Ukraine Crisis

[Antonio the Sixth]

naive "liberal" students

Says the naive "socialist" high schooler.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Any news about Yanukovich? It'd be nice if they managed to arrest him before he flees to Russia.

[Antonio the Sixth]

It seems the Crimean protests are the result of a decision of the Ukrainian Parliament to revoke a law which established Russian as an additional official language in all regions of Ukraine with at least 10% Russian speakers.

Repealing that law was a really goddamn stupid move, tbf.

[Antonio the Sixth]

The new Ukrainian government is basically a coalition of Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna party and the nationalist Svoboda...

...

Considering the events that led up to this, it's probably fair and tactically sound not to exclude them from the political power-sharing just now. After the situation is stabilized, hopefully they will be relegated to opposition like most other far-right parties.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Can they go beyond Crimea though? The "protecting Russians" argument won't work then.

[Antonio the Sixth]

It just my guess, but I don't see any large invasion as of now. Putin is probably baiting the new government to make some sort of mistake, that would futher erode their already diminished position with the Maidan, that now pretty much controls Kiev. Divide et impera.

Yeah, I have a hard time thinking the West would tolerate a full-fledged invasion. Taking Crimea would be equivalent to what they did with Georgia back in 2008, which already put Russia in a tough spot.

[Antonio the Sixth]

That Kaliningrad idea sounds fantastic. EU should approve that ASAP.

Even better, could Poland and Lithuania do that on their own?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Bullsh*t is strong with this thread.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I was just going to post "where is Tony with a Stop Saying Words! meme when you need it" but I see he just posted.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I don't know why, but this whole Ukraine thing (which I guess has moved on beyond Ukraine now) has made me genuinely angry in a way that I don't ever feel about foreign events, or even events here, except perhaps those relating to countries with which I am personally connected (i.e. Ghana and Ethiopia). I almost feel somewhat bad for getting so worked up about events there- after all, there are several ongoing conflicts far more deadlier, destructive, and depressing than this one. Indeed, if I were someone else I could see such sentiment considered racist- "caring more about the death of white people than blacks or browns" or something like that. And perhaps it's the fact that Europe is supposed to be a region that has moved passed this sort of thing, yes.

Often ag likes to make allusions to the Sudetenland- which at this point is certainly not hyperbolic (and references to Godwin's Law irrelevant). But I've come to think of it as more akin to the invasion of Ethiopia by the Fascists in 1935- which is perhaps why I feel so strongly about it. A naked act of imperialist aggression, barely condemned by the international community, little done to stop it, and whose initiator was openly praised by certain elements in the West. And completely unpunished. There was no war in Czechoslovakia- but there was in Ethiopia. Do the prophetic words of Haile Selassie that rang so true for their time-"it is us today, it will be you tomorrow"-as they do for ours?

This x1000.