[wildandcrazyrussian]

Not to mention that most Ukrainians and Russians are ethnically indistinguishable and mutually intelligible, and most "Ukrainians" are people who identify with the common Russian heritage but live in the "South", called the Ukraine, just like millions live elsewhere. Every person I know who is from the Ukraine says they are Russian FROM the Ukraine.

Dick Morris sounds like Stanislav Lunaticev here.

Just in the past month, we have heard accusations that elections in two major countries (USA and Ukraine) must have been fraudulent because the "exit polls" showed the loser ahead. Who cares about exit polls except those who use the supposed news to try to influence perceptions?

[Poohbah]

Just in the past month, we have heard accusations that elections in two major countries (USA and Ukraine) must have been fraudulent because the "exit polls" showed the loser ahead. Who cares about exit polls except those who use the supposed news to try to influence perceptions?

Ouch. Too close to the truth of the matter here in the States.

[GOP_1900AD]

Stop with the disinfo. You are still the minority in the ancestral homeland of one of my grandmothers. Ukraine is closer to Czechosolvakia and Poland, culturally and religiously, than to Russia.

[Allan]

Not to mention that most Ukrainians and Russians are ethnically indistinguishable and mutually intelligible
and most "Ukrainians" are people who identify with the common Russian heritage but live in the "South"
called the Ukraine, just like millions live elsewhere.
Every person I know who is from the Ukraine says they are Russian FROM the Ukraine.

Russian chauvinist speaking.
Come here to Canada and say that to my Ukrainian relatives
if you would like to have your face remodelled.

Calling a Ukrainian a Russian is worse than calling a Scotsman English or calling a Croat a Serb.

[goldstategop]

The split is religious as well as linguistic. The East is overwhelmingly Russian Orthodox; the West is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. So there are tensions that go back centuries to the conflict between Byzantine Orthodox missionaries and those of the Catholic Church in Slavic lands. Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and the western part of the Ukraine became Catholic - the rest of Eastern Europe and Russia became Orthodox.