Also explains why Russia refused to sign the deal that was being pushed at the time.

or "disappearance"

What does he benefit from having a destabilized Russia friendly Ukraine in its neighborhood. Come up with a more plausible story and I can pretend to believe it.

Next Headline: Putin eats live babies with hot sauce.

Anti Russia brigade on DU: I cant wait to see what the puti poo's will say about this

..A stabilized pro-western, possibly NATO member, Ukraine.

After everything we know through the years, decades, about Mr. Putin, it seems entirely possible.

"Like we are all supposed to believe everything we read from the internet."

As far as I can tell this newspaper actually exists. Or are you suggesting that even that is made up? And it existence is based within Russia. If an internal paper is going to antagonize Putin with a story like this, wouldn't it be inconceivably stupid, dangerous and downright pointless to just make that shit up?

And this has nothing to do with being "Anti Russia". It has everything to do with being anti-oligarchist no matter where, whether in the US or North Korea, or Russia.

-Ukraine was, is and always will be in Russia's sphere of interest - regardless of their current government which represents a very, very small minority within Ukraine
-NATO/the EU have formally expanded east since 2000- the long-term goal of the latest (since the 2014 coup) is Russia
-Ukraine has been unstable since 2008

-Ukraine as a state is a lost cause.
-If Putin doesn't react to NATO/EU intervention - he will face domestic challenges....If he does react to NATO/EU intervention, it will validate NATO hawks labeling this as Russian aggression and justify their calls for rearming NATO.

-Peace and the welfare and European, Russian, US people are the losers.

and will get away with it like those criminals did.

The Kremlin doesn't leak....not accidentally, and not deliberately like the White House does on a regular basis to push a line of bull through the media grinder.

The only Edward Snowden in Russia is ours.

So I am not going to put any credence into it.

True to the tabloid media: Speculation and opinion. Even *if* it is a real document and not forged, all the claims are hypothesized.

They say:

"he (Muratov) could not definitively show who prepared the document, he could with some confidence speculate that the authors included Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofayev"

Then they turn that speculation into "fact"

"Muratov said the document was passed from Malofayev to aids of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who then approved of the plan."

It conveniently lays out everything the Ukraine government claims, including bad mouthing the man who agreed to the trade deal with Russia, ousted by pro-Western forces. There was conflict already going on in Eastern Ukraine when the Freedom & similar parties threw him out. In fact, it was used as a justification.

The claim they planned this based on the claims regarding Yanukovych is way too convenient. Recent Ukrainian elections when the recent power has changed the rules of the game, ordered early elections, & prohibited voting in parts unlikely to vote for their political party.

Yanukovych was in the middle basically of the political divisions. There are right regarding the "no morals" but everyone accuses the other of corruption while claiming they're fighting it.

On edit - I don't trust either, much less one side much more than other though regarding this conflict.

That one didn't work out too well for anybody who was involved.

The 2004 constitution was made to make the EU happy but after the free trade deals broke down over their demand to release the "Oil Princess" (hard to remember how to spell her last name so I go with her nickname) which he refused to do, he had plans to discontinue it but didn't sign it and not sure which one was used to throw him out but Parliament has incredible power to throw people out. I'm not sure why or how a recently elected President can call for "early elections" for a new Parliament but they did. Also everyone in charge has dismissed constitutional court judges for "oath violations", puts them back in after they take power. Hard to say if she was guilty of the accusations--the judicial system is rated a highly corrupt as well as their political system, health care system, businesses, etc. Bribes are openly given & accepted everywhere. I will say she faced a 54-count indictment in the US (judge dismissed about half right away).

Ukraine badly needs an independent Constitutional Commission that sticks long-term & a separation of powers because one branch has too much power & control over another, especially the government over the courts. A judge in Eastern Ukraine & his family was beheaded, why, I don't know. There are many killings apparently connected with corruption.

Several brawls broke out in Parliament
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/9741699/Mass-fight-between-MPs-breaks-out-in-Ukraines-parliament.html

Without morals is a descriptive that applies to many more

But he seems to be allowed back in the spotlight now.

I'm not at all surprised.

He carped the diem. He knew he would never have a better chance to seize Crimea than that point, with Ukraine nearly powerless to fight back.

Despicable.

to protect himself and the democratically-elected government. Apparently some thought he had bungled things so badly that it was time for Plan B.