Russia: Constitutional Court Upholds ‘Foreign Agents’ Law

[cprise]

4. Yes, Nuland is the source, though I mispoke re NED being 'the' instrument

According to Politifact (whose characterization of the crisis nevertheless adheres to corporate media norms) we spent nearly half a billion$ since 2009 alone on Ukrainian NGOs. And this funding has been going on since 1992.

U.S. Obscures Foreign Aid To Ukraine, But Here's Where Some Goes
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/07/us-foreign-aid-ukraine_n_4914682.html

(...)A significant portion of democracy program funding has come from the National Endowment for Democracy and its affiliated groups. The government-funded nonprofit discloses grant recipients on its website. (Publish What You Fund warned that this list may be incomplete and may not meet international foreign aid reporting standards the group promotes.)

From 2007 through 2012, the National Endowment for Democracy spent $16.8 million to stimulate civic activity and fund election watchdogs and non-state run reporting outlets in Ukraine. (NED will post 2013 grant recipients within the next week.) These funds have gone to organizations that played a role in the 2004 Orange Revolution and have since continued to monitor elections, investigate government corruption and educate youth about democratic government.

Ukrainian recipient organizations of U.S. democracy aid included election monitors Civic Network OPORA, an offshoot of the pro-Orange Revolution Pora Party (at least $411,370), and the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, which has branches across the country to monitor local elections, conduct polls and provide an organizing space for young Ukrainians ($788,072). The youth chapter of the nationalist People's Movement of Ukraine party, All-Ukrainian Youth Civic Organization or "Young Rukh," received nearly $200,000 to train youth activists and monitor corruption at Ukrainian universities. Other funding has gone to the Democratic Initiatives Foundation for election exit polling and surveys ($363,404).
(...)

Personally, I would not be surprised if that level of funding had most Ukrainians with activist or journalistic aspirations getting their bread buttered in some form by the US government.

A big problem here is that a group like NED, who are notorious for pushing a US imperial agenda, is included in the funding. This casts doubt over the character of the entire stream of purported good works.

Another big problem is how Nuland openly supported the rioters and their demands, which were stridently for the removal of Yanukovich. She did this in the first days of December in response to the riot police beating up some people.