Ukraine: US condemns Odessa violence as dozens die

[JackRiddler]

140. There is no evidence that snipers in Kiev...

were of the Ukrainian police, or dispatched on orders from an agency or ally of the Yanukovich government. None whatsoever. It's just the default assumption in the state-aligned Western press, on no more basis than if something bad happens, it must have been the designated bad guys.

Also, this would have been an unbelievably counter-productive strategy if they were. The shootings contributed to a breakdown of order and undermined the government. Given the constellation of relative power, it's hard to see any kind of plus for the then government.

Not that "cui bono" constitutes proof, but it's a better basis for designating the initial neutral hypothesis than the idiotic level of "Putin=Bad" therefore Putin Always Did It. It's not like Euro Maidan didn't have all kinds of hooligans and violent, armed actors working within it, including out-and-out Nazis. It's also SOP for covert operations manuals generally -- nothing that the CIA and KGB haven't both done many, many times.