General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Wanted: Proof that what happened in Ukraine actually constituted a "western sponsored coup." [View all]Tommy_Carcetti
(43,173 posts)"Yes...making a client state out of Ukraine (like they did Iraq) and giving them Greek style austerity there by sentencing them and a couple of generations to poverty while the oligarchs and US "interests" rape their valuable natural resources in IMF payments is so much better than taking a peninsula they only got 60 years ago as a "gift" from Krushev."
I know that might not be what you intended to say--at least I hope you aren't saying that--but the idea that the US is so intertwined and involved in Ukraine, making it a puppet state, is just ridiculous. You are highly exaggerating the extent to which the US is involved in Ukraine, which is complete demeaning to Ukrainians by making them look like they can't do anything without the US moving first. I mean, the very idea that the regime change didn't result from massive protests by Ukrainians themselves but instead was some secretive, undefined, unexplained western-led "coup" is incredibly patronizing of Ukrainians.
And no, I don't think Putin's going to stop just at Crimea. I mean, think about this quote:
"I would like to remind you that this is Novorossiya - the term used back in the tsarist epoch. Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, Odessa were not part of Ukraine in the tsarist epoch. These are the territories which were turned over to Ukraine by the former Soviet government in the 1920s. God knows what they did that for.
All this dates back to the victories won by tsarist Russia in notorious wars in the epoch of Catherine the Great and Prince Potyomkin with the center in Novorossiysk; hence the name- Novorossiya. Then for different reasons these territories were lost, but the people remained. "
Vladimir V. Putin, April 17, 2014.
Now, why the hell would he just throw that into one of his speeches? Can you explain?