there really three branches of government, or is there a fourth branch of government — these intel services?" He stated that a military alliance that President Obama had tried to establish with Putin against terrorism was "sabotaged by the Department of Defense and its allies in the intelligence services". Each of Trump's efforts to "cooperate with Russia" was "thwarted [by] a new leak of a story". According to Taras Kuzio, Cohen denies that there is a cult of Stalin in Russia. Kuzio also characterises Cohen as a "fan... of populist nationalist Trump". Ukraine crisis In 2014, Cohen said that the crisis in Ukraine came about as a result of US actions, started by Bill Clinton and completed by George W. Bush, to expand NATO's sphere of influence up to the borders of Russia. Cohen said the enlargement of NATO breached a promise not to do so that he said the US made to Gorbachev when Germany was reunited. In relation to Russia's annexation of Crimea, he said that "any Russian leader who has legitimacy at home would have had to do some version of what Putin is now doing. They'd push back". In early March 2014, Cohen said he did not know whether Russia had invaded Crimea and that, if the Russian troops that were present in Crimea had come from the naval base at Sevastopol, they had a right to be there. In a June 30, 2014 article in The Nation, Cohen said the US was complicit in creating the crisis in Ukraine due to its support for the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych. He criticized the US political-media establishment for being silent about "Kiev's atrocities" in the Donbas region which is heavily populated by Russian-speaking Ukrainians and ethnic Russians. He said there was considerable pressure from within Russian society for Putin to intervene militarily to protect Donbas and that Putin had exercised "remarkable restraint". In 2014, Cohen disputed evidence that Russia shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, an event that killed all 298 passengers and crew. He said the Ukrainian government had possession of Russian Buk surface-to-air missiles, and suggested the country "was playing with its new toys and made a big mistake." Extensive analysis proved that the Buk missile launcher used to shoot down MH17 belonged to the Russian Army's 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade and was in the hands of a pro-Russia separatist militia at the time