nuland, victoria
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx twt</font></div><div>Far-right MAGA media is promoting a debunked Kremlin conspiracy theory</div><div>
</div><div>Alex Henderson March 16, 2022</div><div> </div><div>More than 3 million refugees have fled Ukraine because of Russia’s invasion, which has caused thousands of deaths — and the worst may be yet to come. Regardless, some of President Vladimir Putin’s useful idiots in the United States have been apologists for the invasion, promoting a debunked Kremlin conspiracy theory which claims that bioweapons were being manufactured in Ukrainian laboratories. Putin, according to that conspiracy theory, was justified in invading Ukraine.</div><div>
</div><div>“Most of the conspiracy theories claim that the U.S. was developing and plotting to release a bioweapon or potentially another coronavirus from ‘biolabs’ throughout Ukraine and that Russia invaded to take over the labs,” journalists Ben Collins and Kevin Collier report in an article published by NBC News’ website on March 14. “Many of the theories implicate people who are often the targets of far-right conspiracy thinking — including Dr. Anthony Fauci and President Joe Biden — as being behind creating the weaponized diseases in the biolabs. Disinformation experts said the biolabs theory echoes other Russian propaganda meant to justify its military efforts, which often makes allegations against other countries and populations that reflect similar attacks it plans to make.”</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Collins and Collier note that “PolitiFact has debunked the theories, and no evidence of U.S.-run bioweapons labs in Ukraine has been put forward.”</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Russia’s early struggles to push disinformation and propaganda about Ukraine have picked up momentum in recent days, thanks to a variety of debunked conspiracy theories about biological research labs in Ukraine,” Collins and Collier explain. “Much of the false information is flourishing in Russian social media, far-right online spaces and<b> U.S. conservative media, including Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News. The theories, which have been boosted by Russian and Chinese officials, come as U.S. officials warn that Russia could be preparing a chemical or biological weapons attack of its own in Ukraine.”</b></span></div><div>
</div><div>Clint Watts, a senior fellow at the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University, told NBC News, “The ‘biolabs’ are serving as a false justification for why Russia invaded Ukraine. It’s defensive. They create a situation where they go to a populist audience, push out talking points, get the audience primed and make it true later.”</div><div>
</div><div>Welton Chang, CEO of the cybersecurity firm Pyrra Technologies, told NBC News that <b>everyone from QAnon to the far-right social media platform Gab has been pushing the Ukrainian biolabs conspiracy theory.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Chang explained, “These communities already know what the rhythm and cadence of COVID conspiracies should be like to get people to buy it,” Chang said. “They had a lot of practice with QAnon. The kinds of things that get people excited, like any time you say ‘secret biolab’ — it gets people’s emotions</span> up.”</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">an 3 22</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Fox News' National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin recently <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/fox-news-jennifer-griffin-debunks-080644740.html" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">pushed back against conservative primetime host Tucker Carlson for his conspiracy theories and inaccurate reporting on Russia.</a></b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Wednesday, March 9, Griffin appeared on "The Sean<b> Hannity </b>Show" where she addressed the Russian misinformation suggesting the United States is allegedly running <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world-report/articles/2022-03-09/u-s-blasts-russia-claims-of-bioweapons-labs-in-ukraine-absurd-laughable" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">secret bioweapon laboratories</a> in Ukraine.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“In terms of Ukraine’s biolabs, which have come under scrutiny tonight,” Griffin said, “those are Soviet-era bio-labs that the U.S. has been engaged [with] since 2005 in trying to help Ukraine convert the research facilities safely.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Griffin also weighed in on the concerns some U.S. officials have about Russia's use of such weaponry amid their invasion of Ukraine. “White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Moscow’s talk today about these biolabs has led to concern by U.S. intelligence,” Griffin said, <b>“that Russia could use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine to create a false flag operation using them</b>.”[twt</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Griffin's latest remarks are distinctly different from Carlson's remarks. According to Yahoo! News, the conservative primetime host, who has been criticized for repeatedly pushing Russian propaganda, "used the admission by Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland that there are biological research labs in Ukraine as a reason to push the same narrative as Russia."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Ukraine is the poorest country in Europe,” Carlson said. “It’s hardly a hotbed of biomedical research. We’re assuming these weren’t pharmaceutical labs. Probably not developing new leukemia drugs. From your answer, Victoria Nuland, we would assume, because you all but said it, there’s a military application of this research. They’re working on bioweapons.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>However, Griffin claims that the information about the labs is not considered to [be] a secret or new development. “It is a long program that has existed, where the Pentagon has partnered with these biolabs,</b>” Griffin said, adding, “The U.S. has been very open about its involvement there with that. But what Russia does is they take that information, distort it, turn it around and turn it into disinformation.”