Seeking more freedom, Russians and others in region flock to Ukraine

The Associated Press ^ | May 9, 2008 | Maria Danilova

[fallingwater]

KIEV: A gloomy Vladimir Putin wears a Czarist crown, clutching a bag full of dollars and a miniature television tower. Filipp Pishchik says this and similar cartoons, depicting the former president as a corrupt leader who stifles free speech, got him in trouble with authorities and forced him to leave Moscow last year for neighboring Ukraine. "Ukraine is just great," said Pishchik, 37, a designer and architect. "Here there is hope." Since the 2004 Orange Revolution ushered in a vigorous, sometimes chaotic democracy, Ukraine has become an island of freedom and tolerance in an ex-Soviet bloc still dominated by authoritarian regimes, and journalists, political activists, artists, and business professionals have flocked here. In Soviet times, a dissident wanting to live free had only the West to look to. Getting there was hard, the culture alien, the language foreign. Ukraine, however, is an easy visa-free destination for most, Russian is spoken and speech is free.

[RachelFaith]

Looks like the free market of ideas is working.

[Drew68]

But rights groups say that while Ukraine is good at welcoming professionals, it is still inhospitable to relatively unskilled political refugees, granting only 3 percent of applications for political asylum, compared with more than 30 percent in neighboring Poland.

Hmm... Ukraine wants immigrants who can contribute to her growing prosperity as opposed to being a drain on her already overburdened social welfare system? What an alien concept.

I've been to Ukraine twice. Loved it! I was married in the Donbass region. Walking through customs as an American citizen at Boryspil International outside Kiev was so painlessly easy.

The Ukrainians I met were very friendly to Americans and both times I was there my guests pretty much showed me a non-stop party. Oh, and the women? The most beautiful in the world. I'm fortunate to have married one. I would visit Ukraine every year if I could.

[dljordan]

Don’t worry Ukraine. When the bureaucrats and the politicians in your new republic get sufficiently organized and gain enough power they will start stealing whatever freedoms you have.

[Timedrifter]

While at the same time 2 million Ukrainians work in Russia. As long as wages are more than 2X over the border in Russia Ukraine will never attract many Russians other than a few intelligentsia types.

[dighton]

Well the Ukraine girls really knock me out,
They leave the West behind ...

[old-and-old]

intelligentsia types make the world go round...