Corruption and traitors are in the majority in the Ukrainian government. - 'The Professor'
Posted on 08/27/2018 11:25:03 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
At this very moment, a war rages on in Europe.
Many Americans have forgotten or “moved on” from the idea of Russian aggression in Europe, but a very real and tactile conflict exists today that is contributing to a humanitarian crisis not seen in Europe since the Yugoslav civil wars of the 1990s.
In the four years since the conflict began, territory in eastern Ukraine has been won, lost and won again, always at great cost. Current estimates number casualties at more than 10,000 with one-third of them being civilians, including 166 Ukrainian children.
As a former light infantryman from the 101st Airborne Division, I was eager to chat with several Ukrainian soldiers who have been fighting against pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Intelligence shows that America has been the recent target of Russian “information warfare.” How do you think Russia is using information war against Ukraine?
Myhalych: Russia is constantly conducting an aggressive information campaign against Ukraine, thanks to the army of bots to post fake news, disperse false news, use its agents of influence on TV. Also, it is actively setting up the Western allies against Ukraine, and within my country it is trying to provoke a coup all the time...
Do you think Ukraine should join NATO?
Yevhen: Definitely
Myhalych: Ukraine needs the help of Western countries, not abstract membership in NATO. We need automatic rifles, rockets, night vision devices, cars, drones, and the status is a relative thing.
Will Crimea ever be back in Ukrainian control?
The White Boss: In my personal opinion, the return of the Crimea annexed by Russia is almost impossible.
The Professor: Crimea will definitely return to Ukraine. Though this requires time and patience, political will and aspiration.
(Excerpt) Read more at incyberdefense.com ...
Corruption and traitors are in the majority in the Ukrainian government. - 'The Professor'
“In the 2000s, several successive Ukrainian governments sought closer ties with the European Union (EU). One of the keys to achieving this goal was an association agreement with the EU that would have provided Ukraine with monetary assistance in return for reforms.”
President Kuchma was pro-Russian. He was president from 99-2005.
President Yushchenko was pro-EU and served from 2005 - 2010, but got only 5% of the vote in the 2010 election.
President Yanukovych was pro-Russia and was elected by a large majority in 2010, but was run out in a coup in 2014.
Who were these “successive Ukranian government in the 2000s” that sought closer ties with the EU?
If the author lies about basic, irrefutable history in the article, what else is he lying about?
What we know for certain is that the Ukrainians do not want to be aligned with Russia.
Actually, almost nobody does.
“What we know for certain is that the Ukrainians do not want to be aligned with Russia.”
What we know for certain is that those in Donbas and Crimea most certainly DO want to be aligned with Russia.
By large majorities.
And they are willing to fight to preserve that association.
As for the other counties, maybe not. Except probably Odessa.
The Crimeans most certainly did (and thus aligned), and the people of the Donbass also most certainly do. The quality of life they can achieve under a free, stable Russia is exponentially better than anything they can have under the Ukrainian regime. In Russia you can raise a family in peace, and have a good quality of life. In Ukraine it is almost impossible.
Another putins stooge barking.
Russians must choose between their freedoms/rights and a minimal standard of living. The fact of the matter is: given Russia's vast resources, size, and capabilities -- the quality of life should be so much better for the *majority* of people, not just the oligarchs - whose spoils only seem to spill over into Moscow and St. Petersburg and leave the rest of Russia out to rot. Unless...of course, you're by a World Cup stadium. Then you may have received some infrastructure funding at least temporarily. (The oligarchs don't even live in Russia, but are on their estates out West or yachts somewhere.)
Again and again the people of Russia are confronted with the faustian bargain of selling their souls to the State in exchange for some security. If you dare to protest, dare to confront the State's corruptions and propaganda: say bye-bye to the little that you've worked for. The Kremlin has since raised the pension age, so you don't even get that anymore until you're dead.
Ukraine has a long way to go in escaping the legacy of being under the Imperial and Soviet thumb of its neighbor, but at least right now: there is true *freedom of religion.* The Kremlin can't even afford its (non-Orthodox) Christian people that. And Ukrainians have more travel mobility in neighboring Europe.
Another putins stooge barking.
******************************
Actually, he’s simply pointing out that the areas with large ETHNIC RUSSIAN majorities would mostly prefer that their areas become part of Russia (again).
What we know for certain is that those in Donbas and Crimea most certainly DO want to be aligned with Russia.
The one thing that holds Russia back, and has always held them back, is the systemic political corruption at all levels, from local to national.
Ukraine is exponentially worse...
Much of it is a leftover from the Soviet Legacy, but it goes back much farther than that.
