THREAD:

You have to be DENSE not to understand that western think tanks & media play a serious role in Ukraine’s info space.

Western reporting & analysis are regularly cited by UA media & politicians to strengthen disinfo narratives like, “post-Maidan UA failed on reforms”.

1/
Not only does the reporting & analysis legitimize in UA lobbyist narratives pushed by various actors with nefarious agendas, but it also influences western decision & policy makers who, based on the narratives they consume, exert public pressure on UA to behave a certain way.

2/
In fact, in the post-Maidan era, this was a well-known & vaunted approach called “sandwiching”. Pressure was deliberately exerted on the Reformist UA govt by western govts/orgs on the one side, & UA civil society with the ears of westerns, on the other, “sandwiching” the govt.
3/
REMARKABLY, this sandwiching approach which was lauded as the “best way to ensure reforms” ceases to be a strategy applied to Zelensky’s anti-reformist Ukraine, necessary only for the REFORMIST post-Maidan government.

Sticks for reformers, carrots for anti-reformists?

4/
Important to note 2 things in all of this:

1. Most Western analysts & reporters demonstrate striking bias in who they choose to listen to on what is happening in Ukraine. The same is true of western decision/policy makers.

The result is that ONE narrative prevails & is set.

5/
2. Many of the western organizations that have dominant and “expert” voices on Ukraine take money (and perhaps also favours in kind) from Ukrainian oligarchs pursuing their own personal agendas, and they partner with pro-Russian actors of the Yanukovych regime.

6/
So when someone says something as stupid and uninformed as “western reporting and analysis aren’t relevant in Ukraine” or “didn’t cause Ukrainians to vote for (the pro-Russian, anti-reformist) Zelensky”, we know they aren’t worth any attention.

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