EuroMaidan Revolution
Timothy Snyder: Cutting through the haze of propaganda about Ukraine
: People look at unidentified men in military fatigues blocking a base of the Ukrainian frontier guard unit in Balaklava on March 1, 2014. Ukraine's border guard service said that about 300 armed men were attempting to seize its main headquarters in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol under orders from Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu. AFP PHOTO/ VIKTOR DRACHEV
From Moscow to London to New York, the Ukrainian revolution has been seen through a haze of propaganda. Russian leaders and the Russian press have insisted that Ukrainian protesters were right-wing extremists and then that their victory was a coup. Ukraine’s president, Viktor Yanukovych, used the same clichés after a visit with the Russian president at Sochi. After his regime was overturned, he maintained he had been ousted by “right-wing thugs,” a claim echoed by the armed men who seized control of airports and government buildings in the southern Ukrainian district of Crimea on Friday.
