Democracy Now, 1 year ago: Putin apologist/ scumbag Cohen takes side of the police vs the protesters [View all]

[uhnope]

I used to refer to Stephen Cohen as a Putin apologist. Now I'm adding scumbag. In this discussion with Ukrainian scholar Anton Shekhovtsov, Cohen called the Maidan protesters "young thugs in the street are trying to kill policemen." Sounds like what RWNJs said about OWS.

Cohen also gets visibly irritated when it becomes obvious that Shekhovtsov knows a lot more about Ukraine that Cohen does, and has good evidence that the far-right elements of Maidan were a small minority--not something Cohen wanted to hear. This made Cohen imply that Shekhovtsov was on the side of the far right!

Cohen accuses Shekhovtsov of not having been to Ukraine recently, which backfires when Shekhovtsov answers he was there a few days before. Cohen never says when or if he has ever been to Ukraine.

Cohen's pugnacious and partisan views were placed on even more vivid display during a recent segment of Democracy Now! Speaking with moderator Amy Goodman, Ukrainian researcher Anton Shekhovtsov admitted that the EuroMaidan movement had some far right elements. Nevertheless, he claimed, EuroMaidan was "basically a multicultural, democratic movement which is trying to build a new Ukraine." When asked to respond, Cohen got extremely testy, remarking that "Anton's characterization, to be as polite as I can, as half-true. But a half-truth is an untruth."

Cohen then proceeds to tar EuroMaidan and even goes so far as to question Shekhovtsov's veracity, adding that he doesn't know when his colleague was last in Ukraine. From there, the interview becomes very uncomfortable indeed, with Shekhovtsov remarking "I don't know if Professor Cohen has been in Ukraine. I've been to Ukraine just a few days ago. I haven't seen that the right-wingers have taken control of the streets. The streets are controlled by Euromaidan, which is ideologically very different."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nikolas-kozloff/crimea-and-the-left-its-a_b_4943494.html

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/1/30/debate_is_ukraines_opposition_a_democratic

ANTON SHEKHOVTSOV: Well, first of all, thank you for the invitation to Democracy Now!

I wrote the piece to highlight a very dangerous trend, in my opinion, is that many people in the West buy into Russian propaganda which is saying that Euromaidan is infiltrated by the neo-Nazis and anti-Semites. And this is completely untrue. There is a far-right element in the Euromaidan protests, but it is a minor element. And Euromaidan protest is basically a multicultural, democratic movement which is trying to build a new Ukraine, a democratic Ukraine. And sometimes, by the name "far right," there goes Ukrainian nationalism, and Ukrainian nationalism has—its main thrust is building of a truly independent Ukraine, a Ukraine which would be a national democratic state and not a colony of Russia, as Ukrainian nationalists think Ukraine is.
...
STEPHEN COHEN: Let me make a point, and it would be interesting to hear what Anton thinks about this. Many young thugs in the street are trying to kill policemen. They’re throwing Molotov cocktails at them. They’re beating them up. Now, the police are brutal also. But name me one democratic country that would allow mobs to attack policemen in the street of a capital city and not crack down? And, in fact, the Ukrainian police haven’t cracked down.

AMY GOODMAN: Anton Shekhovtsov, your response?

ANTON SHEKHOVTSOV: Well, the police has already cracked down on the protesters at the end of November, when peaceful protesters were brutally beaten by the riot police. They did not do anything except for staying on the Independence Square in Kiev, and they were beaten up. And some people have disappeared. And since then, since the end of November, there are tens of, dozens of people who have been kidnapped by the police, and now they are found sometimes frozen to death with their hands tied at their backs. So, there is a whole campaign of state terror going on in Ukraine. And more than five people were killed already.

Anton Shekhovtsov: Yes. So, this is basically what I said, as I called as a distortion in the Western media. I don’t know if Professor Cohen have been in Ukraine. I’ve been to Ukraine just a few days ago. I haven’t seen that the right-wingers have taken control of the streets. The streets are controlled by Euromaidan, which is ideologically very different. There is a right-wing element, but this is the element which is only a minor component of Euromaidan. And if you remember the Solidarity movement in the ’80s in Poland, it also comprised some right-wing elements, but in the end they built a democratic national—national democratic Poland.

And sorry Amy Goodman fans, but how she ends the interview isn't exactly objective. Journalists aren't supposed to take sides like this:

AMY GOODMAN: Do you think this is about the media’s vilification of Putin?

STEPHEN COHEN: I think that the vilification of Putin in this country, demonization, is the worst press coverage by the American media of Russia that I’ve seen in my 40 years of studying Russia and contributing to the media. It’s simply almost insane. This idea that he’s a thug—