Leonid Bershidsky — Putin Fans the Flames in Ukraine Once Again

The US spin on the alleged infiltration of saboteurs in Crimea. False flag engineered by none than Vladimir Putin and his FSB cronies.

Of course, one cannot entirely dismiss the possibility of Ukrainian attacks in Crimea. Last year, Kiev looked on as Crimean Tatars and Ukrainian nationalists blew up transmission towers near the border to cut off power supply to the occupied peninsula.

But it's just as easy to suspect Russia of staging the whole thing to establish a casus belli. "False Russian accusations toward Ukraine to justify future 'retaliation'?" Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius wrote on Twitter. Vladimir Milov, a Russian anti-Putin politician, likened the incident to the Nazi false flag operation in the Silesian town of Gleiwitz just before World War II began. A group of German intelligence officers dressed in Polish uniforms briefly seized a radio station in the town, which then belonged to Germany, to broadcast a message in Polish. The idea was to blame Poland for the attack and use it to justify an invasion.

Now the propaganda has moved to the level of conspiracy theory.

Bloomberg View
Putin Fans the Flames in Ukraine Once Again
Leonid Bershidsky