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Lopatonok and Stone document the 2014 coup d'etat that ousted democratically-elected Viktor Yanukovych.
Importantly, the film begins with Ukraine's full historical context. For centuries, it has been the object of a tug-of-war between Europe and Russia. And the Ukrainians themselves have played the two sides off against one another for all it's worth. There are no good guys in this story, but there are innocents: the Russian-speaking minorities in the eastern oblasts bordering Russia, and in Odessa and Crimea.
Unreported in the Western news media is the role of the neo-Nazi Ukrainians from the western region bordering Poland. The film explains that when the Wehrmacht invaded in 1941 a number of ultranationalist Ukrainians welcomed the Nazis and gleefully participated in atrocities against Jews and Poles, and fought with them against the Soviets. Indeed, the hyper-extremist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) was founded in 1929 to complement Hitlers National Socialist Party in Germany. Following Ukraine's 1991 independence from the USSR several other neo-Nazi organizations have been founded, principally Svoboda, Trident, and Right Sektor. The US-backed Ukrainian president Yushchenko officially declared two famous Nazi collaborators, Bandera and Lebed, to be "national heroes". Not incidentally, these two and others were "rescued" from the USSR and from prosecution at Nuremberg as war criminals by none other than our CIA (Capitalism's Invisible Army). This goes far to explain what the USA's interest in Ukrainian affairs is.
Lopatonok and Stone go on to show how by the late 1970s the CIA's modus operandi of removing democratically-elected leaders with "manufactured revolutions" (with corruption, assassinations, and economic/political manipulations) had been exposed to public scrutiny. The spooks needed to devise another way to take out foreign leaders who refuse to "toe the line" of the corporations and international bankers/financiers. The solution they hit upon was the use of Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) such as the so-called "National Endowment for Democracy" (actually engineered by the CIA itself) and other front organization NGOs like "Freedom House" (funded by notorious globalist George Soros) that provided training to leftist Ukrainian activists and demonstrators. The US government itself lent its weight to the project with backstage machinations as revealed by excerpts from the leaked phone conversations between Asst Secretary of State Nuland (F--- the EU) and Ambassador Pyatt in which they discussed plans to replace Yanukovych as President ("Yats is the guy"). Further, at least two representatives of the US government (Senators John Mccain and Chris Murphy) personally whipped up the anti-Russian mobs in Kiev with rousing speeches, giving the coup activists reason to believe they would have the backing of the US.
Although Nuland serves the democratic Obama administration, she actually is a neoconservative working for the big-business interests of corporate America and Europe. Her husband is Robert Kagan, who worked as a State Department propagandist on the Central American wars in the 1980s and was the co-founder of the Project for the New American Century in the 1990s, the group that organized political and media pressure for the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Not to mention calling for a "New Pearl Harbor" shortly before the 9/11 terror attacks in order to advance corporate and banking interests.
Another thing made clear in the film is that Yanukovych first opened negotiations with the EU for an economic partnership. He in fact was looking west for a solution to the growing economic difficulties Ukraine was experiencing. But the infamous International Monetary Fund imposed its traditional package of "structural adjustments" and poison pills that made this impossible. Yanukovych was forced to turn east to Putin and Russia, who were offering more favorable terms for economic assistance. This is when the leftist activists from Ukraine's western region and the neo-Nazi agitators began their non-so-peaceful protests which culminated in the so-called "Maidan Massacre". This of course provoked the coup and the vilification of Putin (as well as the ongoing sanctions against Russia).
Not to be left out is the massacre in Odessa at the Trade Unions House during which 46 pro-Russian Ukrainian protesters were murdered by Euromaidans. The civil unrest that occured in Georgia and Crimea is touched upon also. Regarding Crimea, the point is made that Crimea has long been a part of Russia, and that Khruschev's cession of it to Ukraine in 1954 was a purely administrative action as a part of the de-Stalinization process. The people who live there are ethnically Russians. Further, Russia has always maintained its naval base there to harbor its Black Sea Fleet, and as a military installation there are always, and always have been, armed troops stationed there. Contrary to the Euromaidans, there never was any "invasion" by Russian troops. You would never know that, however, from watching the western corporate news media.
Finally the film emphasizes the high stakes of this game that the corporate globalists are playing. The destruction of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which killed 298 people, was only a taste of the potential devastation that could result from the fanning of the flames in Ukraine. The machinations of the NWO and the US neoconservatives could well bring on a New Cold War that could escalate into a thermonuclear hot war.
One area where the documentary falls short (IMO) is the coverup being perpetrated by the western new media. All it says is that the corporations and bankers and financiers have allies in the media corporations, so their point of view gets all the air time. The film doesn't lay out exactly how the government and corporate powers in Europe and Washington have gotten the journalism community to ignore the true course of events and suppress documentaries such as this one, and indeed broadcast a big fat pack of lies about Putin as the mastermind behind the "massacre" of innocent Maidan protesters and "annexation" of Crimea.
Now square this with the media news report last Friday (August 25, 2017) that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in Kiev on an official visit and stated out loud in a public speech that it is US policy to see that Ukraine becomes a member of NATO and eventually the European Union. Here is another point that the documentary makes: the fact that when the USSR relaxed its grip on East Germany, and then West and East Germany were allowed to unify, President H.W. Bush made an ironclad promise to M. Gorbachev that NATO would not be expanded eastwards. Yet here we are pushing for NATO expansion right up to the Russian border (again -- recall the Baltic States are now NATO also). As portrayed in the western corporate-owned media, the Russians have some gall meddling in events occurring on their national border (this includes Georgia and Crimea, and the documentary touches on this also). As for the interest of the U.S. in seeing that Ukraine become an EU member, this is exactly the same as if Russia were to declare that Brazil must be included as a member of NAFTA. What business is this of the U.S. ? And why is our news media trying to keep these issues out of the public discourse?
There are no subtitles except for the interviews in which Russian is being spoken. These are somewhat difficult to follow because they are very small on the screen, and with too little contrast with the background because the translation is printed in yellow. The DVD "extras" is just a single 3-minute deleted scene.
Two other products that would be of interest to those following events in Ukraine and West-Russian affairs:
The War Against Putin: What the Government-Media Complex Isn't Telling You About Russia
and
The Plot to Scapegoat Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Putin
.
UPDATE 2024: The War Against Putin is no longer listed here on this site. Take a wild guess why...Fahrenheit day has finally arrived! Just checked ebay and there is ONE (count 'em, one!) merchant still offering it, for $75. Wow
Now it is 6+ years since this review and the media environment described then is no different now. Seems the only other alternative source of reliable information is Lex Fridman's interview of John Mearsheimer on youtube. Also worth checking out, for context, is Cohen's book "Failed Crusade".
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