PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Russia Warns Sweden and Finland Against NATO Membership
Old 17th Jun 2014, 10:24
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Ronald Reagan
 
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My Ukrainian friends tell me different, well the ones in the east. The one in Kiev thinks much more differently. It almost feels like its two nations in one.


I have no doubt the vast majority of people in places like Crimea want to be with Russia. The place was part of Russia until the 1950s. Older people are going to remember those times and are angry they were given away by the Soviet leadership to Ukraine. My friends in Kharkiv and Donetsk are very envious of the people of Crimea now and wish they and their regions could join them. They tolerated Kiev while they had an eastern/Russian leaning President but now they are very unhappy about the situation and the coup in Kiev which they think Yanokovych should have done more to put down.
My Kiev friend again thinks differently.
But imagine how you/I would feel if a democratically elected leader that we supported along with most of the people in our region only to find he gets ousted in a coup backed by other nations and mainly involving people from other regions. Its no wonder separatism has taken hold in these parts of the country. It would likely be even more widespread if not so harshly put down by the military and regime security forces.
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