Thanks for the detailed explanation. But how do I know your explanation is not just as slanted as the others?
Please elaborate on this:
“During the USSR Crimea and Eastern Ukraine was transferred from Russia to the Ukraine to make sure there was always a Russian majority in the Ukraine. After the breakup of the Soviet Union candidates friendly to Russia generally won the elections due to these populations.”
During the USSR, didn’t Soviet Russia already own the Ukraine? Didn’t they have about 10 motorized rifle divisions in Ukraine? Didn’t they have strategic rocket forces in Ukraine? Weren’t they already supplanting Ukranians with Russians - everywhere in Ukraine? Weren’t they replacing the Ukrainian language with Russian everywhere in Ukraine?
I think they were. And to say that there were only ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine and Krim is totally ludicrous. Ethnic Russians were everywhere in Ukraine!
So to make the excuse that they needed to protect the Russians in easstern Ukraine and Krim and that’s why they fought the proxy war, just doesn’t ring true.
To say that they were afraid of NATO bases in eastern Ukraine and Krim is a much more plausible and understandable scenario.
>During the USSR, didn’t Soviet Russia already own the Ukraine? Didn’t they have about 10 motorized rifle divisions in Ukraine? Didn’t they have strategic rocket forces in Ukraine? Weren’t they already supplanting Ukranians with Russians - everywhere in Ukraine? Weren’t they replacing the Ukrainian language with Russian everywhere in Ukraine?
What’s now Eastern Ukraine used to just be Russia as was Crimea. The Ukraine was officially a Soviet Republic. In order to make it plausible that Russians were winning all the elections and dominating the goverment(yes the USSR had elections, but all rigged), it was necessary to bring in a large Russian population to dominate the SR and the easiest solution with the Ukraine was just to bring in extra land from Russia.
Russia’s long had a policy of forcing minority populations to become Russified.
>I think they were. And to say that there were only ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine and Krim is totally ludicrous. Ethnic Russians were everywhere in Ukraine!
The populations in the east were pretty close 100% Russia before it was added to the SRU. The point was to stack the deck with large numbers of Russians.
>So to make the excuse that they needed to protect the Russians in easstern Ukraine and Krim and that’s why they fought the proxy war, just doesn’t ring true.
The Government of the Ukraine was ethnic cleansing the Russian population through Ukrainian neo-nazi groups before the Russian government stepped in. If you think about it, the Ukraine’s never going to be safe without getting rid of their Russia population. Now the logical choice is division, but again, all the valuable land is in the east in the Russian zones so that was a no go.
>To say that they were afraid of NATO bases in eastern Ukraine and Krim is a much more plausible and understandable scenario.
Both are true. To the Ukraine having a Russia population is just asking to be invaded someday just as the Sudetenland was to the Checkoslovakia. And much like the Sudetenland, they started trying to drive out the ethnic minority to make the country safe which gave a justification for the power they feared to intervene. Unlike with Checkoslovakia Russia decided not to take the rest of the Ukraine and hasn’t formally occupied the eastern areas. This leaves the conflict frozen preventing the Ukraine from joining NATO.
The proper solution to the Ukraine is the division of the land, but it’s not a solution either Russia or the Neo-cons want.
I believe Khruschev attached Crimea to Ukraine for administrative reasons because it had no land connections with Russia. It was easier to govern as part of Ukraine at the time. That and also Khruschev being Ukrainian. I don’t think there were hidden motives like maintaining Russian influence in Ukraine because Crimean population was like 2 million vs 50 million of Ukraine. Also an idea of separation of Ukraine and Russia was rather unbelievable in 1954. The issue was minor like a question of jurisdiction of a state over a county when applied to US perspective.