Do Most Americans Care If Crimeans & Eastern Ukrainians Vote To Join With Russia?

3/10/2014 | Laissez-Faire Capitalist

[mulligan]

If they did would it matter one way or the other?

[grania]

My computer choked up when I tried to research the ethnic breakdown of Odessa. There have been pro-Russian protests about the city’s fate. It’ll be interesting to see how it unfolds in southern Ukraine. What we hear about is eastern Ukraine.

[grania]

Agsin, Marguerite to the rescue. Thanks.

This gets interesting. Would those ethnic Jews be better off under Putin or under a potentially neo-Nazi Ukraine?

[DManA]

Aren’t there any potential ports on the Russian coast of the Black sea?

[TexasRepublic]

“What say you?”

My FR name says it all.

[Travis McGee]

I assume not, not on the scale of Sevastapol etc.

Or there would be already.

[Marguerite]

“Would those ethnic Jews be better off under Putin or under a potentially neo-Nazi Ukraine?”

I don’t really know.
What I know is in the 19th century there were an estimated 5,500,000 Jews living in Russia. Under a law introduced by Alexander III, all Russian Jews were forced to live in what became known as the Pale of Jewish Settlement - which consisted of Polish provinces, stretching from Riga to Odessa, to Vilna and Kiev.
What I know is that 2.25 million Jews lived in Ukraine before the WWII. Most of them were killed in situ, in the woods and in the diches by nazis’ ukrainian collaborators, a big number were sent to the death camp Belzec, situated just over the border in Poland, and out of 19% survivors, many emigrated in Israel.

Actually, there are some 50,000 Jews still living in Ukraine.

[Thunder90]

The problem is that you would have this western tongue intruding into the East (West Ukraine would be surrounded by Belarus, Russia, East Ukraine, and Moldova).

New East Ukraine Flag:

Crimea would become part of Russia.

[caveat emptor]

That small coastline Ukraine will have on the Black Sea....is it also majority ethnic Russian?

[Forward the Light Brigade]

If, as I suspect, Crieams join Russia—they will need a land link—That means a corridor that will slice more off of Ukraine—good news, most of the people here speak Russian and wouldn’t really mind being back under the two headed eagle.
Is this bit of territory really worth a war? I think not—most Europeans will agree. Its just history happening all over again. Best advise—get ready because something big is about to happen.

[Vigilanteman]

Your map and my map in post #26 are comparing two different animals. Yours is the percentage of ethnic Russians (much smaller) where as mine was the percentage of voters who backed the Russian favored candidate in the last election.

Yours show Crimea as the only region in Russia which is clearly majority Russian. If it needs a land bridge to link it to Russia, the Kerch straight to the east is the most logical connection. However, the only natural land bridge is the region marked 14.1% ethnic Russian. If you took that region south of the Dnieper River and extended the line from the river flow to the point where it turns north at a 45 degree angle or so, then you'd take in a substantial part of the two provinces with close to a 40% Russian ethnicity.

Not ideal, to be sure, but probably better than the alternatives.

[caveat emptor]

Your map and my map in post #26 are comparing two different animals. Yours is the percentage of ethnic Russians .....

Yep. A specific response to a specific question.

Ukraine is changing. Opinions seem to be in flux. Three million ethnic Russians have re-identified as Ukrainians since 1991. My guess is that Russian speaking ethnic Ukrainians will be less inclined to support Russia after the current roughing up by Putin, but will likely have to make compromises. We'll just have to wait and see.

Whatever pressures the Ukrainians are under, they aren't stupid, and won't likely attmept to close borders, interfere with Russian year round ports in Crimea - how could they anyway, now that Russia is in control - etc.

And if there are any outrageously provocative acts committed against Russia/Russians/Russian-speakers my inclination would be to see them as a false flag ops by some of Putin's goons, excepting local uncontrollable crazies of course.

[The Right wing Infidel]

Not my business what the people of Crimea vote or want