“All the world’s a stage,” said the Spear Shaker. So who are the players in the February 2014 Kiev production?
We all know Victoria Nuland, famous for her “F*** the EU” remark. But the person she said this to, Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, is less noticed. “Geoffrey Pyatt is one of these State Department high officials who does what he’s told and fancies himself as a kind of a CIA operator,” stated Ray McGovern, a former intelligence analyst with the CIA. The U.S. State Department is doing a lot of the CIA stuff these days. The State Department controls the prime funding sources for the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the Agency for International Development (USAID), and a network of front groups, cut-outs, and private contractors. Through Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, the State Department had Geoffrey Pyatt coordinate the upheaval in Kiev.
Geoffrey Pyatt took the oath of office for Ambassador to Ukraine on July 30, 2013. He arrived in Kiev on August 3rd. Almost immediately Pyatt authorized a grant for an online television outlet called Hromadske.TV. Editor-in-chief for Hromadske.TV was one Roman Skrypin. Skrypin had previously been associated with Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Radio Free Europe had been a CIA asset until 1971. (Now perhaps RFE is a State Department asset.) It is linked to a dubious “Crimean Medal” rumor. The Russians thus far neither confirm nor deny the existence of the medal, which allegedly suggests by dates on its reverse side that Russia is responsible for sniper attacks in Kiev on February 20, 2014. (Background: Mystery of the Crimean Medal, https://ersjdamoo.wordpress.com/2014/05/01/mystery-of-the-crimean-medal/
In 2004, Roman Skrypin had also helped create Channel 5 television, which played a major role in the “Orange Revolution” of late November 2004 through January 2005.
Another of the players in the February 2014 Ukraine upheaval is George Soros. His International Renaissance Foundation (IRF) had given $10,560 to Skrypin. Later, the George Soros foundation gave $19,183 to Hromadske.TV.
The Embassy of the Netherlands gave a generous $95,168 to Hromadske.TV. Pyatt, Soros, and the Dutch put Web TV at the Kiev uprising’s disposal. Without their joint funding of Hromadske and its streaming video from the Euromaidan, the revolution might never have been televised.
George Soros also funded a Ukrainian Crisis Media Center “to inform the international community about events in Ukraine.”
The State Department’s Agency for International Development (USAID) funded a non-profit called Pact Inc. – to run the “Ukraine National Initiatives to Enhance Reforms” (UNITER). Pact hoped “to partner with civil society, young people, and international organizations” and build the base for either reform or regime change in Ukraine.
One Oleh Rybachuk had acted previously in the 2004-2005 “Orange Revolution.” The producers of Kiev 2014 again cast this notable actor in their new production. Rybachuk was given his own NGO, Center UA (variously spelled Centre UA, Tsenter UA, or United Actions Center UA). Pact then helped Rybachuk use his new base to bring together as many as 60 local and national NGOs with activists and leaders of public opinion. This was New Citizen, a non-political “civic platform” that became a major political player. At the time, Pact and Soros’s IRF were working in a joint effort to provide small grants to some 80 local NGOs. This continued the following year with additional money from the East Europe Foundation.
A garlic bulb was placed strategically onstage. This garlic bulb was the logo for “the Chesno Movement.” Pact Inc. commissioned a financial audit for the Chesno campaign, covering from October 2011 to December 2012. It showed that donors gave Rybachuk’s Center UA and six associated groups some $800,000 for Chesno. PACT, which regularly got its money from USAID, contributed the lion’s share, $632,813, though part of that came from the Omidyar Network, a foundation set up by Pierre Omidyar and his wife. (Pierre Omidyar is the founder and chairman of the eBay auction site.)
Reportedly names of other donors to the general mélange were given in a recent press release by Omidyar. They include the Swiss and British embassies, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
“What should we make of all this funding? Some of it looks like private philanthropy, as back in the days when the CIA channeled its money through foundations,” writes Steve Weissman of Reader Supported News. One thing is certain, the Kiev 2014 production has generated intense interest among worldwide audiences.
—
My source for much of the above is, “Meet the Americans Who Put Together the Coup in Kiev”, by Steve Weissman. Reader Supported News, March 25, 2014. http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/22758-meet-the-americans-who-put-together-the-coup-in-kiev
Ersjdamoo's Blog 