"The adviser of the Ukrainian President Yury Biryukov announced that about a quarter of the budget of the Ministry of Defence (of the new, “free Ukraine under US supervision” celebrated in the article) has been stolen. No one knew where the money was flowing. The missing amount could be about USD 400 million. A prosecution is as good as hopeless because of the current corruption laws." (http://deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de/2015/01/06/ukraine-meldet-450-millionen-dollar-aus-dem-militaer-etat-als-gestohlen/).

Perhaps it will make it harder for Poroshenko to wage his war against its own people, like Assad and before Saddam. Whatever can be said about Yankovych. (following Russian interests), he did no go that far, did not bomb the Kiev Maidanists as did his successor (following NATO/US interests), when bombing the East of his own country for having organizers of a counter-Maidan, later turned “separatists”.

Arjay

The Capitalist West has been happily beating Russia since the 1850s. Even you've heard of the Crimean War and the fall of the Soviet Union - early 1990s.

Your idol - Putin - is also falling due to his country's dependence on high oil prices. Now that world oil prices are low - due to Western developed fracking processes - Putin is the next Russian Red-Tsar to fall.

Like George Bernard Shaw - who loved Stailin whatever Stalin did - enjoy your love affair with Putin Arjay :)

Pete

'I would also hope that if a director of your repute did make a documentary film about Ukraine it would not simply parrot the ideas of a reviled ousted dictator who built fortified fairy-land palaces with gold toilets in a country foul with corruption private wealth and public squalor.'

Oh,no! Not the 'gold toilets' routine again!

Didn't we get enough of gilded excrement propaganda in the rush to war with Iraq #which, by anyone's standards, has been an unmitigated disaster?

Apart from the author's toilets-of-gold premise, Oliver Stone is making a film that asks the 'reviled ousted dictator' to give his version of events, which might actually differ from the Western mainstream media viewpoint.

Shock! Horreur!!

@ Yuri

I agree, Stone's "Untold History of the USA' is very entertaining but it's mostly opinion and conspiracy theories in a monotone doco narration voice.

The much broader issue is how influential or well known people can be or are used in media to promote a message and/or opinions, with neither facts nor evidence.

It's an American disease mostly conducted by neo con media and politics which agressively promotes beliefs, passions, philosophy, memes etc. over and above the Age of Reason i.e. facts and empirical evidence; often accentuated by shouting at and smearing those who do not agree with them.

Much like Australia..... and also used by Kremlin.