Posted on 05/10/2008 8:26:08 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Looks like the free market of ideas is working.
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.
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.
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.
intelligentsia types make the world go round...
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