53 Replies to “The Latest from Ukraine”

  1. This change of government will poke the Russian Bear.
    The world’s eyes are off the games so Putin can get back to his geopolitical ambitions.
    If I was the current new leaders of the Ukraine I’d be watching for Russian tanks.
    Obama will issue another red line.

  2. ‘There were rumours that a yacht named the “Bandido”, believed to belong to Yanukovych’s son, was spotted in the harbour in the Crimean port of Balaclava.’
    It gets better with each passing day…
    Not an unreasonable fear doolweb, as the bear will likely be keeping a close eye on the Crimea, where naval assets are ‘domiciled’.
    Cheers
    Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
    1st Saint Nicolaas Army
    Army Group “True North”

  3. Western Ukraine has always been anti-Moscow, since Russia took that geographic area over after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire just before WWI.
    The unfortunate consequence of that struggle was the Russian revolution, so there’s more to today’s story than meets the eye.

  4. The Daily Mail has put together a collection of photos of what’s occurred in Ukraine. Perhaps it should be, what’s happened “so far”…
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2565995/In-pictures-week-shook-Ukraine-Dramatic-photographs-chronicle-days-violent-clashes-ousting-president.html#ixzz2uBavJ1tY
    … I’d put this in last night’s Reader Tips, thought it’d fit here as well.
    There was some chatter regarding what Victor Yanukovyich would be charged with, somewhere the buck needs to stop regarding those +80 deaths. Someone gave the soldiers authorisation to shoot on their citizens.

  6. What is going on in Kiev is a preview of what we will see in the USA and in Canada … eventually. it is true, governments are getting more corrupt and out of touch by the day … that holds true for the entire western world. I don’t know why they haven’t gone nuts in the USA yet … Obama is clearly moving toward dictatorial power. He is already doing it … while his various agencies are arming up and stockpiling anti citizen ammunition.
    The last fifty years have been nothing but wonderful … but all good things must end. Are you prepared?

  7. Of course, rather than these nice happy smiley photos, you could take a closer look at the people who have the street power in Kiev.
    “The entrance of the Western-supported “Euromaidan” occupied City Hall in Kiev now sports a giant banner-icon of the WW2 Nazi collaborator Stephen Bandera, who orchestrated the genocide of Jews and Poles in the Nazi occupied Ukraine, flanked on either side by the blue and yellow three finger salute flags of the literal Neo Nazi, Svoboda party.”
    So, when you look at protests and demos in the south and east of Ukraine, you can have an understanding of what they mean when they say “no fascists”, “no Banderites”.
    One hopes that the last 2 weeks of watching Sochi has started to teach you that a lot of what you are told about Russia is lies and propaganda.
    Don’t waste you time calling me a Kremlin stooge — spend the time looking up Pravy Sektor and Svoboda.

  9. But you are a Kremlin stooge. Your posts on west Ukrainians could have been lifted from 1950’s Soviet press releases. Every large group has their outliers and Ukraine is no exception. Go away.

  10. Putin WILL send in the tanks under the excuse of “protecting ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine” … and Obama + NATO + the EU will all issue strongly worded diplomatic statements amounting to nothing but hot air.
    PUTIN (quite justifiably) HAS ZERO FEAR OF THE WEST these days, based on his observation and analysis of western timidity since Obungler was first elected. If the EU starts to show a few drops of testosterone, Putin will cut off Russian natural gas exports to Germany and watch them start further regret their unilateral shut-down of German nuclear and coal power plants. Obama? … dumb, indecisive, and beyond useless. NATO? … ya, Belgium, Norway, Denmark and the French will really scare the beejezus out of Putin!
    The Ukes are extremely brave, but they’re in for a lonely fight against a much bigger, nastier opponent. With ‘friends’ like America under Obama, who needs enemies?

  11. Eastern Ukraine IS Russia. Prince Vladimir baptized what was then Kievan Rus more than 1,000 years ago when Kiev was the capital of Russia. Much later, the capital of the Russian people subjugated by the Mongol hordes was moved north to Moscow.
    Western Ukraine is a recent addition as a result of the collapse of the Austo-Hungarian Empire which has neither the rich Orthodox culture or its background.
    So, who should determine the future of Ukraine?
    The populace which has been there for more than a millenium and has strong historical ties to Russia?
    Or the populace which was used a buffer zone against constant European invasion attempts — which has not been part of Russia for even 100 years and feels more a part of Europe to the point of where it’s religion recognizes the supremacy of the foreign Bishop of Rome?
    I dunno, but with all the outside interference, there must be a reason the Russian people like a strong leader like Putin.

