Ukraine: Founding false narrative + media distortion => World War III

[pampango]

8. Who ever accused Putin of orchestrating all of that? (Apologies to John McCain who probably did.)

My guess is that he was quite happy to have Yanukovich as president of Ukraine. Yanukovich was as pro-Russia as he was going to get in a country where ethnic Russians were 17% of the population.

Yanukovich ran for president on a pro-European integration platform and won. When he reversed himself in 2013 and signed a trade deal with Russia instead, people were upset - as often happens when politicians reverse their campaign promises. Most folks would be surprised if Putin did not have something to do with that Yanukovich reversal. That was a big foreign policy issue for Russia and Putin is the president of Russia and not really known as a hands-off kind of leader.

Why would "Putin ... organize mass demonstrations at Kiev’s Maidan square against Yanukovych" when the latter had just signed the trade deal that Russia wanted? (Perhaps I should be asking McCain this question.) Is Putin a 10-dimensional chess player, too?

Once things got to the point of the negotiations between Yanukovich and the demonstrators leading up to the signing of the Feb. 21 agreement, it would be interesting to know how the conversations between Putin and Yanukovich went.

Was it: 1. Don't sign anything! You still control the army, Berkut and security forces. The protesters control one square in a large city. Few have weapons and those that do only have old rifles. Only a wimp would cave in that situation. Be tough! Hang in there! You can survive this. Russia needs you.

Tens of thousands protested my election in 2012 in the streets of Moscow. I am still here. Where are they? And how peaceful are the streets of Moscow now?

2. Alright. Thanks for trying to hold on but this just is not working out. Go ahead and sign the agreement with the protesters. Use your security forces to protect yourself and the government as outlined. You will probably lose the December election but those things happen. We can live with that.

3. Well Viktor, you have blown this whole thing. On to Plan B. Sign the agreement. No matter what it says, order your security forces not protect government buildings and personnel. And get ready to leave. If we are lucky, the undefended buildings will be taken over by unruly mobs, looting and burning.

This will be a "right wing coup". Let's make it look like one. Konstantinov in Crimea has already announced that, if there is a change in power in Kiev, Crimea will separate from Ukraine. I would rather still have you running the Ukrainian government but it looks like we'll have to settle for adding Crimea to Russia and maybe stirring up trouble in the east against the "right wing coup" in Kiev.