On a cold night in November 2013, Ukrainians gathered in Kyiv’s Independence Square to voice their frustration with the government’s decision to reject an agreement that would bring the country closer to the European Union. Over the next few months, scores of pro-democracy Ukrainians kept returning to the streets to demand the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych, Russia’s preferred strongman. This revolution, known as Euromaidan, was met with a violent crackdown.

Meanwhile, a narrative began to take shape in pro-Kremlin Russian media. The Ukrainians on the streets weren’t actually pro-democracy. They were neo-Nazis and members of an ultra-nationalist group called Right Sector. And also they were sponsored by the CIA. The conspiracy theory spread like wildfire on Russian television. The film director Oliver Stone repeated the claim. 

Figuring the CIA in a multi-actor conspiracy theory wasn’t a new tactic for that part of the world, but it proved to be particularly noxious this time around in fomenting opinions in Russia about Euromaidan. 

Scott Radnitz is a professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. He is the author of Revealing Schemes: the Politics of Conspiracy in Russia and the Post-Soviet Region. We sat down with him to talk about the role of conspiracy theories in modern politics.