On August 10, the Russian television channel TsarGrad falsely reported that the U.S. supports independence for Donbas. The report was entitled “Freedom to Cossackia.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdOnmWRI14c
The spurious news item was then carried by Nabat, Russkaya Vesna, Russkaya Sila, and others.
The story is based on an obscure resolution passed by the U.S. Congress in 1959 establishing a “Captive Nations Week.” In the creation of this resolution, according to the TsarGrad journalist, “The United States recognized the territory of modern Donbas as independent from Ukraine.” The document was then ratified every year after that.
The document is a Cold War, anti-communist throwback, recognizing such nations under the screws of Soviet and other communist regimes as Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, Latvia, Estonia, White Ruthenia, Romania, East Germany, Bulgaria, mainland China, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, North Korea, Albania, Idel-Ural, Tibet, Cossackia, Turkestan, and North Vietnam.
The Cossackia mentioned in the resolution refers to a historical territory that comprises a small part of the Donbas, Kuban, the Rostov region, the Stavropol region, and other areas of Russia (though, conveniently, these territories that are now part of contemporary Russia are not mentioned in the journalist’s report).