  12. My sincere hope is that Ukrainians will achieve some compromise between both Europe and Russia that will at least reduce tensions and pull the country back from further fracturing.

  15. So, let me get this straight.
    Yanukovych was democratically elected by the majority of people who have historical ties dating all the way back to Kievan Rus.
    The annexed part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire does not like being ruled by Moscow, but would like to strengthen ties with the descendants of European invaders like Napoleon, Austro-Hungarians and Hitler (OK, I know it’s whatever rule, but I’m trying to prove a point here).
    The annexation actually contributed to the Russian Revolution, which enslaved the populace from within and was led by a proportinately-higher number of people of Jewish descent than what was reflected in the general population.
    Yeah, and the Russians are somehow the bad guys?

  16. More perspectives, on street thuggery at the behest of some pro government ‘interested parties’ who would like to throw around the fascist label. This is a simplistic way to undercut the economic realities that the country has been fairly pillaged by the most recently dispatched government.
    I believe Karl Marx would have referred to them as the ‘lumpen proletariat’…
    Cheers
    Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
    1st Saint Nicolaas Army
    Army Group “True North”
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-uprising-we-can-break-protesters-legs-no-one-will-punish-us-the-law-is-on-our-side-9147903.html
    ….
    ‘The government, in turn, had been accused of using vigilantes, Titushkos, to attack protesters, bussing some of them in from the east to the capital. Among their victims have been AutoMaidan, an agitprop band of drivers who have blocked streets, used satellite tracking to follow police and given lifts to demonstrators. The shooting of a journalist, Vyacheslav Veremiy, has been blamed on these gangs.
    According to General Viktor Palivoda, a former head of the security service: “Titushkis are actively used by the government; they are groups of provocateurs who are paid, mostly people without moral principles or very poor people who desperately need money.”
    The group was named after martial arts enthusiast Vadym Titushko who was filmed beating up journalists covering a pro-Yanukovych rally. But Mr Titushko has objected to the portrayal: “Titushko is a mindless, unbalanced person. No, this is wrong”. He says he now supports the opposition.
    The group Oplot, or “Stronghold”, shares its name with the country’s main battle tank, and are supporters of Mr Yanukovych’s government. One posting on the website of Oplot, which describes itself as a fight club, read: “Yesterday we caught a protester and cut his ear.”
    Its leader, Yevhen Zhilin, declared: “I was born in the USSR and I am ready to make war for that state. Our enemies should know that before we pass them to the police, we can break off their legs, or knock out their eyes and it will be absolutely legal. Nobody can punish us for that; the law is on our side.”‘

  18. Yanukovych was democratically elected by the majority of people who have historical ties dating all the way back to Kievan Rus.

    He was indeed democratically elected. And he has been democratically impeached by parliament in a vote of 328-0. And you do of course realize that basically the entire region, including Russia, Belarus and Scandinavia could be considered “.. people who have historical ties dating all the way back to Kievan Rus.”
    So, let me get this straight. West Ukrainians and Jews are to blame for the Bolshevik Revolution.. and by invading Ukraine, Russians would be continuing their historical tradition of behaving reasonably with their neighbors. Have you ever asked yourself why there is a country called Ukraine? Why, despite decades of brutal repression including summary executions, life sentences in gulags, mass forced emmigrations, a genocide that killed millions, etc.. the language and traditions survive? Ukrainians are deciding their destiny right now. Their parliament has been in session and is actually VOTING during the crisis. You and the Moscals can’t hang this on a handful of Lviv street toughs.
    I don’t even know why I bother. I have many productive things to do and hanging out on blogs with IDIOTS is not getting it done.

  19. No, all I’m saying is western Ukrainians have more affinity to Europe since that geographic region was just annexed by Russia less than 100 years ago.
    Not trying to blame anybody, just get to the facts. Like the fact Kiev was the capital of Russia 1,000 years ago and there are reasons for the strong historical ties.
    It’s pretty much a fact that people of Jewish ancestry constituted much of the powerful driving force behind the Russian Revolution, which enslaved the entire region. That does not implicate all Jews are commies or that the Russian people liked being enslaved.
    Yanukovych is no prize, but then neither is the president of Belarus.
    I’m trying to present historical reasons for the ties between Russia and Ukraine without apportioning blame.

