Julia Davis

On November 2, 2014, residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Eastern Ukraine held illegitimate elections , under the watchful eye of Russia-funded militants. The proceedings had all the earmarks of the Putin chapiteau that led up to the annexation of Crimea. Diehard fans of the USSR lined up to receive free cabbage and other cheap vegetables on their way to the polls. Free cabbage got the participants so worked up, they managed to produce 100.1% of votes for the candidates. Afterwards, they gathered to celebrate pseudo-elections in classic Soviet fashion, with music, free food and burly gunmen. Continue reading:  http://www.examiner.com/list/cabbage-republic-of-donbass-crimea-part-deux

Russia’s mainstream media exploded with a stream of articles and TV programs, claiming that Ukrainian journalist Bogdan Butkevych called for the murder of 1.5 million people in Donbass, Eastern Ukraine. Notorious Lifenews alleged , “Kyiv journalist suggested killing 1.5 million people of Donbass. Known Maidan supporter turned out to be an extremist.” Lifenews reported, “Ukraine doesn’t need inhabitants of Donbass,” going so far as to accuse Butkevych of “velvet fascism.” Vesti claimed that Butkevych callously encouraged mass murders in Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine. Vzglyad followed suit , using the same video. Not to be outdone, Komsomolskaya Pravda went an extra mile , pulling a screenshot from an entirely different video to create the false impression that Bogdan Butkevych made a Nazi hand gesture salute. They drew parallels to the 1930’s Germany, stating that Butkevych proposed that the people of Donbass be dealt with in the barbaric way. Moskovskiy Komsomole...