CIA was all over it. Those who challenge that view are mentally challenged themselves.
In part, this stems from many of the CIA’s traditional responsibilities and activities being farmed out to “overt” organizations, most significantly the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
Founded in November 1983, then-CIA director
William Casey was at the heart of NED’s creation. He
sought to construct a public mechanism to support opposition groups, activist movements and media outlets overseas that would engage in propaganda and political activism to disrupt, destabilize, and ultimately displace ‘enemy’ regimes. Subterfuge with a human face, to coin a phrase.
Underlining the Endowment’s insidious true nature,
in a 1991 Washington Post article boasting of its prowess in overthrowing Communism in Eastern Europe, senior NED official
Allen Weinstein acknowledged, “a lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”
Fast forward to September 2013, and
Carl Gershman, NED chief from its launch until summer 2021, authored
an op-ed for The Washington Post, outlining how his organization was hard at work wresting countries in Russia’s near abroad – the constellation of former Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact states – away from Moscow’s orbit.
Along the way, he described Ukraine as “the biggest prize” in the region, suggesting Kiev joining Europe would “accelerate the demise” of Russian
President Vladimir Putin. Six months later, Ukraine’s elected president
Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in a violent coup.
