Posted on 03/18/2014 9:10:05 PM PDT by varmintman
60% of the population ARE ethnic Russians. They would definitely vote for joining Russia. 24% are ethnic Ukrainians, but most are Russian speakers and all have been subject to tons of media saying that Svoboda and other violent organizations have taken over Kiev. I would guess that half of the Ukrainians at least would vote to join Russia. The Tatars at 12% would not have voted to join Russia
however, I believe that the Tatars and many ukrainians boycotted the referendum
Even if everyone voted and this was utterly fair, Crimea would be returning to Russia
this is not, not simple like an invasion, it's not as simple as "free and fair referendum" -- it's some area of gray.
If you consider Eastern Europe as being lands east of a line on the eastern borders of the Balkan states + poland + slovakia +hungary+ romania, then yes, somewhat he already controls it with the exception of Georgia (though I guess Georgia is Asian)
If you mean the former Soviet bloc, then no -- the Baltics, Poles, Hungarians, Romanians revile their time under Soviet rule
That's what the Poles I meet keep saying. Poland is setting up it's own alliance with the Baltic states that will probably now draw in Romania and Hungary.
They're all small on their own, but combined they are half the population of Russia and able to pretty much match the Russians militarily (except for nuclear weapons)
Also, economically, they are moving away from dependency on Russia -- this movement by Putin is only accelerating that.
The ironic part is that by doing this, the French and English brought hell on themselves -- the German General Jodl pointed out that there were only 23 divisions of German troops on the west opposed by something like 110 divs of French and English. The French tanks and artillery were actually better than the German.
If the French and English had actually attacked Germany instead of just talking, they would have ended the war in 1939 and saved millions of lives -- a lot of it their own.
Quite correct — this is hypocritical
Far better to point out Putin's shutting down of Novosti TV station.
yes, WWII would have been a lot harder to win without the Russians, but this was also because of Nazi stupidity. Instead of playing nice with the people they conquered, they went Mongol on them. So the Russians and Ukrainians and others realized that they had only two choices: fight or die.
If the Russians had collapsed, I don't believe the Nazis would have survived past the 60s. Their harsh power already stirred up counter-reactions and at some point they would have strained too far and collapsed. Just as Napoleon did..
they didn't care how many died.
Read also about Bolshevik tactics in the Russian Civil war. The same treatment of soldiers as cannon fodder
You refresh my memory of pre WWII days when I would spend time in the summer with relatives in Grand Rapids Michigan. My grandpa who was an immigrant from Russia enjoyed very much going to Polish weddings across town and to tell us about it the next day’
EXACTLY!!!
People seem to forget that the Soviets were the aggressors who started the war with the Nazis.
Two evil neighbors decide to partition the land of the neighbor between them. Then they turn on each other. BOTH are to blame and both are/were evil
REally? I haven't noticed that. To me it sounds like Russian but with a few Polish words. It doesn't use the softer sounds of Czech to my ear (but then that's just my opinion)
I watch it and watch CNN and my belief is that the truth is somewhere in the middle -- neither side is telling the whole truth and I wouldn't trust either without verification.
Tsarist russia included the Baltic states, much of Poland as well as Georgia, Armenia, Kazakshstan etc.
My fiance who is Ukrainian say that Ukrainian when properly spoken is very light sounding, almost like singing. Having heard her speak I think it is true, although my ear is not good enough to separate Ukrainian from Russian.
People forget that....and our oh so peaceful Soviet Allies, raped the Baltics and attacked Finland, before Hitler attacked them.
They started WWII in Europe with the Nazis.
You're right. In regards to the demographics I should have asked whether there was a single oblast dominated by Russians rather than Russian speakers.
As in every land conquered by the Soviets, Russian was taught to all the school kids. This was true even in the Warsaw Pact countries. So you will have many people identify as Ukrainian that speak Russian. I have a friend from Kazakhstan that considers himself Kazakhstani but Russian is his first language.
I don’t see the long game that the Russians are playing. i don’t think they have a long-term plan. What Putin did in Crimea is short-term, a pique to his chosen man Y being kicked out.
This was low-hanging fruit for Putin.
Honestly, any Russian leader who allowed Crimea and her bases to go to Ukraine would have been run out of Moscow faster than you can say “Peter the Great.”
Did you see that Putin in his speech announced that he was adding the Tatar language to the list of official languages of Russia?
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