Famed Hollywood director Oliver Stone created a media storm this week with his statements about the February coup that ousted democratically elected Ukrainian leader Victor Yanukovych. Stone has concluded that the mysterious sniper fire that killed dozens and ultimately led to the overthrow was the work of outside agitators rather than of Yanukovich’s security forces. The mainstream media and the US government claimed immediately that the horrific attacks were the work of Yanukovych’s security personnel, underscoring the Western narrative that the Ukrainian president was a ruthless killer who lost all legitimacy when he ordered troops to fire on his own people.
In a statement issued by the White House on February 20th, the US administration said it was:
…outraged by the images of Ukrainian security forces firing automatic weapons on their own people.
Such US government claims have routinely been debunked and this one appears to be no different.
Stone was in Moscow working on a film about NSA whistleblower Ed Snowden when he interviewed the deposed president Yanukovych for a documentary he is also working on. According to Stone’s research he believes the coup in Kiev was a classic CIA overthrow:
…it seems clear that the so-called ‘shooters’ who killed 14 police men, wounded some 85, and killed 45 protesting civilians, were outside third party agitators. Many witnesses, including Yanukovych and police officials, believe these foreign elements were introduced by pro-Western factions– with CIA fingerprints on it.
He noted the similarities with other CIA overthrow operations such as the one that temporarily ousted Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, as well as Iran in 1953 and Chile in 1973. While the US and its allies have created the narrative that the crisis with Russia is about Russian actions in Crimea and Ukraine, the reality is that it has been the US that has been involved in Ukraine and which precipitated the crisis.
Faced with unexpected hostility over his post, Oliver Stone followed up with another statement clarifying that his conclusions had nothing to do with an affection for Yanukovich, who he said may well be the most corrupt president Ukraine ever had, but that the real point is the issue of US involvement in Ukraine’s internal affairs. Wrote Stone today:
[T]here is ample evidence of pro-Western, third party interference, beginning with Victoria Nuland, John McCain, USAID, National Endowment for Democracy (who apparently organize very well on Facebook and Twitter), etc. Why for instance are so many policemen dead and wounded, and yet no one has investigated this in the new government?
Stone clearly understands how the regime change machine works, where the US politicians, government agencies, and government-funded “NGOs” work in concert toward a singular US government goal. Stone even understands how important the use of social media is to the regime changers. Recall how many times the State Department spokesperson would with a straight face inform journalists that evidence for US claims about a Russian invasion of Ukraine or the Russian shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17 could be found in “social media.” Indeed, through such US government programs as the Alliance of Youth Movements and Movements.org, the US government actually trains activists overseas how to use social media to help overthrow their own governments.
Will Oliver Stone’s fame and stature help create cracks in the wall of US government and mainstream media propaganda about the US role in the Ukrainian coup? We can only hope so.
