The West Should Call the "Russians" Bluff in the Ukraine.

Separatist forces in Eastern Ukraine are trumpeting landslide election results supporting secession: over 91% in Donetsk, unofficial capital of Donbas, the Ukranian Rust Belt. But a fair, accurate election was impossible in the midst of civil war, with polling stations established by a makeshift government, and no international observers willing to take part. Separatist gun men are stationed at government buildings, preventing Kiev-backed forces from retaking the buildings, but also belieing the feasibility that people are voting freely and fairly.

The Wall Street Journal reports one pro-separatist election official (Mikhail Somelenko) acknowledging little was done to keep people from voting more than once, but that it didn't matter since, he said, "everyone was voting yes."

Western government are angrily protesting the election as invalid, and of course it is. But what if it also does represent popular sentiment?

Just a month ago, press polls showed that separatist were in a clear minority. If those polls still represent the situation in the East, Ukraine risks nothing in allowing a fair, internationally monitored poll.

But while a minority of Donestk residents describe themselves as Russian, more tham 70% consider Russian their native language, and more than 90% speak primarily Russian in their own homes. In fact, as many people speak Russian in their own homes throughout Ukraine as speak Ukrainian. And yet, officially, Ukraine is a Ukrainian-only country, with no Russian institutes of higher education and only 5% of broadcast shows in the nation as a whole are presented in Russian. Russophone Ukrainians can plainly understand Ukrainian broadcasts, since the langauges are so similar, but it makes sense that people tend to follow the language spoken in their own homes.

And so the Russophone supermajority of Donetsk gets their news overwhelmingly from Russian sources and local sources now controlled by separatists. So, instead of their news sources focussing on the contrast between the largely non-violent Euromaidan protests in Kiev and the militialed separatist movement in the Donbas, the news is certainly focused on images like the unarmed pro-separatist who tried to stand in front of a column of tanks, like in Tienanman Square, but was shot down in cold blood before he even reached the center of the street.

Also, recently, a tribunal in Kiev failed to link Yanukovich to the snipers, whose murder of dozens of Euromaiden protesters led to the ouster of Yanukovich. Among Ukranian news sources, this is hailed as evidence that Putin must have been behind the snipers, perhaps even desiring Yanukovich's ouster as a pretext for invasion. According to Russophone news sources, this simply demonstrates the invalidity of Yanukovich's ouster.

Even the national Victory Day holiday has worsened situations: Back in WWII, an anti-Soviet faction led by Bander sided with the Nazis. Rejected by Hitler, the anti-Soviets tried to impress him by exterminating an entire Polish region's population. Since independence Ukraine has been eager to identify with the Russian defense against Hitler, but a substantial anti-Soviet majority has identified with the Nazi side. The new government has created much controversy by giving the Banderite "Svoboda" party key posts in the government including sports (which contains the Ukrainian equivalent to the ATF), justice, and Vice Prime Minister. And anyone thinking Svoboda merely praises the lesser of two evils, the party was founded as the "Socialist-Nationalist Party." Compare to the portmanteu, "Nazi" which stands for the "Nationalist-Socialist," Thus, when the Svoboda-backed government in Kiev moved against Russophones, the natural parallels to the Nazi-Russian conflict were most unfortunate for Kiev.

If I may break the fourth wall, I have had a few Freepers send me Ukrainian social-media news. Although their intention was to side with Kiev, much of the propaganda contained is devasting to the Kiev cause: "Russians" are portrayed as inherently inferior humans, having genetic predisposition to despotism. Such propaganda may work to shore up Western support, but it's very plausible that it alienates not only those who have recently chosen to identify themselves as Russian rather than Ukrainian, but also Russophone speakers in general.

Lastly, as justified as Ukraine may feel about cutting water, power and banking access off to Crimea, it needs to resist those urges. Its argument with Russia over Crimea is based on the assertion that Crimea is Ukrainian. That means that the Crimean people are Ukrainian. And that means they need to act like the Crimean people are victims of Russian aggression, so they cannot punish the Crimean people.

Is the very reason Ukraine needs a fair vote for Donbas secession is the very reason it might not get one: It's not so clear secession would lose. But if Dontesk votes to remain in Ukraine, Kiev will have the moral high road in routing out the separatists. If they vote to secede, Kiev needs to woo them back, not ignore their desires while trying to conquer them.