  20. I would echo Minister Kenny’s statement; trying to draw a link between the Russian hockey loss and the situation in Ukraine is both farcical and demeaning to the dead and those that mourn their loss.
    “True-Dope-ia” has once again underlined his stunningly illiterate foreign policy credentials. But then again he’s got this thing for foreign dictatorships…which naturally bodes well for vote getting in a democracy.
    Well here’s to him falling on the sword of his own making.
    You are correct Shamrock the man writes his own attack ads! I can see him now organizing a circular firing squad.
    Cheers
    Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
    1st Saint Nicolaas Army
    Army Group “True North”

  22. Max, well said both times as was Hans’ comment.
    “West Ukrainians and Jews are to blame for the Bolshevik Revolution.. and by invading Ukraine, Russians would be continuing their historical tradition of behaving reasonably with their neighbors.” This an outright lie. The furthest part of western Ukraine was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the time of the Bolshevik revolution. Furthermore, some of western Ukraine and much of the central area was under the control of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for a couple of hundred years. Much of the rest south of Zaporozhye and along the north shore of the Black Sea was under the control of the Crimean Khanate until Tsarina Catherine II defeated the Tatars in the 1770s.
    Yes, there were some Ukrainians that made common cause with Hitler’s anti-Jewish plans. Many of these Ukrainians, as I have said previously, had enjoyed the Soviet largesse after the Hitler/Stalin Pact was implemented in 1939 until June 1941 after the German invasion of Russia.
    But then, we have more than enough anti-Semites here in Canada in our universities and in the socialist parties. So every nation has its lowlifes.
    The democratically corrupt EU will only be a gentler master than Putin’s Russia. Some choices.

  23. “Not trying to blame anybody, just get to the facts. Like the fact Kiev was the capital of Russia 1,000 years ago and there are reasons for the strong historical ties.
    It’s pretty much a fact that people of Jewish ancestry constituted much of the powerful driving force behind the Russian Revolution, which enslaved the entire region. That does not implicate all Jews are commies or that the Russian people liked being enslaved.”
    Both paragraphs are right.
    “Yanukovych is no prize, but then neither is the president of Belarus.” But then, neither are van Rompuey and Barosso de facto dictators of the EU.
    The different cultural affinities of east and west Ukraine actually can be traced back to the Golden Horde invasions of the 13th century.

  24. Let me tell you a personal story.
    We had childhood friends who were Ukrainian.
    We were invited to their house where there was a picture of their father, who had served in WWII.
    It was not until years later that I realized what the two bars on each of his lapels meant — that he had fought with the Waffen SS and that those Ukrainians who did not like the Moscals (Moscali?), being ruled by Moscow, thought they could gain their independence by helping out the invading German army.
    In the city I live in, there’s a Ukrainian centre. Right in the entrance is a bust of a man. Upon investigation, I discovered he was the leader of the WWII independence movement and also fought for Germany against the Allied powers.
    I’m sure there are many family histories of people who now live in Canada that are similar and the odds are many of those are from western Ukraine. Hey, they took their chances and Canada took them in. That’s just the way it is.
    My late mother lived in Minsk, Belarus. One day, she saw soldiers in German uniform and was shocked when she heard them speaking Ukrainian. I tend to believe my mother when she said Jews rounded up and shot in the area were by members of this Waffen SS.
    Not sure if they were 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Ukrainian) formed from volunteers from Galicia in western Ukraine but there’s a good chance.
    All in all, a pretty messy history.

  25. I’m not sure why anybody would want to join the EU.
    I guess the question is … would you like to be endebted to Moscow or to the EU?
    Being of Slavic ancestry much like yourself, but living in the western world after my parents escaped the socialist enslavement, right now I’m leaning away from the dictatorial EU.
    Yanukovych is apparently a corrupt thief that needs to be replaced, but do you throw out more than 1,000 years of history because you made a mistake in electing a jackass?
    Better to get to the May elections and stay away from the EU.

  26. No need for creative history when the real thing is available. Kievian Rus was founded by the Swedes and was not Russian. It was East Slavic and is usually considered to predate the divergence of the languages.
    The Ukraine was not ruled by Russians in any long-term historical sense. It was ruled by the Lithuanian/Polish kingdom and by the Turks. Crimea was taken from the Turks a bit over 200 years ago.
    Anyone who wonders why so many Ukrainians supported the German invasion must realized that the Russians butchered as many as 12 million Ukrainians after the Russian Revolution. They knew what the Russians offered, the Germans not so much. The enemy of my enemy stuff.
    How do Stalinists find this site to spew their hate?

