Chalk another one up for the conspiracy theorists. The CIA and USG have been in Ukraine since just after Russia took Crimea.

And yesterday, The New York Times decided to tell everyone about it.

It’s getting embarrassing now. The definition of a conspiracy theorist is morphing into the exact definition of “clairvoyant.”

But the powers that be are now happy to let us know: the USG has been in bed with Ukraine for a decade.

Glenn Diesen sums up the article nicely on X:

The New York Times reports on America's secret war against Russia since Maidan in 2014:

• On the eve of the US-backed coup in Ukraine, 24 February 2014, the new spy chief of the US-installed government in Kyiv "called the C.I.A. station chief and the local head of MI6... and proposed a three-way partnership."

• The partnership "is no wartime creation" as it "took root a decade ago."

• Since the coup, Ukraine's intelligence agencies were transformed into "Washington’s most important intelligence partners against the Kremlin."

• "A C.I.A.-supported network of spy bases constructed in the past eight years that includes 12 secret locations along the Russian border."

• Secret bases established "fully financed, and partly equipped, by the C.I.A."

• "Around 2016, the C.I.A. began training an elite Ukrainian commando force — known as Unit 2245 — which captured Russian drones and communications gear so that C.I.A. technicians could reverse-engineer them and crack Moscow’s encryption systems."

• "That initial tranche contained secrets about the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet, including detailed information about the latest Russian nuclear submarine designs. Before long, teams of C.I.A. officers were regularly leaving his office with backpacks full of documents."

• The CIA used their secret bases in Ukraine to "track Russian spy satellites and eavesdrop on conversations between Russian commanders."

• "The C.I.A. also oversaw a training program, carried out in two European cities, to teach Ukrainian intelligence officers how to convincingly assume fake personas and steal secrets in Russia."

• The CIA directs attacks on Russian cities such as Rostov.

• "The C.I.A. and other American intelligence agencies provide intelligence for targeted missile strikes."

After reading this piece, it’s hard to call Vladimir Putin a liar about US involvement in Ukraine.

In fact, the USG, via the CIA, has been lying for ages about its relationship with Ukraine.

Let me quickly review one crucial piece of information called the Minsk Agreement.

The Minsk Agreement

In a Rude I wrote two years ago, I defined the Minsk Agreement thus:

The Minsk Conundrum

The Minsk Agreements were two sets of points to bring peace between Ukraine and Russia.

But they never worked because the two countries saw the agreements in entirely different lights, now called the Minsk Conundrum:

Ukraine sees the 2015 agreement as an instrument to re-establish control over the rebel territories.

It wants a ceasefire, control of the Russia-Ukraine border, elections in the Donbas, and a limited devolution of power to the separatists – in that order.

Russia views the deal as obliging Ukraine to grant rebel authorities in Donbas comprehensive autonomy and representation in the central government, effectively giving Moscow the power to veto Kyiv’s foreign policy choices.

 Only then would Russia return the Russia-Ukraine border to Kyiv’s control.

So, they were doomed to failure from the start.

What we didn’t know at the time was that then-President François Hollande and then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel flat-out lied about keeping the agreement.

From Merkel’s interview with Zeit:

ZEIT: But one can still find it plausible how one acted in earlier circumstances and today, in view of the results, consider it wrong.

Merkel: But that also requires you to say what exactly the alternatives were at the time. I thought the initiation of NATO accession for Ukraine and Georgia discussed in 2008 was wrong. The countries neither had the necessary prerequisites for this, nor had the consequences of such a decision been fully considered, both with regard to Russia's actions against Georgia and Ukraine and to NATO and its rules of assistance. And the 2014 Minsk agreement was an attempt to give Ukraine time.

That’s why Putin is still so upset with Merkel.  He repeated his position to Tucker Carlson: if he knew Merkel were lying, he’d have started the Special Military Operation much sooner.

But I’m not here to defend Putin.

They’re Lying to You

The apparent goal of releasing this exposé in The Times is to essentially say to the American taxpayer, “You were right.  We’re caught.  But we’ve been here for so long, and you’ve been paying for this the entire time anyway.  So we may as well keep going.”

And I’m here to say, “No.”

You simply cannot let them get away with this.

The CIA and its useful idiots even “tiptoed around Trump” to keep this farce going.

Again, from The Times:

The election of Trump in November 2016 put the Ukrainians and their CIA partners on edge.

Trump praised Putin and dismissed Russia’s role in election interference. He was suspicious of Ukraine and later tried to pressure its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to investigate his Democratic rival, Biden, resulting in Trump’s first impeachment.

But whatever Mr. Trump said and did, his administration often went in the other direction. This is because Mr. Trump had put Russia hawks in key positions, including Mike Pompeo as C.I.A. director and John Bolton as national security adviser. They visited Kyiv to underline their full support for the secret partnership, which expanded to include more specialized training programs and the building of additional secret bases.

Wrap Up

What a mess.  But it’ll get even messier if the U.S. stays in Ukraine.

As far as I can see, Trump had no comment on the piece.  But I wonder if he’ll do anything different if he’s reelected.

We shall see… if Biden doesn’t start World War III first.