MOSCOW, April 14 (RIA Novosti), Daria Chernyshova – The events unfolding in Ukraine are in line with other international Central Intelligence Agency operations, George Mapp, an investigative journalist and a contributor to the Daily Journalist, told RIA Novosti on Monday.
“The Ukraine scenario that has developed over the last several months has the CIA's modus operandi written all over it,” Mapp told RIA Novosti.
“As far as the Central Intelligence Agency being involved in the protests, yes it is extremely likely that they have not only been involved but also engineered and orchestrated the protests from the onset,” he added.
Ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said CIA director John Brennan met with Kiev authorities over the weekend.
A source close to Ukraine’s security agencies confirmed the CIA director visited the country under a false name and might have travelled to the city of Slaviansk in Eastern Ukraine, where Kiev authorities suppressed pro-federalization demonstrations by force. The decision to sanction the use of weapons and provoke bloodshed might have been influenced by the CIA chief.
“Yes, I do believe that CIA director Brennan was in Kiev on Saturday,” Mapp said.
“I have not as of yet received direct confirmation from any of my sources. Not only is the CIA extremely experienced in political coups, they have a history and thus experience in Ukraine. I am referring to the 'Orange Revolution' in 2004 and 2005,” he added.
At least three people, including a pro-federalization supporter, were killed in the clashes between forces loyal to Kiev, including Right Sector fighters, and the local protestors, who had seized a local government building, a district police department and a security service office.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on his Facebook page that an operation was underway in the city involving “all the country's law enforcement agencies.”
CIA veterans, who wished to remain anonymous, told RIA Novosti they were skeptical about Brennan’s visit to Ukraine. The political standoff between the West and Russia over Ukraine “is an extremely important and delicate chess match,” according to Mapp, so a visit of a high-ranking US official would be quite possible.
“The huge importance and implications depending on the outcome of this multi-faceted political chess match – it makes perfect sense that CIA director John Brennan would himself go to Ukraine,” Mapp said.
“Also, I don't think that director Brennan would mind a bit of time away and a temporary distraction from Senator Feinstein and the Senate Intelligence Committee due to the current situation in Washington,” he added.
The US Embassy in Kiev hosted several training sessions for young digital enthusiasts known as “TechCamps” across Ukraine over the past two years. A TechCamp in Warsaw last October was attended by representatives of Polish NGOs and “socially active students from Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Belarus.”
The workshop in October 2012 in Kiev was kicked off by US Ambassador to Ukraine John F. Tefft, who expressed America’s commitment to youth development and said that technology in the hands of teachers, librarians, and youth advocates "gives hope for the future."
On Monday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia is not interested in interfering in Ukraine’s domestic affairs. “It contradicts our interests,” he said at a press conference with the Sudanese foreign minister in Moscow. He also condemned the decision to use force, including army troops, against protesters in eastern Ukraine as extremely dangerous.