  27. Set you free >
    “I’m not sure why anybody would want to join the EU.”
    It’s like the Ukraine is left with the choice of either Justin Trudeau OR Elizabeth May, pity them all.
    I vote to stop ALL Islamic immigration to Canada and open the borders to the poor Ukrainian people for at least a decade. Early Ukrainian immigrants have been nothing but good for Canada, and these ones have life lessons that will never be repeated if given the chance in a free democracy.

  28. Agreed about the choice between the EU or Russia.
    Agreed about opening the Canadian door to Ukrainian immigration. I know plenty of Ukrainian people and some have found their way to my church. Salt of the earth people.
    Ukraine’s problem is they’re in the economic glue, so they’re apparently willing to be subservient to either the EU or Russia. Once again, it proves you can’t have independence without a strong economic base. There was never, at any time in history, any independent country called Ukraine until 1991. Anybody want to dispute that fact?
    Scar:
    Stalin’s collectivization and the Holodomyr is further proof of the ultimate failure in trying to forcecfully create a utopian stats. What was once the breadbasket that fed the world ended up by Stalin killing almost twice as many of his own people than Hitler killed Jews. Who do you imagine to be Stalinist (does that constitute name-calling) here?

  30. set you free >
    “Stalin was Georgian, not Russian”…….and Hitler was Austrian, Mao was from Hunan, Che was Argentinian, and Obamba from Kenya – I get the pattern.

  31. There was never, at any time in history, any independent country called Ukraine until 1991. Anybody want to dispute that fact?

    There was, all too briefly, during the civil war period almost 100 years ago. But I won’t do your homework for you. And if you really want to get technical and constitutional, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign state (of course in practice this was not the case).
    The victors write the history books, and since WWII that regional history was largely written by Soviets. Among other things, they and their western fellow travelers successfully constructed a history conflating the Ukrainian independence movement with the Waffen SS. And since you’re big on facts, did you know that, ultimately, the NKVD resorted to committing atrocities while impersonating Ukrainian Insurgent Army units in order to turn the local population? Did you know that Jews served (mainly as doctors) in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army?
    But this is not the forest outside of Lviv in 1940, this is 2014 and Ukraine, a sovereign nation, is taking out the trash.

  32. Dream on Max.
    Here is a report from the Independent (not, I believe, a 1950s Soviet press release).
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-uprising-we-can-break-protesters-legs-no-one-will-punish-us-the-law-is-on-our-side-9147903.html
    “Hryhoriy Bandarenko, using an arm to clear a path; the other was entwined with that of another man who was held equally firmly on the other side. Behind them were more prisoners. They were marched through the crowd, out of the barricades, on to a minibus and driven off.A pair of men stopped anyone from approaching the vehicle. Both were wearing body armour, helmets, blast-proof glasses, kneepads and carrying Kalashnikov AK-47s. They were taciturn, refusing to say who they were; one just muttered “security”. The detained men? They had “harmed the people”.” [….] Mr Bandarenko, carrying out arrests, had described himself at a previous meeting as a member of Samooborona Maidanu (Self-Defence Forces of the Maidan). He later acknowledged that he was a member of the Right Sector, a far-right political group.”
    Lot more nasty stuff to come I fear.

  33. It’s all pretty complicated, for sure and there were atrocities on both sides during that dark time.
    I believe my mother when she said she saw soldiers in German uniforms speaking Ukrainian and that’s no conflation.

  35. Breaking news: Ukraine finance minister says country needs $35 billion to survive through 2014 and 2015.
    Comment: Is this any way to prove you’re an independent country?

  36. set you free “I believe my mother when she said she saw soldiers in German uniforms speaking Ukrainian and that’s no conflation.”
    Normally I don’t believe a damn thing your mother says but she was no doubt right. The SS took hundreds of thousands of non-German volunteers and even conscripted significant numbers of troops. Conscripted! – that didn’t happen, did it. The interesting thing about Canadian conscription is that everyone signed their attestation form as a volunteer so we apparently had no conscripted soldiers. So what have the Frenchmen been whining about for 100 years?
    One has to realize that the motivation of an Eastern European in joining German Forces, and particularly the SS, was different than your typical German. The typical Ukrainian in German service first of all wanted to stay alive and second of all wanted to kill Russians.

