EuroMaidan Revolution
Paul Goble; Putin to use Sochi Olympics to cover a Russian intervention in Ukraine, Shmulyevich says
Just as Vladimir Putin used the 2008 Beijing Olympics to cover the Russian invasion of Georgia, the Kremlin leader has decided to exploit the attention focused on the upcoming Sochi Olympiad as a distraction from his plans to suppress the Maidan in Ukraine by force, according to an Israeli analyst.
Avrom Shmulyevich, a longtime specialist on the Caucasus, says Putin has already made a decision to “repeat [his] successful Olympic experience in 2008,” has already begun to “the phase of active intervention in Ukrainian affairs,” and this time plans to use “’citizen volunteers,’” supposedly outraged by “’fascists’” in Ukraine to suppress the Maidan by force.