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I just want to point out that Ukraine HAD a democratically elected president, nobody is contesting the validity of the election he won. It was one year until the next election and this coup d'etat could never have happened without the coup makers from Western Ukraine being hand-held, sponsored, and cheered on by the US and the EU.

So he was democratically elected, only the Ukrainian majority hadn't elected a pro Western leader, so they ousted him.

It's the same symptom in the Palestine. Oh-so-lovely with democracy there, until the majority votes for Hamas. It's called hypocrisy to support a principle then suddenly pull back when things don't go your way.

Just listen to the Victoria Nuland and Catherine Ashton tapes if you are in any doubt at all. It was all plotted out and masterminded from Washington and London.

As for Russia, Putin is democratically elected, the republics in the federation have their own quite different governments with everything from near sharia, to communists and nationalists according to local preferences.

A lot of Russians think the democracy is a big hoax and have no interest in it whatsoever, just want somebody who can maintain peace, law and order and improve conditions. Putin ha succeeded quite well with that.

A comparison to this, would be that that the uK started meddling in Canadian politics. Say Canadians then elected a pro USA government that wanted a trade agreement with the US, dropping links to the Commonwealth or whatever. The UK then stirs up a coup d'etat, using any misfit, anti Ottawa Canadian, hails it as a big victory for democracy and forces Canada into a less favourable deal with with the Commonwealth. Anything American is rubbish and should be done away with soonest. Then parts of Canada were disgusted and turned away and felt "we don't want anything to do with this c---p" and we have a lot more in common with the USA than Britain. How dare they meddle with our country, our language and our democratically elected government. They occupied some gov't buildings in Vancouver, Winnipeg and Montreal, let's say.

Whereupon Ottawa sent troops and started bombing them and killing people. US people wanted to help Canadians but the US president wouldn't lift a finger.

This is, how this looks like from Russia's perspective, only WORSE.

What in high heavens are you on about? Tom, honestly you sound like you are in some kind of little Cold War, McCarthy parallel universe of your own.
For the information of others Soviet is just a word in Russian that means "Advice". Because in the early days of the revolution, the bolsheviks formed advisory committes.

I speak Russian and no other language of the ex USSR. It was the common language of the USSR, and the other republics and peoples had their languages and spoke Russian as a second language. Same as in Europe today with English. Some older people couldn't speak Russian, or spoke it poorly. Many ex Soviet republics have a dilemma today, because they want to push their traditional language, for understandable reasons.

But in many cases people either don't know it, or they prefer Russian for a number of reasons. In Belarus they gave up trying, in Kazakhstan it's supposedly bilingual, but in reality Russian is much more common. In Ukraine, Russian is definitely the language you hear on the street in the bigger cities. On TV they try to speak Ukrainian but a lot of people simply don't know it well enough and are forced to respond in Russian. When Julia Timoshenko wanted to launch herself as a Ukrainian nationalist, in addition to the braid, she also had to take a course in Ukrainian since she didn't know it.

That's actually one of the reasons they are pushing Ukrainian language so hard in Ukraine, just to ensure it survives. The maps from the magazines are misleading. It's only spoken in the centre and West of the country, and half the time is badly mixed with Russian.

The Baltic states have laws that anyone working for the state must know the local language, and for most jobs, it's a requirement too. In Latvia they have a special langauge police that fines people who speak Russian at work, when they should speak Latvian. It's totally ridiculous, since a lot of older people there, simply can't speak Latvian which is a notoriously difficult language to learn, despite the fact that they were born in Latvia. My dad was born there, and he cannot speak Latvian, although he speaks several other languages.

The Baltic states are the only countries in Europe where there is open language discrimination of a minority - under normal circumstances Brussels would be up in arms about it, but since the people in question are Russian speakers, it's apparently fine to discriminate against them. 40 % of the population in Latvia and most of the population in the capital are native Russian speakers. But the language is banned from public life.

I'm not going to bother debating with Russophobes or people who are clueless about history and culture.

You can think what you likes, and nothing I say will make any of them change their views.
Definitely not into arguing with people to entertain them.

If you had followed the news on this, you'd know that the rebels raided the military depots in the area, i.e. they are using Ukrainian supplies. This kit was stored there, and not very securely. Anyone guarding it or keeping the keys was obviously loyal to the rebels and not to Ukraine. Clearly the Ukrainian army didn't see any of this coming.

What interest does Russia have arming some local rebels, when it could easily take the area, with the support of most of the local population any time it wants. 
And btw - nobody is saying that Russia should take ALL of Ukraine. There are clearly people in the West of the country who want nothing to do with Russia. It's either just the Donbass, or they entire Novorossiya area from the Imperial days. As for Kiev, it's a pity on such a nice city, which is also considered the birthplace of the Russian nation But it's Ukrainian now though. (very hard to hear a single word of Ukrainian language spoken there though - I certainly never heard it).

Russia is also WELL aware that Western media is looking and grasping and ANY straw to blackpaint it, in this conflict.

