flamming_python wrote:
Fully agree on the inadmissibility of such 'talk'
Much has been said about the division of Ukrainians away from Russians by their own state. But little has been said about all sorts of anti-Ukrainian bullshit in Russia itself. Of which Arkhangelsk is a victim.
Which does not exist on the official level, but there are all sorts of such 'patriots' and nationalists spreading nonsense.
Nobody is immune to lunatics amongst their own.
flamming_python wrote:
And the Russian nationalist narrative about all of the Ukraine being 'Russian' lands does not help
What everyone must understand is that before the revolution, 'Russian' referred to all the people of Rus'. That is to say Great Russians, Little Russians and Belorussians; which the Russian people were divided into. Their state was Tsarist Russia. But in this state, the distinction between Great Russians and Little Russians was always recognized as well, and which people inhabited which lands.
What the Bolsheviks did was rename Great Russians into Russians, and Little Russians into Ukrainians (the Great and Little refers to the geography of their respective domains BTW).
Although the name 'Ukrainians' did exist well before the Bolsheviks as well of course, but in Tsarist times this was only used as a colloquial moniker at most.
So it is incorrect to say that the Ukraine is an artificial country. It is the national state of the Little Russians.
Just as 'Russia' of today is the national state of the Great Russians. Neither is inherently any more legitimate than the other.
I am aware of the history of Rus' or Russians and that only shows that we are one and the same people, which completely contradicts western nonsense of division rhetoric calling "ethnic ukrainians" vs "ethnic russians" and the ukrainian propaganda that they are completely unrelated to us. Regarding your argument, that Ukraine is our land I have to disagree with you. Since Ukrainians, Belorussians and Russians are the same and have been historically always the same it is indeed in all our interest to not split further into meaningless smaller nations that will only insist who is the Original and who is the downwashed-clone. It is understandable that the current political, economical and military situation does not give us the fair chance to reunite what is ours and who is ours. In addition to the current situation you also have foreigners interfering and dividing us further. This takes time and the tactics that have worked for the West after having a "total war" and "war of annihilation" from Brits vs Germans they managed to subdue the Germans to think of them as "Allies" despite having millions killed and rhetoric of annihilation of the Germans. This is of course not a comparison how Russia should treat Ukraine. There needs to be a regime change, which Russia most probably will not make, but Zelensky will go just like the Ukro-fascists. With the Nazis being targeted and killed daily at some point even the must stubborn "patriot" will realize that they will die that way and has to soften towards Russia. This will give place for consideration to someone who is at least willing to compromise on the West vs East thing and maybe play low ball.
Russia needs to effectively cut off the influence from the West and provide safety and prosperity to the occupied regions with constant dialog to Ukrainians reassuring and controlling the situation towards calming them down and providing a vision of a future with peace and better lifes, while at the same time openly and publicly putting any banderite they find infront of a war tribunal and punishing them with death penalty. The youth is the next generation of Ukrainians and they need to be educated and influenced by not Nazi rhetoric like the Banderite scum did, but by our slavic values of importance of family, culture, history, peace and the path of our near future.
flamming_python wrote:
The key problem is that the Ukraine identifies itself as a state exclusively of the Ukrainians. When in fact this isn't so. The Ukraine has always been a multi-ethnic territory much like Russia itself. Ukrainians, Russians, Bulgarians, Jews, Moldovans, Hungarians, Germans, Nogais all lived there or came there to settle. There were always multiple languages spoken in the Ukraine. Even the Ukrainian language itself, is not uniform - it varies from region to region, while it's literary form derives from Taras Shevchenko's literature, itself based on the Ukrainian spoken around the Kiev region in the late 19th century.
Yes, they identify themselfs as different from us, that does not mean that is indeed a fact, but the result of divide and conquer tactics by Lenin and other Enemies of our people.
flamming_python wrote:
Now I think that basically any state has a right to define itself as it wishes, and choose its own alliances. However the amount of nationalism that has been revved up in the Ukraine over the past 23 years prior to the Maidan revolution was already bad enough, and the Maidan revolution simply caused the pot to burst. At that state the coupist Ukrainian govt. was at war with its own people in the Donbass - who are a mix of Russians and Ukrainians but with more of a Russian identity. While the Crimea, never historically a part of the Ukraine - simply decided to seperate outright.
I have to highly disagree with that statement. Once freedom end where another's freedom or security is in danger! The US would not allow Russia or China to start a coup de etat in Mexico, arming Mexico and establishing a puppet state that welcomes Russian forces on its soil to protect them against US aggression. This talk about everyone has the right to do whatever he wants is a fairy tale and can not be allowed in the real world due to risk for Nuclear Annihilation of any major country. The West loves this talk and rhetoric and to many times I was forced to listen to this from Germans while completely ignoring the argument and analogy I just made with reversed roles. We are adults and do understand that this is not going to work in the Real World and we have many examples where countries can not just decide to be part of some military alliance without a Super Power is not threatened by it. Sovereignty, true Sovereignty is a luxury that only a few countries have to decide and follow their own interests.
flamming_python wrote:
I don't agree with invading the Ukraine, or trying to redefine its identity for it. This should all have been solved differently. Putin is trying to solve the problem he himself contributed to with war. It's his indictment.
With the imminent threat of Ukraine and a fool as its "President" who can not even think for himself or 5 Minutes into the future allowed the US to build labs for biological weapons, who acquired NATO weaponary, who constantly asks for NATO intervention and has threatened to acquire nuclear weapons against Russia, with the necessary technology, know-how and motivation to actually do it...What should Vladimir Putin do? More diplomacy? That certainly worked so well, talking to the West who declared you years ago as a "nuthead" and "every word is a lie" or the Ukrainians who have decided we are their enemy? What in your opinion should VVP have done to have a better option?
I think that was the right choice and all events of that conflict show us that it is not a slaughter fest but indeed a demilitarization and de-nazification mission. What the further plans are I don't know, but I believe it will be split in half where one side is LNR/DNR with some puffer zone forward as "demilitarized zone" and with "de-nazified" Ukraine with limited military capability and no MIC infrastructure. The time flies by and situation normalized or the West opens a second front. I do not know what will happen, but the chances of a Nazi-Ukraine doing what it wants is certainly not the outcome anyone wants.