</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/russias-invasion-ukraine/right-wing-personalities-promote-kremlin-conspiracy-theory-about">https://www.mediamatters.org/russias-invasion-ukraine/right-wing-personalities-promote-kremlin-conspiracy-theory-about</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx twt</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Right-wing personalities promote Kremlin conspiracy theory about biological research facilities in Ukraine</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Conspiracy theorists spin an intelligence hearing about Russian disinformation strategy to help excuse Putin's unprovoked invasion</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WRITTEN BY CYDNEY HARGIS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ALEX KAPLAN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PUBLISHED 03/09/22 </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After the State Department reconfirmed the existence of <b>biological research laboratories in Ukraine and expressed concern Russia may seize them</b>, far-right media accused the United States of both controlling the labs for nefarious purposes and orchestrating a false flag operation against Russia. In reality, the idea that these facilities are controversial, much less a threat to Russia, is a <b>Kremlin-backed conspiracy theory.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">During a March 8 hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) asked Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland if Ukraine has “chemical or biological weapons.” Nuland responded that Ukraine has “biological research facilities,” adding that the U.S. government was “quite concerned” about the facilities falling into Russian hands. When Rubio noted the existence of a Russian disinformation campaign already in-effect to blame Ukraine for a future release of biological weapons, Nuland replied that “it is classic Russian technique to blame on the other guy what they're planning to do themselves.”</font></div><div>
</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Citation From March 8, 2022, C-SPAN coverage of a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Russia isn’t the only state actor helping spread this conspiracy theory, which was also promoted by a spokesperson from the Chinese government — following a pattern of Chinese disinformation established during the pandemic.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The conspiracy theory that there are U.S.-funded bioweapons labs in Ukraine, and that they have been directed to destroy whatever pathogens are inside, has been floating around fringe and far-right media for several days since the conflict began. This burgeoning conspiracy theory has followed closely behind what the<b> British Ministry of Defense described as “a notable intensification of Russian accusations that Ukraine is developing nuclear or biological weapons,” which the Kremlin hopes could provide “a retrospective justification” for its unprovoked war.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ukraine does have biological research labs that were modernized as a result of a pact between its Ministry of Health and the U.S. Department of Defense. The U.S. and Ukraine entered into the<b> agreement in 2005 — brokered, in part, by then-Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) – to jointly-prevent the spread of deadly pathogens developed as part of the former Soviet Union’s expansive biological weapons program.</b> As part of the agreement, the U.S. provided funding for security upgrades to the Soviet-era facilities to support the “peaceful research” of infectious diseases.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The DOD’s Biological Threat Reduction Program was designed as part of an arms control program to secure “pathogen strains and sensitive biological knowledge within Ukraine," specifically to prevent those resources from being released or weaponized.</b> In fact, the agreement governing these facilities evolved from the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which assisted Ukraine with the removal and decommissioning of Soviet nuclear weapons.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Some variations of the conspiracy theory go even further to claim that the labs are being run by the U.S. In reality, the labs are funded and operated by the Ukrainian government. But claims to the contrary have existed for years and are part of a Russian disinformation campaign to discredit the U.S. in the eyes of former Soviet republics. Indeed, FactCheck.org produced a full article debunking a previous iteration of this conspiracy theory on March 2, nearly a week before Nuland’s testimony</span>.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Despite the abundance of evidence showing that these are not weapons facilities, far-right media personalities pounced on Nuland’s testimony about “research facilities” in Ukraine to hype Russia’s narrative justifying the invasion and to falsely claim she “confirmed every conspiracy theory about the existence of those labs”:</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>During the March 9 edition of Real America Voice’s War Room: Pandemic, host Steve Bannon claimed that Nuland was let “off the hook” and told all Florida residents to contact Rubio and ask him if the CIA, Defense Department, or DIA gave him the questions to ask</b>. Bannon went on to play a clip of the hearing and said Rubio should have asked, “Is that a lab? What are they creating? Are we involved in any way? Have we financed it? Are we partners? Do we actually know what’s going on?” <b>Bannon later said that “no Republican should vote for any money on Ukraine, zero dollars,” until we know exactly what is going on with the labs.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">On March 9, the Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft shared a video that he said was of the “Director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation” telling the U.S. that Russia has “found your biological weapons” after Nuland’s testimony.