#Russia will today spin the topic of 2 May 2014 #Odessa tragedy, when 46 members of pro-Russian militia died in a fire. What they will not be spinning are these facts:
the first people killed on that day were pro-Ukrainian protesters, hours before the fire
the pro-Russian militia barricaded themselves in Unions House with dozens of Molotov cocktails stored on the stairway
both sides were throwing things at each other, including the petrol bombs
the fire started on the stairway inside the building and due to the presence of the Russians’ own petrol bombs it immediately went out of control
Pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian journalists in Odessa jointly conducted an investigation, in addition to the official investigation. All evidence and conclusions can be found here:
What Russia will never tell you is however what happened before and after the fire:
the violent clashes started when pro-Russian activist Vitaly Budko (“Botsman”) started firing live rounds at Ukrainian protesters, two people died from gunshots
Budko was firing from behind police cordon led by Odessa police commander Dmitry Fuchedzhy, literally from behind his back
immediately after 48 people died on that day Budko and Fuchedzhy escaped… to Russia
one reason why so many people died in the unions house fire was that the decision to send fire brigade was arbitrarily blocked by head of emergency services, Vladimir Bodelan
guess what Bodelan did after the fire? yes, he also escaped to Russia
Russia for the last 10 years has been blaming #Ukraine for “killing 46 pro-Russian protesters”, but at the same time it has also offered shelter for the people most involved in the killing and refused their extradition, prosecution or even interviewing. As a matter of fact, Russia has granted Bodelan a well-paid job in the occupied Crimea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Odesa_clashes
There’s one more important historic context: similar events unrolled in all Ukraine, including Kharkiv and other towns. Thanks to intercepts of calls between Sergey Glazyev, Russian president’s administration coordinator, and pro-Russian activists in Ukraine (so called “Glazyev tapes”) we now know that escalation of the protests and violence was actually their goal.
https://ecfr.eu/article/commentary_the_glazyev_tapes_getting_to_the_root_of_the_conflict_in_7165/
@kravietz
Last year (or the year before that, I'm not sure which) they have sent out an email to every user of the GosuSlugi website — the one you use to access the state-provided services. The subject was something like "Things we should never forget".
But I don't think it has any grassroots support at all — at least I've never seen it mentioned outside of media spinning every single bit of the Kremlin agenda.