According to July 2012 polling by RATING 55% of the surveyed adult residents over 18 years of age believed that their native language is rather Ukrainian, 40% - rather Russian, 1% - another language.[13] 5% could not decide which language is their native one.[13] Almost 80% of respondents stated they did not have any problems using their native language in 2011.[13] 8% stated they had experienced difficulty in the execution (understanding) of official documents; mostly middle-aged and elderly people in South Ukraine and the Donets Basin.[13]

According to a 2004 public opinion poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, the number of people using Russian language in their homes considerably exceeds the number of those who declared Russian as their native language in the census. According to the survey, Russian is used at home by 43–46% of the population of the country (in other words a similar proportion to Ukrainian) and Russophones make a majority of the population in Eastern and Southern regions of Ukraine:[14]

Russian language dominates in informal communication in the capital of Ukraine, Kiev.[15][16] It is also used by a sizeable linguistic minority (4-5% of the total population) in Central and Western Ukraine.[17] 83% of Ukrainians responding to a 2008 Gallup poll preferred to use Russian instead of Ukrainian to take the survey.[18]

The language question, the results of recent research in 2012, RATING (25 May 2012)

"Portrait of Yushchenko and Yanukovych electorates". Analitik (in Russian). Retrieved March 7, 2007.

"Byurkhovetskiy: Klichko - ne sornyak i ne buryan, i emu nuzhno vyrasti". Korrespondent (in Russian). Retrieved March 7, 2007.

"In Ukraine there are more Russian language speakers than Ukrainian ones". Evraziyskaya panorama (in Russian). Retrieved March 7, 2007.

Gradirovski, Sergei; Neli Esipova (1 August 2008). "Russian Language Enjoying a Boost in Post-Soviet States". Retrieved 2 May 2014.

The Eastern Ukraine needs to think—will they be better off with Kiev or Moscow? Will the mines be opened? pay better? Will their be more wealth under Putin than Kiev? At least they can speak Russian again without getting in trouble, and their children will be taught in Russian. Russia will be putting gas lines in and opening up opportunities—maybe their kids can go to Russian Universities?

“The West has no place choosing sides in a civil war.”

True. So get the truck out of Ukraine, Russia.

Lacking logic is no way to go through life.

“Russians” does not refer to Putin, but Russophones in Ukraine. The West is claiming DOnbas residents don’t want to secede. If they believe they have better cards, they should call, and allow a reliable referendum.

I think that's what Putin will suggest at some point, that an outside group oversee a fair referendum and can vouch for the results. Kiev will never go for it of course, people who couldn't wait a few months for the already scheduled elections rather than using a mob to carry out their coup are never going to accept any election or referendum results from regions they know don't support them. With the current crowd in charge, Ukraine is Cook County, IL on a grand scale.

I think their goal since the the minute they took over was to either entice Putin into taking the Southeastern part of the country or stir up enough violence there to declare that region as being in rebellion so they can ignore the votes from those regions in the upcoming elections. If they have their way, there will probably be a period like the Reconstruction era in the US that keeps the votes from some regions of the country from being included in national elections for quite some time after calm is restored.

Russia is going to recognize the referendum results as valid and assist the new self rule authorities in Donetsk and Lugansk. It can legitimately be claiming to act according to the expressed will of the people.

Kiev’s only response besides force - is outright denial. And the West is contorting itself into pretzels over its own mockery of Western and European values - all because it does not like how the people of eastern Ukraine voted.

Russia is no longer going to force them to stay in Ukraine and ANY future negotiating roundtable MUST include their representatives. The Maidan regime can no longer speak for the entire country. What the referendum results have revealed is that we have now reached a watershed moment and crossed a turning point in history no one thought would ever come.

And the tragic thing is the Maidan regime in Kiev insists on destroying Ukraine with its own hands and the West is going right along with it.

“It can legitimately be claiming to act according to the expressed will of the people.”

lmao...funny stuff. Yeah illegal annexation and special operations assisted subversives is fine way to express the will of the people of a foreign land. Priceless comment.

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