[News] National Endowment for Democracy Deletes Records of Funding Projects in Ukraine

Mon Mar 7 12:04:05 EST 2022

covertactionmagazine.com
<https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/03/07/national-endowment-for-democracy-deletes-records-of-funding-projects-in-ukraine/>
National
Endowment for Democracy Deletes Records of Funding Projects in Ukraine
Jeremy Kuzmarov - March 7, 2022
------------------------------
[image: A picture containing text, flag Description automatically
generated][Source:
ned.org <https://www.ned.org/ned-stands-in-solidarity-with-ukraine/>] *Deletion
needed to preserve big lie of an unprovoked Russian invasion*

The National Endowment for Democracy <https://www.ned.org/> (NED)—a CIA
offshoot founded in the early 1980s to advance “democracy promotion”
initiatives around the world
<https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/03/04/if-the-national-endowment-for-democracy-ned-is-subverting-democracy-why-arent-some-of-the-left-media-calling-it-out/>—has
deleted all records of funding projects in Ukraine from their
searchable “Awarded
Grants Search
<https://www.ned.org/wp-content/themes/ned/search/grant-search.php>”
database.

The archived webpage
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220225145303/https:/www.ned.org/wp-content/themes/ned/search/grant-search.php?organizationName=&region=&projectCountry=Ukraine&amount=&fromDate=2014&toDate=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&search=&maxCount=100&orderBy=Country&sbmt=1>
captured
February 25, 2022 from 14:53 shows that NED granted $22,394,281 in the form
of 334 awards to Ukraine between 2014 to the present. The capture
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220225231000/https:/www.ned.org/wp-content/themes/ned/search/grant-search.php?organizationName=&region=&projectCountry=Ukraine&amount=&fromDate=2014&toDate=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&search=&maxCount=100&orderBy=Country&sbmt=1>at
23:10 the same day shows “No results found” for Ukraine. As of right now,
there are still “No results found” for Ukraine.

Searching using “Ukraine” as a keyword (as opposed to a “Project Country”
in the original captures) yields “No results found.” Searching for the
titles of the funded projects listed in the last “intact” web capture
yields no results.

Additionally, the current database search criteria have been restricted,
previously funding from 2014 to present could be searched, currently only
2017 to present is searchable per the drop-down menus. There are multiple
news reports before February 25 corroborating this $22,394,281 amount.
*Validating the Big Lie*

The erasure of the NED’s records is necessary to validate the Biden
administration’s big lie—echoed in the media—that the Russian invasion of
Ukraine was “unprovoked.”
<https://fair.org/home/calling-russias-attack-unprovoked-lets-us-off-the-hook/>

In a recent statement of solidarity with Ukraine, the NED acknowledged that
it had been a “proud partner of Ukraine’s civil society groups, media
outlets, and human rights defenders since 1989—before the Ukrainian people
declared independence in 1991—as they have confronted enormous challenges
in building an independent and free country.”
<https://www.ned.org/ned-stands-in-solidarity-with-ukraine/>

NED President Duane Wilson admitted at an NED forum on Ukraine on March 4
<https://www.ned.org/events/a-conversation-with-ned-partners-on-the-situation-in-ukraine/>
that Ukraine was the NED’s fourth largest grant-making program around the
world
<https://www.ned.org/events/a-conversation-with-ned-partners-on-the-situation-in-ukraine/>.
Wilson said that “the endowment is proud that we have had Ukraine as a
major partner since 1989, before independence, supporting Ukrainian civil
society organizations.”
<https://www.ned.org/events/a-conversation-with-ned-partners-on-the-situation-in-ukraine/>
[image: A person in a suit and tie Description automatically generated with
medium confidence]Duane Wilson [Source: ned.org
<https://www.ned.org/meet-new-ned-president-ceo-damon-wilson/>] *Exposing
Russian but Not Ukrainian War Crimes*

The NED’s anti-Russian agenda was detailed by one of the speakers at the
March 4th forum, Olha Aivagurski, who said that a lot of her work with an
NED funded NGO focused on documenting Russian war crimes
<https://www.ned.org/events/a-conversation-with-ned-partners-on-the-situation-in-ukraine/>
.

Neglected was Ukrainian army war crimes, whose scale is detailed in a new
RT News documentary “Donbass, yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.”
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD6jX1QlB_E>

It includes footage of excavation of mass grave sites in Donbass where
neo-Nazi militias attached to the Ukrainian army massacred and then buried
hundreds of civilians <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD6jX1QlB_E>.[1]
[image: A picture containing outdoor, wooden, wood, old Description
automatically generated]Mass grave site in Luhansk featured in RT news
documentary but not mainstream U.S. media. [Source: aljazeera.com
<https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2014/9/22/in-pictures-destruction-in-ukraines-luhansk>]

The NED, however, is committed to advancing the cartoonish narrative
<https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2022/03/05/bunny-rabbits-and-the-big-bad-wolf-ukraine-and-russia-through-the-lens-of-western-reporting/>
depicting Ukraine as a valiant David fighting the evil Russian bear
<https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-vs-russia-a-modern-day-david-vs-goliath-story/>
.
*Color Revolutions *

The NED played a pivotal role in helping to trigger the conflict with
Russia by supporting two color revolutions directed against Ukraine’s
pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych—a potential successor to Volodymyr
Zelensky if Russia wins.

