Original Material
Russian Security Council deputy revives debunked claim of USAID’s $5 billion role in “organizing” Ukraine’s Euromaidan protests
The Insider
In an interview with the state-run newspaper Izvestia on March 7, Alexei Shevtsov, Deputy Secretary of Russia’s Security Council, claimed that, “USAID alone provided at least $5 billion to organize the Maidan” — a reference to the 2013-2014 wave of popular protests that ended with Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych fleeing to Russia.
Euromaidan
Also known as the “Revolution of Dignity,” Euromaidan was a protest movement in Ukraine that began in November 2013 and led to the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014. It started as a demonstration in favor of closer ties with the European Union and evolved into a nationwide revolution against corruption and authoritarianism.
Shevtsov’s false claim repeats an old Kremlin talking point alleging that the American government was responsible for funding the Euromaidan movement. The figure comes from remarks made by then-U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland in December 2013, delivered at a U.S.-Ukraine Foundation Conference in Washington:
“Since Ukraine’s independence in 1991, the United States has supported Ukrainians as they build democratic skills and institutions, as they promote civic participation and good governance, all of which are preconditions for Ukraine to achieve its European aspirations. We’ve invested over $5 billion to assist Ukraine in these and other goals that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic Ukraine.”
Nuland’s statement referred to the total amount of U.S. financial assistance to Ukraine over 22 years of independence. Many of the programs in question did in fact aim to support the development of the country’s democratic institutions — but none of them were directly tied to the financing of Euromaidan.
In April 2014, in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Nuland directly addressed the claim that the U.S. had funded the protests:
“The United States has invested some five billion dollars in Ukraine since 1991 when it became an independent state again after the collapse of the Soviet Union. And that money has been spent on supporting the aspirations of the Ukrainian people to have a strong, democratic government that represents their interests.
But we certainly didn’t spend any money supporting the Maidan; that was a spontaneous movement, which is a far cry from what we are concerned Russia is up to now in eastern Ukraine.
And with regard to the day on the Maidan when I was present, that visit happened the night after the Ukrainian special forces under then-President Yanukovych moved against peaceful demonstrators, and began pushing and shoving them off the Maidan, and it was a very scary and dangerous night.
They ultimately had to pull back when more peaceful protestors came and surrounded them, and the next day, when I went to visit Maidan, I didn’t think I could go down empty-handed, given what everybody had been through. So as a sign, a gesture of peace, I brought sandwiches to both the Maidan protestors, and to the Berkut [riot police] soldiers.”
The gesture spawned a meme heavily favored by Kremlin propaganda — “State Department cookies,” or “Nuland’s cookies.”
On Dec. 11, 2013, Nuland and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt handed out sandwiches, buns, and pastries to protesters at Euromaidan in Kyiv’s Independence Square.Russian state-run media, however, chose to refer to them as “cookies” («печеньки», “pechen’ki”). Russian propaganda framed Euromaidan as an anti-Russian operation orchestrated by Western intelligence services, claiming that Nuland had “bought an entire country with cookies.”
In reality, the protests in Kyiv began in November 2013 due to President Viktor Yanukovych’s refusal to sign an association agreement with the European Union.
The origin of the fake $5 billion claim appears to trace back to Nuland’s CNN interview. On April 22, 2014, Russian state-controlled media took note of Nuland’s statement, but the version of events presented by RIA Novosti at the time was largely accurate:
”U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland confirmed in an interview with CNN that Washington has allocated $5 billion ‘to support the aspirations of the Ukrainian people for a stronger, more democratic government…’ But she stressed that the U.S. ‘certainly did not spend money to support the Maidan.’ In her words, [the Euromaidan] was a ‘spontaneous movement.’»
Former Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev played a key role in twisting the narrative. In June 2015, in an interview with the newspaper Kommersant, he stated:
“The change of power [in Ukraine] was precisely the trigger for those events. [U.S. Secretary of State John] Kerry has an assistant — [Victoria] Nuland — who named the amount of $5 billion spent by the U.S. to organize these events.”
It seems that within Russia’s Security Council, this disinformation is being passed down from one administration to the next.
Euromaidan
Also known as the “Revolution of Dignity,” Euromaidan was a protest movement in Ukraine that began in November 2013 and led to the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014. It started as a demonstration in favor of closer ties with the European Union and evolved into a nationwide revolution against corruption and authoritarianism.