Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
It is also, of course, deeply undemocratic in character. Had former president Viktor Yanukovich, who was overthrown in the February 2014 Maidan revolution, ever attempted such a thing, Ukrainian liberals and their Western allies would have cried huge screams of outrage. Now, however, they are silent, or even supportive. The US Embassy in Kiev, for instance, issued a statement that it backed the measure as designed "to counter Russia’s malign influence."
I agree with this. I think western democracies, and in particular the Americans, had a great deal to do with undermining Mr. Yanukovich. People like Mr. Zelensky seem to have a natural tendency to swing right and I give you its neighbours Poland and Hungary as examples. To comprehend the problems plaguing The Ukraine we have to venture back to at least WW2 where, in the west of the country there was a significant part of the population who were not unwelcoming to the Nazis whereas in the eastern part of the country thousands died defending mother Russia. Folks in this part of the world have excellent memories.

Overall what we are seeing is simply another example of the continuing Cold War which has hardly subsided since the fifties. Had the west pursued a less aggressive path after the fall of the Soviet Union I'm quite sure things would be different today.

That's my pennies worth.

Fire away.