excerpt
Considering 80% of Crimea’s residents speak Russian, the findings correlate very well with last year’s referendum.
Crimeans consider themselves Russian and it was only an accident of history the territory was ever ceded to Ukraine.
Do they have polls in the Ukraine and Russia asking them if they endorse what's happening ini the U.S. Like massive government oppression and intrusion while keeping it's violent borders wide open?
Or do ya think anyone in the Ukraine or Russia gives a s**t?
Ukraine has been a part of Russia for at least 500 years. Prior to that it could be argued that Russia was a cultural subsect, and at times a political fiefdom of Kiev and their Grand Princes. It was the Grand Prince Vladimir who brought Orthodox Christianity to the Slavs. This bizarre idea that Ukraine has some identity separate from Russia can only be explained by the widespread historical illiteracy on the part of so many Americans.
I have no use for Putin who is a KGB spy/mafia godfather that somehow became President. But the fact remains that we cannot just pretend Russia has no vital interests outside of the borders arbitrarily created after the break up of the USSR. Russia survived the invasions by Napoleon and Hitler in large measure because of the vast depth, and brutal winter climate of Ukraine. The relationship between the two has not always been smooth, and times it has been repressive. But if you date it to the conversion of the Slavs then it is over a thousand years old.
US and NATO meddling in countries that directly border Russia is deeply resented by the Russians, and that’s not just Putin and his ultranationalist cronies. The people resent it in the same way we resented the USSR when they set up an anti-American satellite state in Cuba and the way I am certain that we would be furious if the Russians were interfering in Mexico or Canada the way we have been openly interfering in Ukraine. Putin may may be a thug, but that doesn’t mean this is any of our business. It isn’t.
Given the history mentioned above, Russia considers Ukraine’s relationship to Moscow as a matter of vital national security, IMO understandably. The question we need to ask ourselves is, are we willing to go to war against Russia in a part of the world that has a history of swallowing foreign invaders and then freezing them to death in order to continue our policy of encirclement? Because if push comes to shove, I think Russia is prepared to go to war to prevent Ukraine from becoming a part of a hostile military alliance.
I would suggest that some very sober reflection is in order with regards the limits of US military power, and where our legitimate vital national interests end.
Sure. BTW- Southern California should belong to Mexico too I guess.
Berezovets is inclined to credit Crimea’s “Orwellian atmosphere” for some of that near-unanimity. He’s probably right. Given the ubiquitous FSB attention and the arrest of some pro-Ukrainian activists — the persecution of filmmaker Oleg Sentsov is the cause celebre — as “extremists,” few people are likely to be brave enough to condemn the annexation on the phone, especially when the caller is a stranger. In Russia itself, polls show 85 percent support for Putin, but it’s hard to calculate how much of that is motivated by caution: it’s best to treat those numbers as an indication that most people are willing to acquiesce rather than to protest.