And this is what the leadership of the modern Democratic Party aspires to.
In Russia you can raise a family in peace...in Ukraine it is almost impossible.
There is pretty much no honest way to claim that life in Ukraine is better than in Russia. This claim would require an enormous amount of intellectual dishonesty.
Sure. Everyone with actual on-the-ground knowledge of life in Russia is automatically “Putin’s stooge” if they challenge the narrative. The more people who actually experience modern Russia, the less the tired, Cold War-esque narratives work.
Do you mean in Crimea (not Ukraine anymore), where the quality of life is vastly improved
Are you arguing russia is not corrupt? This claim would require an enormous amount of intellectual dishonesty.
lucky enough to escape their corrupt government
Depends what you are comparing. I know that life in pre-war Donbas was better than on the Russian area right across the border from Donbas.
There is pretty much no honest way to claim that life in Ukraine is better than in Russia.
Pensions have also increased 3 or more times. In fact, they are now at the average Russian level, and, I believe, indexed to local prices, which were a bit higher than neighboring Krasnodar because of logistical issues (lack of a bridge). Anecdotal reports from people who have been there this summer suggest that prices are settling to the Krasnodar level, now that the bridge is open. I didn't make it there this summer, so I can't speak first hand.
Are you arguing russia is not corrupt? This claim would require an enormous amount of intellectual dishonesty.
Of course, Russia still has corruption, but it doesn't touch the average person nearly as much as westerners imagine it might.
Depends what you are comparing. I know that life in pre-war Donbas was better than on the Russian area right across the border from Donbas.
The regions right across from Dosbas are Rostov and Krasnodar...both thoroughly modern regions, so, this claim is hard to swallow. I myself have been living in Krasnodar region for over a year, and it is quite easy to live to a western standard if you have a reasonable profession.
On this you are right, but the quality of life is steadily improving and has been for quite a while. The Russian middle class is quite vibrant in terms of real purchasing power.
Again and again the people of Russia are confronted with the faustian bargain of selling their souls to the State in exchange for some security.
This is quite dramatic. Have you been in Russia at any point in the last ten years? Most people don't have reason to think about life in these terms, because the state simply doesn't bother them.
The Kremlin has since raised the pension age, so you don't even get that anymore until you're dead.
This is factually incorrect, the pension age question has not yet been settled...even though it needs to, as the Russian pension ages have not been adjusted since the end of the USSR, even though life expectancy has dramatically increased.
Ukraine has a long way to go in escaping the legacy of being under the Imperial and Soviet thumb of its neighbor, but at least right now: there is true *freedom of religion.* The Kremlin can't even afford its (non-Orthodox) Christian people that. And Ukrainians have more travel mobility in neighboring Europe.
What does "true freedom of religion" mean? There are Russian Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Baptists, other Protestants, etc. living in Russia without any issues whatsoever. If you are referring to the issues with the JW and other cults, good for them, it is not a bad goal to keep these types of corrosive influences out of a nation. Most of the people these laws target are immigrants who specifically come to Russia to spread this garbage, and every nation has the right to control who immigrates to it.
Aside from that, what does freedom of religion give you if the average person has virtually no economic opportunity, no way to build a future? This is the real Ukraine.
Not trolling here. I'm genuinely curious.
What would be a reasonable profession in Krasnodor?
I had never even heard of the place until this thread.
The source of that unrelenting corrupton is collective failure to acknowledge and take responsibility for past sins committed as a society. Russia is in need of their own version of de-Nazification.
Woah there:
Ukraine’s ‘worse’ situation does not exonerate Russia from what the Gulag victim above acknowledges: that Russia operates from a place of denial and whitewashing of their past. And this is largely because our historically illiterate and forgetful world enables them to do so.
By contrast, with post-war Germany, the international community held Nuremberg. Yet Soviet Russia is responsible for even more horrors.
If you, billakay, and your countrymen spent less time engaging in mental gymnastics justifiying your State’a aggressions against Ukraine and others, and more time acknowledging and protesting its crimes even against its own people, Russia would truly blossom.
Even here in the U.S. people have the wherewithal to be critical of our policies at home, of our leaders, and misadventures abroad past and present. That capacity for collective self-criticism is part of what keeps our fragile system running. And that’s what the Russians expats here observe as well.
I know people from or who have relatives in Yalta and Sevastopol...even since 2014, the thinking of Crimean Russians have gone through twists and turns.
My sense? The issue is settled.
But only for now.
God may have something up his sleeve for how things unfold there in the future. And He has the final say, not Putin.
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