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a March 8 Gateway Pundit article, Hoft repeated China’s claim that there are “26 US biological labs in Ukraine alone” before running through the conspiracy theory that there was “biological testing in Ukraine near the Russian border.” Hoft went on to call Nuland’s comments an “explosive development.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In a March 8 Telegram post, former Trump national security adviser Mike Flynn shared a post claiming, “I was told that biolabs in Ukraine was a conspiracy theory yet here we are. They are now admitting it openly</b>.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Former 8kun administrator, QAnon influencer, and GOP congressional candidate Ron Watkins shared an Epoch Times article in a March 9 Telegram post that questioned whether Vice President Kamala Harris will “negotiate the cover up of the US Biolabs in Ukraine.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A March 8 post on the<b> far-right forum TheDonald</b> shared a video of Nuland’s comments and added, “<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Another win for conspiracy theorists: the biolabs in Ukraine exist! CONFIRMED!”</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A March 8 post on the<b> QAnon forum The Great Awakening</b> shared a video of Nuland from the<b> Russian state media outlet RT </b>and called her comments “Narrative Spin 101.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a March 8 <b>Gab post, QAnon influencer Anonymous Patriot</b> shared a post about Nuland’s comments and wrote, “And there it is. PANIC.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Human Events’ Ian Miles Cheong:</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Human Events’ Jack Posobiec:</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Far-right conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Epoch Times’ Hans Mahncke:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Big League Politics:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Far-right commentator Chuck Callesto:</font></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">automagically put in top stories? 3 22 punked? Maidan</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_pro-Russian_unrest_in_Ukraine" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_pro-Russian_unrest_in_Ukraine</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AlterNet and Nicolas J. S. Davies May 05, 2014</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">fiery chaos...</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2014/05/fiery-chaos-odessa-42-perish-after-ukrainians-launch-waco-assault/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2014/05/fiery-chaos-odessa-42-perish-after-ukrainians-launch-waco-assault/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27268775" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">The death toll in Odessa</a> stands at 42 people killed, most of them burned to death or suffocated by smoke inhalation in the inferno at the Trade Unions House. There is no dispute over who were the victims and who were their killers. <b> The victims were pro-Russian protesters who had occupied the building. The attackers who set fire to it with petrol bombs were members of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_Sector" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Right Sector</a>, the ultra-Nationalist strike force of the U.S.-backed coup that overthrew the elected government of Ukraine in February. </b></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Right Sector leader <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmytro_Yarosh" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Dmytro Yarosh</a> told <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/2014/03/28/yarosh-russians-rise-against-putin-248025.html" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Newsweek on March 19th</a> that the Western-backed coup regime in Kiev has organized Right Sector militia members into new paramilitary forces for a "war" to "cleanse the country" of pro-Russian protesters.</span> So it is not clear whether the militiamen responsible for the mass murder in Odessa were in fact newly recruited Ukrainian "National Guard" troops or just "civilian" Right Sector thugs, nor whether they were locals from Odessa or forces sent in from Kiev, Lviv or elsewhere in Western Ukraine.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For Americans, a more serious question hangs over Ukraine's Waco in Odessa and indeed over the entire U.S. role in the crisis in Ukraine. The earliest media reports of Right Sector's existence date only from January 2014 as it took charge of the protests in Kiev, and the earliest article on <a href="http://pravyysektor.info/" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Right Sector's web site</a> dates from November 25th 2013. Right Sector was created less than six months ago, as the<b> U.S. State Department and the CIA was already <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26079957" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">laying the groundwork</a> for the coup in Ukraine.</b> So what role has the U.S. played in the recruiting, training and direction of this group that now has so much blood on its hands?</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dmytro Yarosh, Right Sector's leader, joined the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Stepan Bandera</a> All-Ukrainian <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryzub(organization)" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Tryzub (Trident)</a> paramilitary organization in 1994. He became the head of the militia in 2005. Like the neo-Nazi <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svoboda(political_party)" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Svoboda Party</a>, one of three parties in the coup government, Tryzub drew inspiration from the World War II-era Ukrainian leader Stepan Bandera and his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_of_Ukrainian_Nationalists" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists</a>, who massacred tens of thousands of Poles and Jews during World War II and supported German campaigns that killed many more.