  37. Just ignore the Bolshevik troll. If you read all the comments you will discover real quick who it is, and he is not a regular here.
    max, regarding the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). This army had its origins in the summer of 1941 as a guerrilla force under the direction of Taras Bul’ba-Borovets. Initially it fought against the retreating Soviet Army, but by March 1942 fought against both the Soviets and Germans. There actually were three groups, the Banderite and Melnykite factions of OUN and the UPA. In November 1943 all these units were under the control of the Banderite faction OUN/UPA. Throughout 1943 and 1944 UPA fought against German troops and Soviet partisans. Source: Paul Robert Magocsi, A History of Ukraine, 2nd Edition, University of Toronto Press, 2010, p 681
    Those Ukrainians, no matter where they were from, Galicias in the 14th Waffen SS, or in the Einzatzen Groups ( the Jew killers), were not necessarily part of UPA/OUN, but of course as is want in any vicious war zone, individulas do move back and forth between groups for a perceived self preservation.

  38. Good call Ken, nobody willingly stands up in the town square and says; “Oh please shoot me first!”.
    The “Bolshevik troll” is simply conflating ‘National Socialist dreck’ with an authentic independence movement with the primary purpose of attempting to discredit it. Harking back to the history of the “Bloodlands” is a little to clever by half and likely won’t wash as there are now too many ways to circumvent the propaganda pushers. That might have worked 70 odd years ago but not today.
    Cheers
    Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
    1st Saint Nicolaas Army
    Army Group “True North”

  39. And a tonne more of that can be expected. Putin will be pouring resources into Ukraine to steer things Russia’s way while attempting to hobble western reciprocation. No doubt the nascent government will be painted as wife-beating anti-semitic neo-nazis.

  40. Would you prefer Ukraine get auctioned off to the highest bidder?
    Either way, their inability to create economic stability has doomed their people to many more years of subservience.

  43. West Ukraine (Eastern Galicia, Northern Bukovina, and Subcarpathian Ruthenia – eastern tip of 1938 Czechoslovakia) only became Russian in 1939 Galicia, 1940 Bukovina, 1944 Ruthenia. They didn’t cause either 1917 Revolution in Russia, because they were under German-Austro-Hungarian occupation in 1917.
    In 1919-20 as far as they fought anyone they fought the Poles, the Bolsheviks and the Whites and lost.
    Some Ukrainians fought with or for Nazi Germany from 1941 and continued after 1945, some of these wound up in Canada and the USA.
    The West Europeans have and had very little use for Slavs of any kind except as obedient subservient serfs. While they much prefer Catholic Slavs to Orthodox Slavs, I doubt the EU gives a dam for Ukraine or Ukrainians except as anti-Russian catspaws, loyal satellites and obedient serfs.

  44. Therefore, who should Ukrainians trust?
    Those in the EU who consider slavs inferior?
    Or those in Russia who consider Ukrainians their brothers?

