Thread by @AlanRMacLeod

New from me. As tensions ramp up, disclosures from CIA front group the NED show it has spent $22.4m in 🇺🇦 since 2014, funding pro-west media, pro-west political parties and pushing through a massive privatisation campaign to benefit western corporations.

mintpressnews.com/documents-reve…

The NED is funding a network of hawkish media outlets in🇺🇦, who are often used to launder nat sec talking points back into American life. Their status as Ukrainian orgs gives them a cache, but it is rarely, if ever, revealed that they’re directly in the pay of the US govt.

A key target for the NED is the eastern, Russian-speaking Donbas area. The word “Donbas” is mentioned in 52 times in the short grant summaries, while “eastern" Ukraine is referred to over 100 times. In other words, they’re flooding the region with pro-US propaganda.

According to its 2019 annual report, the NED considers Ukraine its “top priority” thanks to its “size and importance for the Europe region”.

Essentially, it's trying to pull Ukraine away from Russian influence and into US influence. It does this by funding anti-Russia voices.

Who are the NED? It's a “private” organization set up by Reagan in 1983 as a CIA front group in the wake of CIA scandals. This “private” org is staffed with Nat Sec agents and funded by DC. “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA” said its cofounder.

The NED is the US govt's primary regime change arm. All NED's work is couched in the language of "democracy promotion".

Yet they've never carried out a single project in Saudi Arabia or any of the pro-US Gulf dictatorships. They work primarily in states the US doesn't like.

Meanwhile, in Belarus, the NED has 40 active projects on the go. The NED's Europe Chief was caught stating that her organization played a "significant" role in organizing the nationwide protests against President Lukashenko last year.

My article:

mintpressnews.com/us-writes-bela…

The NED also funds a huge array of activists, artists and NGOs in Cuba, and was involved in the protests of last summer.

I wrote about it at the time for @MintPressNews:

mintpressnews.com/documents-poin…

.@kennardmatt spoke with @Lowkey0nline about how the NED is used to export obedience to US empire all around the world, and how it's even active in the UK.

Full video: mintpressnews.com/us-uses-ned-ex…