Michael MacKay, Radio Lemberg, 20.01.2021

The political career of Trump was crafted as an act of war by the Russian Federation against the United States, from beginning to end.

The Russians modelled this active measure on the one they first used with Yanukovych in Ukraine. Everything the Russians do through their agent Trump in the U.S. they tried first using their agent Yanukovych in Ukraine. Understanding what the Russians do in their war against the Ukrainian people gives insight into what they’ll do in their war against Americans.

In the end, Yanukovych escaped justice. He has never been punished for the crimes and treason he committed against the Ukrainian people. If Americans are unwise they’ll let Trump go unpunished for the terrible things he’s done to them and to their democracy. They will then have a similar fate to the one Ukrainians have endured.

Trump and Yanukovych are both past their peak of usefulness to the Russians. But useful they were, for the treachery of these two men helped expand the war the Russian Federation is fighting against Ukraine into a global war.

The crimes and treason of Yanukovych stretch over a long period. 2014 was their peak.

The greatest crimes of Yanukovych were ordering the Maidan Massacre and stealing billions of dollars from the Ukrainian state. The greatest treason was appealing to Putin to invade Ukraine and being the figurehead for Moscow’s war.

In January 2014, Yanukovych rammed the “dictatorship laws” through the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament. He sent the Berkut riot police, Internal Ministry troops, and organized gangs of thugs known as “titushki” to attack Ukrainians protesting in the centre of Kyiv. They were protesting for a better life, free of corruption, and for Ukraine to reach its rightful place in Europe and the West.

In February 2014, Yanukovych ordered snipers (including Russian Federation agents) to shoot the protesters. The worst of the Maidan Massacre was on 20 February 2014. Over 100 people, known as the “Heaven’s Hundred,” were killed by the reign of terror that Yanukovych authorized. On the night of 21 February 2014, Yanukovych fled Kyiv. He abandoned his post as President to escape the consequences of the terrible crimes he had committed.

Putin launched his long-planned invasion of Ukraine, starting in Crimea and moving on to Donbas. With Russian help, Yanukovych tried to mount an insurrection against the new Ukrainian government that had been formed after he fled. He failed. On 1 March 2014, Yanukovych issued a statement in which he appealed to Putin to invade Ukraine. This was cover for the invasion that had already started. Yanukovych had been exfiltrated by Russian agents and taken to the Russian Federation. He remains there to this day.

The reasons Yanukovych escaped justice were that the Ukrainian government was newly-formed, the Russian Federation had started its invasion of Ukraine, and Yanukovych came under Putin’s protection. If Trump escapes justice the reasons will be different. But that won’t matter if the dispassionate application of the law to every citizen, including Trump, isn’t respected. It will be every bit as disastrous as it was in Ukraine.

In the first year of invasion, Putin used Yanukovych as a figurehead for his “Novorossiya” active measure. This was a fabrication of Russian Federation security and intelligence services to present what is an international war as if it was a civil war. The Russians brought out Yanukovych occasionally for press conferences, presenting him as the “legitimate” President of Ukraine. They did this to undermine the administration of President Poroshenko and to weaken Ukraine’s defence from armed aggression by the Russian Federation in Crimea and Donbas.

At a press conference in Rostov-on-Don on 28 February 2014, Yanukovych became so enraged while making a statement that he snapped a pen in two. The image of him doing that became iconic. Putin was in charge of the war in Ukraine and over Yanukovych.

Yanukovych was convicted by a Ukrainian court, in absentia, for treason. But there’s no prospect Yanukovych will face justice until Ukraine wins the war started by the Muscovites in 2014.

With no allies fighting alongside it, Ukrainians defend Europe from the Russian invasion alone. Support is lacking from the West, aggression is coming from the East. The unpunished crimes and treason of Putin puppet Yanukovych remain a dolorous wound from which Ukraine will not be healed until Western democracies realize the existential threat and come up with a plan for victory over the Russian Federation.

The Maidan killers have not been punished. The money Yanukovych stole has not been recovered. Crimea and and parts of Donbas have not been liberated from the Russian invaders. This is most of all the fault of the aggressor state, the Russian Federation. The enemy shelters former members of the Berkut and other Maidan killers, some of whom are now aiding the violent repressions of Belarusians by Lukashenka. While sheltering Yanukovych, Putin has integrated the Yanukovych Clan crime syndicate into his own vast criminal enterprise. The Russian Federation maintains an army of occupation in southern and eastern Ukraine, waging a war in Europe that has lasted longer than the First World War or the Second World War.

Yanukovych wasn’t punished for his crimes and treason. This has helped Putin. The consequences for the U.S. if Trump gets away with all that he’s done will be a disaster and will follow the same pattern of instability, violence, lawlessness and chaos. We can predict this because Yanukovych-for-President was the Russian active measure that preceded the Trump-for-President active measure. From the time Yanukovych abandoned his post and fled justice, Ukraine has endured almost seven years of Russian invasion and partial occupation. Yanukovych has been a figurehead for Russian information warfare throughout the war but especially in its first year.

Putin would like Trump to endure as a goad for the Russian active measure of organized, violent opposition to American democracy.

The Russian Federation repeats the “hybrid war” campaigns it wages against Ukraine against the United States. The 6 January 2021 insurrection at the Capitol was an organized mob of MAGAts that was seeded with right-wing militia, got help from the inside, and was incited by Trump and information warfare on the Internet. These were Chekist active measures, modelled on the attacks the Muscovites made on Ukrainian cities in March-April 2014. These attacks were led by organized mobs of vatniks that were seeded with titushki, got help from the inside, and were incited by Yanukovych and information warfare on the Internet.

Putin uses Yanukovych’s escape from justice to his advantage in the war he’s waging against the Ukrainian people. Putin will exploit Trump in his war against the American people for as long as his puppet’s crimes and treason remain unpunished.

The Russians have a lot to work with. Over 74 million Americans voted for Trump, even after experiencing the effects this horrible human being had on them for four years. In a poll taken after January 9th, one-third of Americans still support Trump. That means they approve of the insurrection against American democracy. Mainstream TV and Internet from which most Americans get the news is either compromised or defenceless in the face of Russian information warfare. The Russian Federation’s unprovoked war against Ukraine is ignored.

Putin will present Trump as the “legitimate” President, as he did with Yanukovych throughout 2014 and into 2015. Russian information warfare will stay fully behind the falsehood that the 3 November 2020 in the U.S. was “stolen.” The Russians will do so as they have falsely claimed that the Revolution of Dignity of the Ukrainian people was a “NATO-backed coup.”

The U.S. largely abandoned constitutional government and the rule of law when Russian-backed Republicans in the Senate excused Trump’s crimes and treason at the first impeachment trial. If the second impeachment trial or other mechanisms of American justice fail again, the U.S. is in deep, deep trouble.

Putin treats Trump as another Yanukovych. The Russian Federation wages war against the U.S. as an extension of its war against Ukraine. Putin got Russian agents into the highest executive office in Ukraine and the U.S.. These efforts started the same, with the Putin regime decisively influencing elections. They proceeded the same with endless crimes and treason. They ended the same with organized political violence. Don’t let the denouement be the same. Learn from Ukraine’s experience. Don’t let the crimes and treason of Trump go unpunished.