Chaos In Kiev Could Set Off A Tsunami That Will Toss Western Europe From Its Moorings Too

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2565792/Why-eruption-Kiev-set-tsunami-engulf-As-Ukraine-burns-stark-warning-authoritative-historian-Eastern-Europe.html

Could what is happening in the Ukraine have serious implications on relations between the West and Russia?

[Gromit]

We're all doooomed!!

Many of the ex-soviet countries share the same problem. The ones which border Russia saw Russia people settle there, and soon the countries were divided between Russians and natives. After the break up of the Soviet Union, the Russian settlers were despised and the countries divided. That is what is happening in Ukraine. The native Ukrainians want to be part of Europe, the people near the Russian border of Russian decent want to be allied with Russia. The exact same thing happened in Georgia. The people in South Ossettia wanted to be Russian not Georgian.

[anotheoldgit]

Makes one wonder if we will go to such lengths if Scotland gains their independence?

[emmie]

or Britain being allied to so many former enemies.

[ichkeria]

The article is mainly melodramatic nonsense. Certainly the first bit. Typical Daily Mail - blood-curdling headline followed by a gradual descent into comparative sanity as you read down.

Perhaps Mark Almond should have stayed in Soft Cell :-)

[ichkeria]

"The native Ukrainians want to be part of Europe, the people near the Russian border of Russian decent want to be allied with Russia. The exact same thing happened in Georgia. The people in South Ossettia wanted to be Russian not Georgian. "

Not true. It's far more complicated than that. No one in Ukraine wants to be part of Russia, not even the actual Russians in the Crimea (who in any event only form part of the ethnic make-up).
Events in Ukraine are largely inspired by people fed up with a corrupt government. There are no mass demonstrations taking place in support of Yanukovich in the east other than the "rent-a-mob" crowds in Kharkiv etc, who in any case spoke very clearly with one voice: "East and west united".

As for South Ossetia, it's true that some of them wanted independence from Georgia, but that was mainly becaue of local ethnic tensions and a desire to be closer to Ossetians north of the border. A very large number of the population were either Georgian (since ethnically cleansed by Russian paramilitaries) or pro-Georgian Ossetians, who went the same way.