you're on the right track, but also wrong. for some background, almost all of ukraine's industry is in the east. the azovstal steel factory in mariupol alone produced 25% of all ukrainian exports. pretty much all of ukraine's oligarchs are tied in some way to industries associated with steel manufacture. the primary exception was ihor kolomoyskyi. who was a jewish banker who controlled much of ukrainian media. the 2014 coup was almost entirely media-driven. and it was funded and organized by the cia, the us state department, and western ngo's(such as soros' open-societies). yanukovych was not pro-russia. he just wasn't anti-russia.   lfmpldpk   l7nx2rp8   ol8tubum   mngvadus the reason yanukovych didn't sign the eu association agreement was because ukraine was bankrupt and the eu demanded ukraine carry out all kinds of austerity measures(see argentina). putin showed up, offered $15 billion, and asked for nothing.   1/the-loan-that-launched-a-crisis/ even kissinger thought the eu fucked up. in any case, the coup was "popular" insofar as it was generally supported by people in kiev. had the capital of ukraine been in kharkiv, there would have been no coup.   pe-26079957
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