<\/p>\n
Just hours after last weekend\u2019s\u00a0ouste<\/strong><\/span>r<\/strong><\/span><\/a> of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, one of Pierre Omidyar\u2019s newest hires at national security blog \u201cThe<\/strong><\/span> Intercept<\/strong><\/span><\/a>,\u201d was already digging for the truth.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Marcy Wheeler, who is the new site\u2019s \u201csenior policy analyst,\u201d\u00a0speculat<\/strong><\/span>ed<\/strong><\/span><\/a> that the Ukraine revolution was likely a \u201ccoup\u201d engineered by \u201cdeep\u201d forces on behalf of\u00a0\u201cPax Americana<\/strong><\/span>\u201d<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s quite a bit of evidence of coup-ness. Q is how many levels deep interference from both sides is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n These are serious claims. So serious that I decided to investigate them. And what I found was shocking.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Wheeler is partly correct. Pando has confirmed that the American government \u2013 in the form of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) \u2013 played a major role in funding opposition groups prior to the revolution. Moreover, a large percentage of the rest of the funding to those same groups came from a US billionaire who has previously worked closely with US government agencies to further his own business interests. This was by no means a US-backed \u201ccoup,\u201d but clear evidence shows that US investment was a force multiplier for many of the groups involved in overthrowing Yanukovych.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n But that\u2019s not the shocking part.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n What\u2019s shocking is the name of the billionaire who co-invested with the US government (or as Wheeler put it: the \u201c\u00a0deep force\u201d acting on behalf of \u201cPax Americana\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Step out of the shadows\u2026. Wheeler\u2019s boss, Pierre Omidyar.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Yes, in the annals of independent media, this might be the strangest twist ever: According to financial disclosures and reports seen by Pando, the founder and publisher of Glenn Greenwald\u2019s government-bashing blog,\u201cThe Intercept,\u201d co-invested with the US government to help fund regime change in Ukraine.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n [Update:<\/em><\/strong> Wheeler has responded on Twitter to say that her Tweets were taken out of context, but would not give specifics. Adam Colligan, with whom Wheeler was debating, commented on Pando that “while Wheeler did raise the issue of external interference in relation to a discussion about a coup, it was not really at all in the manner that you have portrayed.” Further “[Pax Americana] appeared after the conversation had shifted from the idea of whether a coup had been staged by the Ukrainian Parliament to a question about the larger powers\u2019 willingness to weaken underlying economic conditions in a state.\u201d Neither Wheeler or Colligan has commented on the main subject of the story: Pierre Omidyar\u2019s co-investment in Ukrainian opposition groups with the US government.<\/em>]<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n * * * *<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n When the revolution came to Ukraine,\u00a0neo-<\/strong><\/span>fascists<\/strong><\/span><\/a> played a front-center role in overthrowing the country\u2019s president. But the real political power rests with Ukraine\u2019s pro-western neoliberals. Political figures like Oleh Rybachuk, long a favorite of the <\/span>State<\/span> Department<\/span><\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0DC <\/strong><\/span>neocons<\/strong><\/span><\/a>,\u00a0E<\/strong><\/span>U<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0NAT<\/strong><\/span>O<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u2014and the <\/strong><\/span>right-hand <\/strong><\/span>man<\/strong><\/span><\/a> to Orange Revolution leader Viktor Yushchenko.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Last December, the <\/strong><\/span>Financial T<\/strong><\/span>imes<\/strong><\/span><\/a> wrote that Ryb<\/span>javascript:;<\/a>achuk\u2019s \u201cNew Citizen\u201d NGO campaign \u201cplayed a big role in getting the protest up and running.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n New <\/strong><\/span>Citizen<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, along with the rest of Rybachuk\u2019s interlocking network of\u00a0western-<\/strong><\/span>backed<\/strong><\/span><\/a> NGOs and campaigns\u2014\u00a0\u201cCenter UA<\/strong><\/span>\u201d<\/a> (also spelled \u201cCentre UA\u201d),\u00a0\u201cChesno<\/strong><\/span>,\u201d<\/a> and \u201cStop Censorship\u201d to name a few \u2014 grew their power by targeting pro-Yanukovych politicians with a well-coordinated anti-corruption campaign that built its strength in Ukraine\u2019s regions, before massing in Kiev last autumn.