[GeorgefromGeorgia]

A lot of people from the former SU (in particular from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine) seem to be apolitical. I think when you live under a political repressive regime that once mass murdered dissidents and later threw them into mental hospitals or in Siberian prisons, you learn not to be political. I think this is somewhat different in the Baltics, Poland or former satellite states, where the people always chafed under the hell of the SU.

[instantgratification]

I think you are very wrong. Ukrainians are very political, and always have been. Voter turnout in the last election was 75% (compared to 42% in the US).

Those who emigrate, for the most part, are those who have given up on their society. They aren’t representative of the populace as a whole.

There is a certain sense of resignation, in terms of how society changes, but all of these countries have gone through massive changes in a very short time span.