Provocations began in 2003, accelerated in 2007, and then reached a peak in 2014 when American Victoria Nuland overthrew the elected government of Ukraine with US dollars, media, other assets...and the full backing of the US State Department and USAID.

Most of the media celebrated this. One outlier journalist wrote the following article a decade ago:

“Having masterminded the coup in February against the democratically elected government in Kiev, Washington's planned seizure of Russia's historic, legitimate warm-water naval base in Crimea failed. The Russians defended themselves, as they have done against every threat and invasion from the west for almost a century.

“But Nato's military encirclement has accelerated, along with US-orchestrated attacks on ethnic Russians in Ukraine. If Putin can be provoked into coming to their aid, his pre-ordained "pariah" role will justify a Nato-run guerrilla war that is likely to spill into Russia itself.” #JohnPilger https://theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/13/ukraine-us-war-russia-john-pilger…