Quote Originally Posted by Hanna View Post
And isn't it tragic how the free press is dead?
No Western paper will say who put the Union building in Odessa on fire.
For that we have to turn to the Russian media which may be truthful about a lot of things, but is not necessarily about lots of goings on inside of Russia.
Anyone who wants a truthful narrative about anything has to spend silly time online trying to read sources in different languages. Or else just give up and believe what you are told without questioning, or become a tin-foil conspiracy theorist who doesn't trust anyone.
Conspiracy theory happens when people get a narrative in the media that doesn't fit the real world. They know someone's hiding something but they don't know what. That's when imagination (and usually fantasy) takes over.
The best way to find real information in the media is keywords and teamwork. For example, my assignment was to help find a US condemnation of what happened in Odessa.
Step 1 - Find all US mainstream media (I have a list) using the search term "Odessa Russia fire".
Step 2 - Copy/paste each article and use search terms "Obama" and "Kerry".
Step 3 - Speed read each case. If something positive shows up, bookmark it.
The search took less than 30 minutes and I found the article. With just a few people working on 30 minute projects, you'd be amazed at how much relevant news we can collect in just one hour. Everyone contributes something.

For the first time in a long time there was a virtual media blackout, in the mainstream US media, for what happened in Odessa. But I did find a US condemnation of the event.
Secretary of State John Kerry said that the United States condemned violence by militant groups on all sides. “That includes the violence of anyone who lit a fire and caused the death of those 38 people or more in the building in Odessa,” he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/wo...ref=world&_r=1

I seriously doubt that President Putin will order an invasion unless he's convinced that the pro-Russians will lose if he doesn't. And it wouldn't be the first time a war was won without boots on ground.