Let's talk with facts.
The movie from Oliver Stone is completely one sided. We have no presentation of both positions in the conflict and no neutral commentary on them. We get only the pro-Russian views.
It is unprofessional and manipulative to show only the one view and one opinion in a conflict. Thus the movie does not cover any journalistic standards for quality and it is ridiculous to rate it with ratings like 8, 9, or 10 stars.
The movie deals with two topics - was the Maidan revolution bottom-up or top-down organised. And the American interference in Ukrainian politics.
On both topics I could agree with the positions shown in the movie.
This does not however change two important topics that are conveniently not covered in the movie.
1. No matter if the Maidan was bottom-up or top-down organised, the former president Yanukovich was an extremely corrupt politician and he deserved to be impeached and trialed. His house is now a museum where one can go and see for himself the luxury he was living in despite the low per capita GDP of Ukraine.
2. Much more important however is the topic of the war. And this topic is much more important than who shot 100 people at the Maidan and the American elections.
The absolute fact is the following:
Without Russian military interference in Donbas, the war would have ended in 2014.
Ukraine is a huge country with 40 Million population, with a large army, large military spendings, and military industrial complex with own tank production. It is actually in top 10 in the world in weapons production. The separatist region is approximately 5% of the Ukrainian territory.
It is ridiculous to even consider that Ukraine can't enforce their control over the territory of Donbas if they were fighting separatists with limited supplies.
The war lasts for years because they fight against Russian supplies. So Mr. Putin is the one that could stop the war.
But he doesn't because the war is directly in the interests of Russia.
Why?
Reason 1: Because Donbas can be used as a bargaining chip for the recognition of the Crimean annexation. Ukraine recognises that Crimea is now part of Russia and Russia returns Donbas. Simple as that.
Reason 2: Russia invests a lot in spreading the idea that Ukraine has no economic future without Russia and that the fall of the Soviet Union and the orientation towards the west bring only economic misery to Ukraine. The message is - with the EU and the US you are going to be poor, come back to your Russian brothers. What better way to keep a country poor than maintaining a military conflict to suck the taxpayers money and to scare away potential EU investors.
These are the facts, Gentleman.
I agree with the opinions in the movie regarding the Maidan events, but they are not the major issue. And with this one sided representation, Mr. Stone contributed too little to the pursuit of justice and truth.
