations of torture appear to be\u00a0well-founded and should not be excused. But condemnation is certainly clouded when you consider the level of violence from the rioters.\u00a0By the same token, when mobile\u00a0phone users near the scene of the riots received text\u00a0messages from the state reading, \u201cDear subscriber, you\u00a0are registered as a participant in a mass riot\u201d it\u00a0brought to home just how omnipresent –\u00a0and ominous –\u00a0surveillance technology in the 21st century has become.<\/p>\n
The problem with the \u201cpopular protests against the\u00a0government and for integration into the EU\u201d narrative\u00a0is that it omits crucial information regarding the role\u00a0of the West is fomenting and orchestrating demonstrations such as these;\u00a0a role which illuminates broader\u00a0geopolitical objectives in the region and the extent to\u00a0which intelligence agencies\u00a0and their offshoot\u00a0organizations meddle in the affairs of sovereign\u00a0nations. Understanding the nature of soft power \u2013 the\u00a0use of coercion and bribery \u2013 and the subversion and\u00a0infiltration of grassroots political movements by NGOs\u00a0and other organizations backed either directly or\u00a0indirectly by the US government, helps us to more\u00a0broadly understand why the unrest in Ukraine is\u00a0reaching such a fever pitch.<\/p>\n
The seemingly spontaneous 2004 Ukrainian \u201cOrange\u00a0Revolution\u201d, sparked by alleged electoral fraud and allegations\u00a0of voter intimidation, was led largely by a number of\u00a0grassroots movements tied to political activists\u00a0and\u00a0student groups. Many of the groups involved, however,\u00a0were funded and trained by organizations intimately\u00a0linked to the US government. The foreign donors of\u00a0these groups included the US State Department, USAID,\u00a0the National Democratic Institute for International\u00a0Affairs, the Open Society Institute\u00a0and the\u00a0National Endowment for Democracy.<\/p>\n
The candidate who emerged victorious in the wake of\u00a0these widespread orchestrated protests, Viktor\u00a0Yushchenko, was not only endorsed by the same\u00a0institutions which wielded their influence over the\u00a0protest movements themselves, he was also supported by\u00a0the International Monetary Fund. A central banker by\u00a0profession, Yushchenko was a firm\u00a0advocate of\u00a0implementing IMF monetary reforms and, equally\u00a0crucially, an advocate of NATO membership. Before\u00a0entering into Ukrainian politics he had worked at the\u00a0US State Department,the Reagan White House, the U.S.\u00a0Treasury Department, and the Joint Economic Committee\u00a0of Congress. In short, it\u2019s safe to say that he was a\u00a0product of Washington, an image only exacerbated by his\u00a0hostility towards Russia.<\/p>\n
It is tempting to automatically assume that the same\u00a0process is taking place in Ukraine at the moment.\u00a0Certainly, intelligence agencies have historical form\u00a0when it comes to covert operations and the manipulation\u00a0of activists via social media \u2013 similar US-backed\u00a0\u201cColour Revolutions\u201d have taken place in Georgia,\u00a0Yugoslavia and elsewhere. The widespread political\u00a0support for the protesters in Ukraine and the lack of\u00a0condemnation for their use of violence would certainly\u00a0add to the view that these protests are at least\u00a0tacitly backed by the West, if not outright\u00a0orchestrated. While none of this constitutes \u201cproof\u201d of\u00a0outside interference, at the very least it is enough to\u00a0raise suspicions. On the other hand, without firm\u00a0evidence it is perhaps equally\u00a0plausible that the support for\u00a0the protesters is simply a case of making political capital out\u00a0of the situation, stoking the flames of an already lit\u00a0fire.<\/p>\n
As the violence on the streets of Kiev continues,\u00a0already spreading away from the capital, the Russian\u00a0State Duma recently passed a resolution slamming\u00a0foreign politicians and other players for interfering\u00a0in Ukrainian internal affairs in an attempt to escalate\u00a0the conflict. It\u2019s a marked contrast to the rhetoric\u00a0emerging from Washington and the EU, both of whom have\u00a0expressed the possibility of intervening, with the US\u00a0adopting a stance which hints at another planned\u00a0\u201cregime change\u201d on Russia\u2019s doorstep.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most damning indictment of the West\u2019s\u00a0stance over Ukraine and their support for what they refer to as a \u201cpro-democracy protest movement\u201d is the profoundly anti-democratic leanings of the violent protestors at the vanguard of the assault on the Ukrainian authorities. Anyone familiar with the crisis in Syria and the attempts to topple President Assad will be all too familiar with the US\u2019s willingness to get into bed with extremists of the worst possible nature in order to achieve their objectives.<\/p>\n
In Ukraine today it appears that very little has changed. Just as the Western-backed Syrian rebels with intimate ties to al-Qaeda were presented in our media as \u201cpro-democracy\u201d organizations, so too are many of those protesting in Ukraine drawn from far-right and fascistic groups such as the opposition Svoboda party, whom John McCain was more than happy to appear on stage with in December 2013 and offer his \u2013 and by extension\u00a0America\u2019s \u2013 support.<\/p>\n
Yet it would also be wrong-headed to characterize the protests in Ukraine as being led by far-right extremists \u2013 many protesters are taking to the streets through genuine and legitimate grievances with the current government. The danger lies in these moderate protesters allying themselves with those on the far-right \u2013 combined with tacit support from the US for the likes of the Svoboda party, it could be a concoction which would set the stage for a dictatorship far more corrupt and repressive than those currently clinging onto power.<\/p>\n
With the geopolitical stakes as high as they are, not least with the potential for\u00a0a broader NATO influence in the region, it would be wise to view the situation in Ukraine through the wider prism of the global balance of power and all that this entails. Equally, we should be wary of simplistic media narratives which seek to paint any conflict in black and white\/good vs. evil terms, particularly when the \u201cgood guys\u201d are being backed by the US government and her allies. All too often this amounts to little more than propaganda designed to rouse support for opposition movements favourable to \u201cregime change\u201d, and by now it should be very clear how little this has to do with vague, idealistic notions of \u201cdemocracy\u201d, and how much it has to do with regional \u2013 and ultimately\u00a0global \u2013 hegemony.<\/p>\n
Go to Original \u2013 globalresearch.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We should be wary of simplistic media narratives which seek to paint any conflict in black and white\/good vs. evil terms, particularly when the \u201cgood guys\u201d are being backed by the US government and her allies. All too often this amounts to little more than propaganda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[207],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-balkans-eastern-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}