DISINFO: USAID financed Ukraine's 2014 Maidan protests with a $5 billion investment
SUMMARY
In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Robert Kennedy Jr. stated that the U.S., through USAID, invested $5 billion in Ukraine for the 2014 Maidan, under the pretense of promoting "freedom and democracy." He emphasised that this funding followed the overthrow of a democratically elected government that had refused to take sides.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the 2013-14 protests in Kyiv falsely portrayed as a coup d'état led by US and the West, about the West’s support for the allegedly Nazi regime in Kyiv and a recurring narrative about the war in Ukraine, trying to deflect Russia’s responsibility for its unprovoked military aggression.
Framing all popular protests against Russia’s interests as a foreign-led ‘colour revolution’ is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative. No evidence is provided to back up the claims.
The Euromaidan Revolution was organized spontaneously by Ukrainians in a grassroots fashion.
Detector Media reports that Russian state channels have long pushed such false narrative that Euromaidan was a US sponsored coup, using “relentless repetition” and flooding across multiple platforms and languages to manipulate public perception. This disinformation has been reinforced by Russian officials, including Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov, who repeated it just two months ago - once again in an interview with Carlson.
Pro-Kremlin media consistently frame popular revolutions through fixed disinformation narratives, branding protests against corruption and government abuse as "color revolutions" orchestrated by the West. This narrative is applied globally, but most prominently to Ukraine’s 2013–2014 Euromaidan protests. Read more on the topic here.
Read similar cases such as USAID attempted 2024 coup in Georgia, USAID will sue several Moldovan mayors or that Western aid to Armenia has a destabilising nature.