Katrina vanden Heuvel Blames Ukraine for 'Kiev Atrocities' as Context for Downed Flight #MH17

Katrina vanden Heuval, at the interview below, cites her husband Stephen Cohen's piece at the Nation, from June 30th, "The Silence of American Hawks About Kiev’s Atrocities."

Folks might recall, back in March, Jamie Kirchick slammed Cohen for a pro-Russia piece at the Nation as "one of the most slavish defenses of Putinism."

The hard-leftists at the Nation have been Vladimir Putin's biggest boosters amid the heightening U.S.-Russia tensions over the last year, and Vanden Hueval comes within inches of blaming the Poroshenko government in Kiev (which has now stepped down amid calls for new elections) for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17:

The Nation published a story a few weeks ago called "The Silence of [American] Hawks [About] Kiev’s Atrocities," and we’re seeing in the downing of the plane—the tragedy of the downing of the plane occurred in the context of this virtually unreported civil war.

Indeed, at the introduction to communist Amy Goodman's interview, she airs the statement from a pro-Putin rebel, who claims that Ukraine "provoked the usage of the BUK missile system" and that "Ukraine did everything for the civilian plane to be shot down."

Vanden Hueval blames the United States for fomenting at "new Cold War, if not a hot war" by tethering itself to the "oligarchy" in Kiev.

This is extremely inflammatory, conspiratorial stuff --- hardline anti-American and provocative:



And note how Vanden Hueval lets Vladimir Putin off the hook, blaming the separatists and far-right "Rambos" in Russia for the escalation of violence in Ukraine, and that Putin has been trying to broker peace, that he was doing all "what he could to restrain the rebels."

The mind reels at this alternative reality. Vanden Hueval constantly alleges that all of this is "under-reported," which of course it would be, since these conspiracies exist only the minds of far-left extremists like Vanden Hueval and her alternative media enablers like communist Amy Goodman.

Vanden Hueval's WaPo column is here, "Downing of Flight 17 should trigger talks, not more violence."

Just wow.