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The efforts of the NGOs were so successful that the Ukraine government was accused of employing dirty tricks to shut them down. In early February, the groups were the subject of a massive\u00a0money laundering <\/strong><\/span>investigation<\/strong><\/span><\/a> by the economics division of Ukraine\u2019s Interior Ministry in what many denounced as a politically motivated move.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Fortunately the groups had the strength \u2013 which is to say, money \u2013 to survive those attacks and continue pushing for regime change in Ukraine. The source of that money?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n According to the <\/strong><\/span>Kyiv P<\/strong><\/span>ost<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, Pierrie Omidyar\u2019s Omidyar Network (part of the Omidyar Group which owns First Look Media and the Intercept) provided 36% of \u201cCenter UA\u201d\u2019s $500,000 budget in 2012\u2014 nearly $200,000. USAID provided 54% of \u201cCenter UA\u201d\u2019s budget for 2012. Other funders included the US government-backed National Endowment for Democracy.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n In 2011, Omidyar Network gave\u00a0$335,0<\/strong><\/span>00<\/strong><\/span><\/a> to \u201cNew Citizen,\u201d one of the anti-Yanukovych \u201cprojects\u201d managed through the Rybachuk-chaired NGO \u201cCenter UA.\u201d At the time, Omidyar Network boasted that its investment in \u201cNew Citizen\u201d would help \u201cshape public policy\u201d in Ukraine:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cUsing technology and media, New Citizen coordinates the efforts of concerned members of society, reinforcing their ability to shape public policy.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 With support from Omidyar Network, New Citizen will strengthen its advocacy efforts in order to drive greater transparency and engage citizens on issues of importance to them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n In March 2012, Rybachuk \u2014 the operator behind the 2004 Orange Revolution scenes, the<\/span> Anatoly<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span> <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a> Chubai<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span> <\/strong>s<\/a> of Ukraine \u2014 <\/strong><\/span>boast<\/strong><\/span>ed<\/strong><\/span><\/a> that he was preparing a new Orange Revolution:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPeople are not afraid.\u00a0We now have 150 NGOs in all the major cities<\/strong> in our \u2018clean up Parliament campaign\u2019 to elect and find better parliamentarians\u2026.The Orange Revolution was a miracle, a massive peaceful protest that worked.\u00a0We want to do that again and we think we will.<\/strong>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Detailed <\/strong><\/span>financial <\/strong><\/span>records<\/strong><\/span><\/a> <\/strong><\/span>reviewed by Pando (and embedded below) also show Omidyar Network covered costs for the expansion of Rybachuk\u2019s anti-Yanukovych campaign, \u201cChesno\u201d (\u201cHonestly\u201d), into regional cities including Poltava, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Ternopil, Sumy, and elsewhere, mostly in the Ukrainian-speaking west and center.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n * * * *<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n To understand what it means for Omidyar to fund Oleh Rybachuk, some brief history is necessary. Rybachuk\u2019s background follows a familiar pattern in post-Soviet opportunism: From well-connected KGB intelligence ties, to post-Soviet neoliberal networker.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n In the Soviet era, Rybachuk studied in a military languages program half of whose graduates went on to work for the\u00a0KG<\/strong><\/span>B<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. Rybachuk\u2019s murky overseas posting in India in the late Soviet era further strengthens many suspicions about his Soviet intelligence ties; whatever the case, by Rybachuk\u2019s own account, his\u00a0close <\/strong><\/span>ties<\/strong><\/span><\/a> <\/strong><\/span>to top intelligence figures in the\u00a0Ukrainian <\/strong><\/span>SBU<\/strong><\/span><\/a> served him well during the Orange Revolution of 2004, when the SBU passed along secret information about vote fraud and assassination plots.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n In 1992, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Rybachuk moved to the newly-formed Ukraine Central Bank, heading the\u00a0foreign relations <\/span>