There are ofc alternatives on the net but those are far from the mainstream. And speaking about media pressure read about UK government threatening to shutdown Guardian over Snowden leaks.
And how is that freedom going in west on when Sweden works on behalf of US trying to get Assange jailed. That guy is now holed down in Ecuadorian embassy in London because London wants to deliver him to Sweden (and Sweden to USA).
Neither Snowden or Assange are safe in western world. Those are the people who we need to thank because they revealed so wrongdoings but instead they need to hide in embassies or ask asylum in Russia.

So in the end, by invading Kosovo on false pretext and bending the international law, NATO led by USA paved the way for Russian takeover of Crimea.

Nice try but you need to read a bit more and to read a bit broader than from NATO corporate media only (or so called NGOs that are heavily supported by the US government).

Those acts of violence and human rights violations perpetretated by the then Yugoslavian goverment was the casius bellie for the West to intervene into Kosovo and this violence and human rights violations is what was TOTALLY missing in the Crimea.

So, indeed black-and-white.

It’s also hilarious when you take into account the Russian position with regards to Syria and protection that countries souvereignty, while persecuting and killing political opponents enmasse.

And it becomes even more cynical when you take Chechnya into the equation. Those people their clearly didn’t want to be a part of Russia anymore and then who moved in like “fascists” with mass artillery bombardments and other such civilized and pin point methods…?

Freedom of speech? Don’t make me laugh. Go say anything about the president in US or any EU country, you will have your house raided real quick. In-fact your beloved democrats were using IRS (tax services) to attack the opposition and the list goes on. Disgusting to say the least.

Current Ukrainian government is only seeding more hatred with methods like these. They lose more and more support, of which they had little to begin with, in the eastern regions with their current actions. Shooting voters in the head, mowing polling places, encircling cities… absolutely idiotic strategy. Eastern half was relatively happy(stable) before all of the regime changes, then they were forgotten and were treated as second rate nationals and thus you see the result. It was a major oversight of the new puppets that will kick them in the nuts for time to come.

Anyone thinking that current pawns that recently replaced other pawns are any better are delusional to say the least. There is no “good” or “bad” side, all of these conflicts are for political game of rope tugging influence. These new imbeciles in power will embezzle and steal just like the ones previously. Whoever thinks EU gives out free money and “helps” from good of their heart are crazy, all of these come with strings attached. Look at any country in EU that had shit economy since 90s…they all still have shit economies to this day, they are pawns and merchandise base for powerhouses like Germany. Big economy countries in EU like Germany, France and Britain will never allow smaller countries to rival them; all of you who is not fortunate to live in EU’s powerhouses will always be a second rate citizen to them. Ukraine will never receive the same amount of money and financial aid as Russian gave them… it took the west over 4 months to send measly $1.5 billion to Ukraine while they keep feeding them tomorrows.

17.5% are who identify themselves as “ethnically” Russian… in reality if you genetically test population of Ukraine and western Russia, it would be almost and identical profile; besides nearly half of Ukrainians use Russian language everyday.

1. All Russians know that their media lies. Papers lie, TV lies, radio lies. Only Putin does not lie (well, mostly, they hope).
2. However, they still think that there is a grain of truth in the lies. Therefore they blindly trust any “live” footage shown.
3. Since their media is so corrupt, they assume so is the Western media, because West is much, much more devious than they are!
4. Welcome to the situation, where nobody in Russia believes not a single segment on BBC, but thinks that the propaganda footage shown on Rossija24 must have some truth in it!

In actuality:

1. Russian media is Putin’s well-oiled propaganda machine. Those journalists who worked against this, were killed and fired a long time ago. Freedom of Press index in Russia is below African countries, while in EU it is the highest in the world. And Putin lies all the time.
2. Almost all footage on Russian TV has been tweaked, placed into wrong context, shown with a huge bias, sometimes outright faked with willing actors.
3. Western media constantly fights for its independence. It is a very rare occasion when someone is fired and there are no killings of journalists. Therefore the media is considerably more fair and objective than Russian media.
4. The finale: all the rest of the world except Russians watching Russian TV understand this, and consider most Russians to be Putin’s brainwashed zombie army.