The 2004 color revolution replaced Yanukovych with Viktor Yushchenko, who
favored admitting Ukraine to NATO and adopted an International Monetary
Fund (IMF) structural adjustment program that benefitted U.S. investors
while cutting social programs.
[image: Image -- The Orange Revolution: demonstration.]Ukraine’s 2004
orange revolution. [Source: encyclopediaofukraine.com
<http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/picturedisplay.asp?linkpath=pic%5CO%5CR%5COrange%20Revolution%20stage.jpg&page=pages%5CO%5CR%5COrangeRevolution.htm&id=36059&pid=12983&tyt=Orange%20Revolution&key=Orange+Revolution%2C+%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%87%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B0+%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%8E%D1%86%D1%96%D1%8F%3B+Pomarancheva+revoliutsiia>]

NED activists employed a broad public relations strategy that
included: a) busing
paid out-of-town protesters into Kyiv
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/08/10/bidens-ukrainegate-problem/>; b)
creating an online TV protest station and agitation paraphernalia; and c)
providing offshore training to the anti-Yanukovych student leadership. The
strategy was based on the writings of Gene Sharp and a template
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/08/10/bidens-ukrainegate-problem/> that
the NED had successfully employed in Serbia with a youth group called
“Otpor,” which helped secure the defeat of socialist Slobodan Milosovic in
September 2000 elections.
[image: Gene Sharp: Author of the nonviolent revolution rulebook - BBC
News]Coup
maestro Gene Sharp. [Source: bbc.com
<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-12522848>]

A parallel approach was used during the February 2014 Maidan Square
uprising which resulted in Yanukovych’s ouster—he had been reelected in
2010—and the advent of a pro-Western regime in Kyiv.

During the fall of 2013, the NED named as a Dante Fascell fellow Sergii
Leschenko
<https://www.cima.ned.org/blog/ukrainian-journalist-information-hero-sergii-leshchenko/>,
a journalist who exposed how Yanukovych had paid Republican party
strategist Paul Manafort $1.2 million as a political consultant
<https://theintercept.com/2019/11/19/republicans-use-impeachment-hearings-smear-ukrainian-helped-expose-manafort/>
.[2]
[image: A person in a suit and tie Description automatically generated with
low confidence][Source: cima.ned.org
<https://www.cima.ned.org/blog/ukrainian-journalist-information-hero-sergii-leshchenko/>]

As a sign of the NED’s influence, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko
(2014-2020)—a main beneficiary of the Maidan coup currently awaiting trial
on treason charges
<https://www.politico.eu/article/court-decline-jail-poroshenko-treason-case/>
—bestowed the Order of Princess Olga, one of Ukraine’s highest honors, on
Dr. Nadia Diuk
<https://www.ukrweekly.com/uwwp/nadia-diuk-64-senior-advisor-of-the-national-endowment-for-democracy/>
,[42]
<https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/03/04/if-the-national-endowment-for-democracy-ned-is-subverting-democracy-why-arent-some-of-the-left-media-calling-it-out/#post-33974-footnote-41>
a
former vice president and senior adviser to the NED for Europe and Eurasia.
[image: Ukraine's Democratic Choice – Nadia Diuk - YouTube]The late Nadia
Diuk, right, pontificates at NED forum. [Source: youtube.com
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxceKtPp71k>] *Preserving Fiction of an
Unprovoked Russian Invasion*

In 2020, the NED provided $4.6 million to Ukraine
<https://www.ned.org/region/central-and-eastern-europe/ukraine-2020/> for
purposes that included raising awareness of alleged human rights abuses by
Russia in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, and fomenting opposition and
resistance to Russia.

The large scope of the NED’s program makes clear the organization’s
importance. However, with the Biden administration intent on preserving the
fiction that the Russian invasion/counter-offensive was unprovoked,
censorship and the deletion of records is necessary.

*[Camilla Thompson contributed to the reporting.]*
------------------------------

   1.

   A U.S. journalist quoted in the film, George Eliason, stated that he
   repeatedly sent reports of war crimes to American media outlets which
   ignored him <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD6jX1QlB_E>. ↑
   2.

   Leschenko subsequently became a member of parliament where he lobbied
   for Ukraine’s closer integration with Europe. At the time, Leschenko joined
   the party of Ukraine’s fifth president Petro Poroshenko, but then supported
   neoliberal Volodymr Zelensky. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022,
   Leschenko compared Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler
   <https://twitter.com/Leshchenkos>. ↑

------------------------------
About the Author

Jeremy Kuzmarov is Managing Editor of *CovertAction Magazine.*

He is the author of four books on U.S. foreign policy, including *Obama’s
Unending Wars* (Clarity Press, 2019) and *The Russians Are Coming, Again*,
with John Marciano (Monthly Review Press, 2018).

He can be reached at: jkuzmarov2 at gmail.com.
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