The “Mysterious” Kiev Snipers
By Farooque Chowdhury
06 March, 2014
Countercurrents.org
With accusation of surveillance and espionage “mysterious” snipers in Kiev are coming out to light as diplomacy is unfolding over uncertain Ukraine.
The snipers were, as media from Moscow reported, hired by pro-Western predator leaders in the Kiev Independence square dubbed Maidan. Mainstream media is “missing” the information. The sniper-incident demonstrates the old formula for intervention: engineer, fabricate, manipulate, create confusion and chaos, and spill blood.
Citing a leaked phone conversation between Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign affairs chief, and Urmas Paet, the Estonian foreign minister, which has emerged online, the Russian media report said: “The snipers who shot at protesters and police in Kiev were allegedly hired by Maidan leaders”. The file was reportedly uploaded to the web by officers of Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) loyal to ousted president Yanukovich. The SBU officers hacked the conversation over phone.
According to the media reports, Paet said during conversation with Ashton: “There is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovich, but it was somebody from the new coalition.” Ashton’s response was: “I think we do want to investigate. I mean, I didn’t pick that up, that’s interesting. Gosh.” (“Kiev snipers hired by Maidan leaders – leaked EU’s Ashton phone tape”, March 5, 2014)
The call took place after Paet visited Kiev on February 25, following the peak of clashes between the pro-EU protesters and security forces in the Ukrainian capital.
Paet recalled his conversation with Olga Bogomolets, the main physician for the Maidan mobile clinic when protests turned violent. She treated the seriously injured and helped organize their transportation to neighboring countries that were willing to treat the critically wounded. She said that both protesters and police were shot at by the same people.
The Estonian minister stressed: “All the evidence shows that the people who were killed by snipers from both sides, among policemen and then people from the streets, that they were the same snipers killing people from both sides.” Ashton reaction was: “Well, yeah…that’s, that’s terrible.” Olga showed Paet a few photos. According to Paet, Olga said that as a medical doctor she can say that it is the “same type of bullets, and it’s really disturbing that now the new coalition, that they don’t want to investigate what exactly happened.”
Olga, the media reports said, blamed the injuries and deaths on snipers. She turned down the position of vice prime minister of Ukraine for humanitarian affairs offered by the coup-appointed regime.
The Estonian minister has described the sniper issue as “disturbing” and added, “it already discredits from the very beginning” the new Ukrainian power. His overall impressions of what he saw during his one-day trip to Kiev are “sad,” Paet said during the conversation.
He stressed that the Ukrainian people don’t trust the Maidan leaders, with all the opposition politicians slated to join the new government “having dirty past.” (ibid.)
Estonian foreign ministry has confirmed the recording of the conversation with Ashton is authentic. Paet told RIA-Novosti news agency that he talked to Ashton last week right after retiring from Kiev, but refrained from further comments, saying that he has to “listen to the tape first.” (“Estonian Foreign Ministry confirms authenticity of leaked call on Kiev snipers”, March 5, 2014)
“It’s very disappointing that such surveillance took place altogether. It’s not a coincidence that this conversation was uploaded [to the web] today,” the minister stressed. “My conversation with Ashton took place last week right after I returned from Kiev. At that time I was already in Estonia,” said Paet. In a press conference about the leaked tape on Wednesday, Paet said the Kiev incidents must become the subject of an independent investigation.
“We reject the claim that Paet was giving an assessment of the opposition’s involvement in the violence”, said an Estonian foreign ministry statement. It added that the minister was only providing an overview of what he had heard during his Kiev visit.
Russian news outlet RT contacted Ashton’s spokesperson, Maja Kocijancic, who said “we don’t comment on leaked phone conversations.” The US government declined to comment on the leaked phone conversation. According to ITAR-TASS, the US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said she had nothing to say on the issue. However, she did accuse Russia of leaking the tape, stating that “this was another example of how the Russians work.” (ibid.)
Citing the Estonian minister’s leaked phone conversation RIA Novosti said in a report from Tallinn: Snipers who shot at protesters and police in Kiev were allegedly linked to “somebody from the new coalition”. The minister added: “Distorted versions of the record, which are intended to discredit the Ukrainian government, have also emerged. I was only speaking about versions of what was going on in Ukraine.
Observation of a US politician has added more questions after the claim on Kiev snipers.
Dennis Kucinich, former Ohio congressman and Democratic presidential candidate said the Ukraine incident was driven by covert action by the US. Kucinich made the comments only a few days ago while speaking to Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, arguing US meddling in Ukraine’s affairs is what sparked the current situation in the first place and that Ukrainians were being exploited by Western powers.
Asked how he’d handle the tense standoff if he were president, Kucinich said the following: “What I’d do is not have USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy working with US taxpayers’ money to knock off an elected government in Ukraine, which is what they did. I wouldn’t try to force the people of Ukraine into a deal with NATO against their interest or into a deal with the European Union, which is against their economic interest.” “So, it’s the USA’s fault that Putin rolled in? We made them do it?” O’Reilly asked. “Bill O’Reilly, if you don’t believe in cause and effect, I don't know what I can do for you,” Kucinich said.
The observation can’t be easily ignored.
The sniper-incident and the claimed involvement of NED and other external actors expose brutal and dirty tricks employed for preparing ground for intervention. Broadly similar tricks were visible in Iraq, Syria and Venezuela. The role of NED has been discussed by Dr. Kim Scipes, Associate Professor of Sociology at Purdue University North Central in Westville, US, in the article “National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in Venezuela”. Some other countries have also experienced similar tricks and different levels of intervention in the recent past.
It should not be imagined that the nasty tricks will not be employed in other societies in future. Rather imperial powers will vigorously resort to employing similar tricks the more they face rejections in other societies. There will be destabilization campaigns in societies.
To make the incidents appear genuine, the first phase implemented by the imperial powers is to initiate a propaganda war using credible media outlets. A number of societies face the threat.
In the propaganda war, one-sided, distorted and negative picture is repeatedly presented. Writers posing as credible and organizations posing as standing for rights are employed for this purpose. The assigned writers resort to fabrication and use the tact of disinformation instead of being factual and objective. They completely hide imperialist role in respective society.
The hired writers’ attempts gain ground as the political forces opposing imperial intervention relies on bureaucratic measures instead of informing and mobilizing people. With increased competition among the major economies and people searching progressive way of life poor societies face more incidents of intervention.
Farooque Chowdhury is Dhaka-based freelancer.
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