About that $5 billion figure being bandied about and Neuland. It's rated 'Pants On Fire':

[freshwest]

President Barack Obama spent "$5 billion paying Ukrainians to riot and dismantle their democratically elected government."



Facebook posts on Wednesday, March 19th, 2014 in a Facebook meme

The United States spent $5 billion on Ukraine anti-government riots

It’s a conspiracy with mainstream crossover: The United States bankrolled the bloody political uprising in Ukraine...

The Roots:

Victoria Neuland's words at a time when it garnered scant media attention:

...made clear the United States supported the protesters’ fight and spoke of how she met with Yanukovych, pressing him to end the pushback from Ukrainian security forces because it is "absolutely impermissible in a European state, in a democratic state..."

"Since Ukraine's independence in 1991, the United States has supported Ukrainians as they build democratic skills and institutions, as they promote civic participation and good governance, all of which are preconditions for Ukraine to achieve its European aspirations," she said. "We have invested over $5 billion to assist Ukraine in these and other goals that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic Ukraine."

The Truth:

"The insinuation that the United States incited the people of Ukraine to riot or rebel is patently false," said Nicole Thompson, a State Department spokeswoman.

Since 1992, the government has spent about $5.1 billion to support democracy-building programs in Ukraine, Thompson said, with money flowing mostly from the Department of State via U.S. Agency for International Development, as well as the departments of Defense, Energy, Agriculture and others. The United States does this with hundreds of other countries.

About $2.4 billion went to programs promoting peace and security, which could include military assistance, border security, human trafficking issues, international narcotics abatement and law enforcement interdiction, Thompson said. More money went to categories with the objectives of "governing justly and democratically" ($800 million), "investing in people" ($400 million), economic growth ($1.1 billion), and humanitarian assistance ($300 million)...

...spent over more than 20 years.

Yanukovych was elected in 2010. So any connection between the protests and the $5 billion is inaccurate.

And Obama was elected in 2008, so any connection between $5 billion and Obama also is inaccurate.

http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/mar/19/facebook-posts/united-states-spent-5-billion-ukraine-anti-governm/

The truth does not fit the world view being promoted by conspiracy theorists. A post that went into the Neuland hatred was alerted by a DUer who described the source material:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014787623#post10

I thinkl those who believe in all of the spin offs to the Russia Today story that initiated this per the article, should give the article that was linked her, a good look. It has all the CT memes. And the end result is not at all pretty.

It will continue to work on a populace that maintains a willful ignorance, all the better to attack those doing the work of governments acting together in peaceful, but less public ways.

War talk, dirty laundry and rumor is exciting. They're cheap thrills that cost nothing except civil society.