Everyone I’ve talked to resents Putin’s two visits to campaign for Yanukovych but goes to great lengths to explain how warm their feelings for Russia are.
Ukraine
In the days after the 2004 Orange Revolution, when protesters in Kyiv overturned rigged presidential elections, I made my first trip to Ukraine. From my base in Moscow, I frequently returned. Ukraine was poor and shabby by comparison, but its citizens were also freer and less afraid of their government than Russians were.
After the first mass shootings during the Maidan protest in February 2014, I flew to Kyiv expecting to stay a couple of days. Instead I ended up covering Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the beginning of a conflict that has torn Ukrainians and Russians apart.
Students, Not Spooks, Effect Regime Change
You can bankroll a coup but you can’t buy a popular uprising.