  45. Lots of Stalinist stooges on this site recently. What the Ukrainian revolutionaries have done is to strike down a “government” composed almost exclusively of criminals. The same type of “democracy” exists in Russia although the Russian criminals can steal a good chunk of Russian oil revenues and not have to impoverish the people as much. One wonders at how Yanukovych, on his $100,000/year salary was able to afford the lavish estate on which he lived? Also, through some curious workings of chance his son ended up getting half of all public contracts in Ukraine. The best thing that can happen to such criminals is for them to be hung from lampposts around Kiev.
    The UPA was an organization of Ukrainian nationalists who were fighting for freedom which, depending on the situation involved either killing Russians, Germans or both. The Waffen SS was an equal opportunity organization in that it accepted anti-communist volunteers from all countries. It’s important to distinguish between the Waffen SS which was a military organization and concentration camp guards and Einsatsgruppen which didn’t engage the Russian military. After the forced starvation of 12 million Ukrainians orchestrated by Stalin, it’s quite easy to see why Ukrainians bent on revenge would join the Waffen SS.
    Western Ukraine was part of Poland until 1939. This was seized from Russia in the Russo-Polish war of 1918-1919 where Poland seized large parts of Western Ukraine. My father grew up in Polish occupied Ukraine and was active in Ukrainian nationalist organizations opposed to Polish rule. Refusing to fight in the Polish army, he left for Croatia in the summer of 1939 and was a Polish draft dodger, an act that probably saved his life. Half of his family was killed by the Russians when the Russians took over Polish occupied Ukraine and shot any suspected Ukrainian nationalist. Little wonder that the Germans coming through in 1941 were seen as liberators, but not for long.
    My parents version of WWII was quite different from the sanitized historical versions written by the victors. As long as he lived, my father considered Churchill to be a war criminal that somehow was allowed to live. He recounts an idyllic life in Croatia that ended when the Russians took over, killed anyone who was fighting against communism and threw him in a concentration camp for 5 years. My mother and her family were lined up against the wall of their house and threatened with execution unless my grandfather turned in his guns. He called their bluff and refused and my mother survived. Those guns that were buried after WWII were used in the Croatian war of liberation from Serbian tyranny in the 1990’s. Having that background made me realize that most history was a rationalization for the actions of the winning side and probably was a major factor in my becoming a Libertarian and I still think that the only good commie is a dead commie (although I’ve now included statists in the group that are better off dead).
    Looking at online news from the Ukrainian revolution during the last few weeks brought back memories of many of the cities that my father mentioned to me as these were all centers where the criminal government stooges were ousted by the people and the cities taken over. Many of the Ukrainians that came to Canada after WWII were from Western Ukraine, and quite militantly anti-communist as I recall from my interaction with them.
    With the success of the Ukrainian revolutionaries, the days of criminal enterprises in that part of the world are numbered. What Russia does next will be crucial, but it should be noted that Ukraine has the second largest military in Europe after Russia. The organization of the Ukrainian freedom fighters has been impressive and now they are much better armed after taking over military depots in Western Ukraine. Likely the EU is starting to worry about what will happen next as what has happened in Ukraine will be an inspiration to other peoples who are under the thumb of bankster and criminal governments which, at this time, includes most of the western countries. As Thomas Jefferson noted, the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. One only hopes that this movement will spread to take down the self-appointed political classes who believe they have a divine right to rule.

  47. Loki, well said. You family’s personal account lines up with the larger picture presented in Paul Magocsi’s book “A History of Ukraine”.

  48. Many interesting perspectives from those whose ancestors were directly affected.
    Long live a free Ukraine … free from the thieving ruling classes that poison humanity around the world.

  49. Dimitry Medvedev utters small threats
    Russia’s tiny but perfect Russian prime minister Dimitry Medvedev whined, “If people crossing Kiev in black masks and Kalashnikov rifles are considered a government, it will be difficult for us to work with such a government…”
    Amazingly, Medvedev is shorter than his miniature boss, Vladimir Putin, and his brain seems undersized as well. Kiev is NOT full of black-masked protestors. They WON, remember? They got rid of their Russian puppet dictator-president last week, and they don’t need Kalashnikovs anymore.
    Unfortunately for Putin and Medvedev, Russia also has a pint-sized military. When they tried to invade Georgia, the Russians were stopped by the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, who gave them a Hard Look. The Russians stayed long enough to steal every flush toilet they could find, and then shipped the toilets back to Russia.
    The Russian army now consists of a few drunken short-term conscripts who were too disorganized to avoid the draft. The Russian navy has a bunch of rusted semi-abandoned ships in Sevastopol which have insufficient fuel to leave port, and a few subs limping around the world with defective missiles that may or may not ever hit anything. The air force made the mistake of using grain alcohol for aircraft fuel, so air-bases have chronic fuel shortages because the soldiers drink or sell most of it.
    Given Medvedev’s comments, I’m not sure he could even find the Ukraine on a map, let alone invade it. There is also the danger that the Russian soldiers who enter the Eastern Ukraine will quickly realize that if they keep going westward, they can pass though Western Ukraine and escape into Europe. An Italian dishwasher makes more than the average Russian.

  50. THOSE RUSSIAN TROLLS are Baack.
    During the Russian invasion of Georgia, the web was full of these trolls. They were mainly based in Moscow, and they were paid to blog about ‘Russian Truth’. Many were drunk, and few knew much about the West. I found them interesting, especially when they were teased or mocked. They absolutely hated it, and exploded into irrational condemnations and/or death threats. Their tirades provided good insight into Russia’s bizarre and twisted political logic. In the West we take Aristotle’s logic for granted, and use it for many things. Russians don’t.
    The Russian independent magazine Kommersant used to have an English website where I often commented. Discussions were emotional and irrational, with frequent references to ‘history’ that were straight Soviet propaganda. For example they hit the roof when I pointed out that ‘Nazi’ means ‘national socialist’, and Hitler invented his own form of totalitarian socialism so he could be the leader, and not Stalin. Boom!
    Kommersant reporters were attacked and murdered, and after a while they closed their English website.

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