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Despite his early collaboration with the Nazis, Bandera soon fell foul of the German occupiers in Ukraine and spent most of the war in the Zellenbau prison for political prisoners at Sachsenhausen concentration camp</b>. Like his hero, Yarosh speaks fiercely of Ukrainian independence from both Russia and the West, although most of his venom is directed at Russia and Russians in Ukraine. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> As in <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/mi6-the-cia-and-turkeys-rogue-game-in-syria-9256551.html" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Syria</a> and <a href="http://alternettest.wpengine.com/world/35-countries-where-us-has-supported-fascists-druglords-and-terrorists" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">throughout the world</a>, the violent, dangerous forces the U.S. recruited and deployed to overthrow Ukraine's government are not entirely under U.S. control but are more easily directed toward violence and chaos than toward any constructive purpose.</span></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So, in the wake of Right Sector's inferno in Odessa, we have to ask a second question, "What role is the CIA still playing today in directing or advising Right Sector as it commits mass murder in Odessa and wages war on pro-Russian protesters across the country?"</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">NATO leaders formally declared in Bucharest on April 3rd 2008 that Ukraine and Georgia "<a href="http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_8443.htm" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">will become members of NATO</a>."</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> <b style="">U.S. coup manager Victoria Nuland</b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> flew back from Kiev to tell the </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">National Press Club</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> in Washington on December 13th 2013 that the U.S. had </span><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37599.htm" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">spent $5 billion to "help Ukraine,"</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> and that it had not spent all that money for nothing</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. Then Mrs. Kagan flew back to Kiev to oversee the transition from the recruitment and movement building phase of the coup to the unleashing of Right Sector street violence in the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Hrushevskoho_Street_riots" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Hrushevskoho Street riots</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in Kiev on January 19th. As America's angel of death flew back and forth across the Atlantic in taxpayer-funded comfort, the 42 victims of Ukraine's Waco in Odessa were living their lives and minding their own business, with no inkling of the unfolding scheme that would lead to their horrific deaths.</span></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Routinely omitted from the Western propaganda narrative on Ukraine is the fact that Russia has had a <a href="http://newsru.com/pict/big/1638517.html" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">reasonable proposal for the future of Ukraine</a> on the table all along, since before the emergence of Right Sector, before the coup in Kiev and before Russia reclaimed Crimea in response to the coup.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Russia's proposal is for a neutral and federal Ukraine. NATO leaders would abandon their plans to absorb Ukraine into NATO, and the different regions of Ukraine would be granted greater autonomy under a new federal constitution. This offers the hope of ending the back-and-forth all-or-nothing power struggle that has turned the people of Ukraine into pawns of Russian- and Western-backed oligarchs and their foreign allies since 1991.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The main obstacle to the Russian proposal is its reasonableness</b>. It's really the only sensible framework for a solution to the crisis. But the U.S., its NATO allies and the coup government in Kiev have staked out extreme positions, calling pro-Russian Ukrainians "terrorists", threatening them with military force and blaming Russia for everything. This makes it difficult for the U.S. and its allies to accept Russia's proposal without very obviously and publicly backing down.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>F<a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2014/3/20/fmr_us_ambassador_behind_crimea_crisis" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">ormer US Ambassador to Moscow Jack Matlock</a> has urged the Obama administration to stop making aggressive public statements and to engage in quiet diplomacy to resolve the crisis, before matters get any worse for the people of Ukraine or for U.S.-Russian relations. </b>Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) has urged the president to ask NATO to formally rescind the 2008 Bucharest declaration that Ukraine will become a member of NATO, and to work in good faith to implement the April 17th Geneva agreement to de-escalate the crisis. Above all, VIPS writes, Obama must "<a href="http://consortiumnews.com/2014/04/28/obama-urged-to-show-restraint-on-ukraine/" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">let cooler heads prevail</a>."</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">However, <b>if Right Sector leaders and the coup government are still getting very different advice and direction from their CIA case officers at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev,</b> none of this will work and we can expect further escalation, more Right Sector atrocities and the rising danger of an unthinkable war between the U.S. and Russia. It will be no comfort to recognize that none of that had to happen.</font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div>