The Russian Who Claims Credit For Fanning The Flames In Ukraine

NPR ^ | 6 Jan 15 | Corey Flintoff

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Last spring, eastern Ukraine was a struggling, rust belt region of mines and metal works. Now it's a battle zone where armies face off with heavy weapons and nearly 5,000 people have died.

In Russia, one man claims to have touched off the conflagration, and he says he's proud of what he did. His name is Igor Girkin, and he has a knack for turning up in tumultuous places.

In this instance, Girkin made his appearance in April of last year, shorthly after Ukraine's pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted after months of street protests.

Girkin arrived in the eastern city of Slovyansk, where a very different group of protesters were demonstrating against what they saw as a coup against Yanukovych in Kiev. Girkin says those protests might have peacefully fizzled out if he hadn't led a squad of armed men to seize government buildings and turned the situation into a violent confrontation.

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"Girkin, 44, is a Russian citizen from Moscow and a former colonel in the Federal Security Service, or FSB. He prefers being called by a nickname he chose for himself — Strelkov, which is Russian for "shooter.""

[9thLife]

NPR concedes that it wasn’t George W. Bush?

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