DISINFO: Condemning Niger coup while backing Ukraine Euromaidan show Western hypocrisy
SUMMARY
Western countries are hypocritical. They condemn the coup d'état in Niger, demand the return of "constitutional order", and recognise ousted President Mohamed Bazoum as the "only legitimate" head of state, while they did the opposite in Ukraine in 2014. If the same statements had been made against those involved in the 2014 coup d'état in Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of lives would have been saved. We see today that pro-Western coups are legitimate and deserve recognition, while other coups are not.
RESPONSE
This is a pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative trying to justify the military junta which ousted Niger’s democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum and comparing to military coup there with Ukraine’s Euromaidan protests in 2013 and 2014.
The coup that took place in Niger in July 2023 cannot be compared to Ukraine's Euromaidan (aka the Revolution of Dignity) which lasted from November 2013 to February 2014. In Niger, a group of armed rebels seized power and is holding the legitimate president in the presidential palace virtually as a hostage. He is being held in inhumane conditions and his health is deteriorating.
In Ukraine, the Euromaidan was neither a coup nor a Western-orchestrated protest. It was initially a peaceful protest against former president Viktor Yanukovych’s refusal to sign an association agreement with the European Union despite his earlier commitment to do so. Ukraine’s riot police resorted to excessive brutality to disperse the protestors, many of whom were students. Seeing that the situation had got out of control, Yanukovych left for Russia in late February 2014. No-one had tried to imprison, kill or harm him in any other way.
The EU condemned in the strongest terms the coup in Niger. The High Representative said in a statement on behalf of the EU on the situation in the African nation: “The events of recent days constitute a serious attack on stability and democracy in Nigér. The European Union calls for President Bazoum's security and freedom of movement to be guaranteed unconditionally.” The statement also said: “The EU stands with the people of Nigér and reaffirms its full commitment to strict respect for the rule of law, human rights and international humanitarian law in Nigér.”
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