As for my statement, I am a retired military intelligence officer (and political science professor) who spent many years working the war in Afghanistan for the US Intelligence Community.  I’m also a Ukrainian Orthodox priest.  The thing that bothers me about the situation is the complete lack of humility (both intellectual and spiritual) on the part of those who cover it.
 
ukrainianpriestTraditional news, blogs, professional analysis, and social media covering the Maidan have made one big mistake: they claim to know what is going on.  This is impossible.  It is impossible for the people there and it is even more impossible for us.  Not only are the facts themselves under dispute (to include the timeline of events leading to the escalation of violence that fateful Tuesday), there are many competing narratives, all of which have some relevancy.  
 
The “fog of war” that always accompanies such events is worsened by the frailty of our own wetware, the rigidity of our world-views and ideologies, and the fact that the post-Soviet governments involved (i.e. the former Yanukovich and Putin administrations and their security bureaucracies) are experts at both disinformatsia (e.g. RT?!  The lobbying of conservative US bloggers by Moscow, the use of Orthodoxy to support Moscow’s position) and provokatsia (false-flag operations, titushki, infiltration) and whole swaths of the infosphere have bought their deceptions, hook, line, and sinker.  
 
The Maidan is a complicated phenomenon, not to be painted as “fascist”, “neo-nazi”, “extremists”, “puppets of western governments” (as if our government was competent enough to actually manipulate such  situation) or even West-Ukrainian nationalists; nor are the protesters simply saints trying to bring freedom from corruption and tyranny to Ukraine (yes, even those who are actually organized have their own propaganda campaigns).  It’s complicated.  I hope your coverage admits this complexity.  With twitter feeds, live cameras broadcasting via the internet, and all the other first and second hand reports coming from Ukraine, we are overwhelmed with data; but as I learned as an intelligence analyst: more data is rarely correlated with understanding.  It usually just means that everyone can find the evidence they want to support their own biases.
 
Personally, I believe the dominant narrative should be the struggle of people against really bad government, but I admit that this is because my worldview was influenced by the horror of Communism (the Communists in Moscow intentionally starved 5-10 million Ukrainians to death, among many other atrocities) and a reverence for liberty and the rule of law.
 
The biggest problems right now in Ukraine are 1) the new government lacks wisdom and experience (they should have reassured Russia and the Ukrainian Russia speakers from the start), 2) Moscow has an imperialistic vision of itself, and 3) the West cannot match the carrots and sticks that Moscow has shown that it is willing to offer (substantial loans, gas subsidies, and invasion).
 
I hope this helps. 
 
Fr. Anthony
 
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Rev. (Douglas) Anthony Perkins
St. Michael Ukrainian Orthodox Church
Woonsocket, RI
www.stmichaeluoc.org
www.orthoanalytika.org
iTunes: OrthoAnalytika