It would hardly give the rebels anything that was obviously Russian, even if it did support the rebels - which Russia doesn't to the great annoyance of the Russian public.

The older Ukrainian and Russian kit is obviously identical, since it's all Soviet.
And there's PLENTY of it around. Everybody did military service, everbody knows where it is, large parts of the Soviet army outside of Russia just withered around and old kit from those days is in wide circulation across Europe. 

People had bigger problems than worrying were some missile launcher was stored.

Robert, I thought you were smarter than listening to only one side in an argument, and then starting to throw accusations. As for the rest here, yes sure, Russians are really evil and will soon nuke Ukraine just for fun, while Putin is laughing and playing the fiddle on the roof of Kreml.

Tom is again totally clueless what he's talking about.
The loyalty of ex USSR citizens to the Soviet army in which they served; in many cases it's really strong. In Central Asia and Belarus particularly, a lot of people would really want the USSR back. Victory day with Soviet banners and marching to Soviet songs, etc is still happening every year in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tadzikistan, Kirgistan along with Russia. It's the second largest holiday and people love it and feel pride about the victory, the red army and the ideals of those days. The poorer parts of Central Asia just miss the cash from Moscow. Victory day used to happen in Ukraine too, but apparently this year they did some kind of anti-victory day instead, celebrating the nazi invasion in the West of Ukraine. I think the Baltic states have some alternative celenration, not the traditional, and I don't know about Turkmenistan.

Remember that you are talking about an area you never visited, where you don't know the language and you ought to be smart enough to realise you are being served propaganda. Please don't talk like you are experts, it just make you look like pretentious fools.

I am not saying that Russia is perfect, just that in this situation, Russia didn't start anything, the West sponsored an ousting of a democratically elected president.
Half the country didn't like it, or at least preferred to wait to the next election. Their language was banned and they were bullied, so they thought, "In that case, we'll also rise up". And suddenly all that was Russia's fault.

Practically everybody in Russia wants Putin to go in and help them out, Putin is showing extreme restraint, doing essentially nothing, totally against public opinion.
Probably he's thinking "let the West see what happens when they meddle in things they don't understand". Or he genuinely thinks the whole area is more trouble than it's worth - cruel and heartless if you ask me.

Meanwhile regular people in Eastern Ukraine and in Russia are waiting for Russia to step in and bail out these people who have now got themselves into a cul-de-sac they can't really get out of. Future citizenship in Ukraine will just not be possible after this, so Lord knows what happens.

All because the US and EU wanted their own man in Kiev and jumped on a small protest, turning a tiny flame into a revolution.
Hope they'll think twice next time. One can only dream.

Look what a "success" the intervention in Libya, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan turned out to be. Don't you really admire the USA....

Tom Kalbfus, stop wasting your time trying to provoke me with French anecdotes, I am not French. "martienne" is just a French word that means "Martian female". English lacks a word that contains both meanings, so I chose the French word for my user name, that's the only connection. I thought it was kind of obvious, but apparently not.

This is a DELUDED statement. Russia actually WARNED the US about the older Tsarnaev brother, the US ignored it. The family were political refugees to the US for a while, then the parents returned, leaving the kids in the US. Putin hardly "sent" them.
And in case you were not aware, Russia fought a war against Chechens who wanted a Saudi backed "Moslem Caliphate of Caucasus" in Russian Caucasus. That's more or less Tsarnaev's background. These "Islamic Caliphate of Caucasus" people are occassionally exploding bombs in Russia too.

Fortunately most of the Chechens changed sides, but some in Dagestan are still at it, awash with Saudi money.  Up until the Boston bombings, the US though them freedom fighters, simply because they were against Russia. Same pattern as always. Whoever hates Russia is the US friend. In Boston they got to know their friends in the Caucasus a bit better.

I'm so relieved that at least one person here has their eyes open about what type of a country the US is.

As for Ukraine; it's all falling to pieces now.

They couldn't get regular recruits to fire on their own countrymen in the East, so they recruited Right Sector thugs and mercenaries to do it. Now, they haven't paid them - and these guys are furious!

The death toll in the East is rising.

I learnt recently that  one of the main reason for the EU to want control of Eastern Ukraine (known as Donbass, for the rich mining vein which runs through there), is that in addition to the industries and the mining, there is also plenty of shale gas; the kind that's extracted by fracking - totally unexploited.

Not to mention the temptation for NATO to put a base right on Russia's border (exactly what the US promised Russia would never happen - but it already has, and the US wants more of the same. Or a one-way trade deal with the EU to allow for setting up sweatshops in Ukraine, and importing without tax, and expanding the usual EU brands properly into Ukraine. At the moment, it's not a complete job.

It's clear now that the only hope for Eastern Ukraine, is Russia. Putin isn't perfect and Russia has its problems. But at least its got a future, and opportunities. Ukraine is going to be the worst country in Europe to live in, for decades to come. Only Russia can calm down the troublemakers, and to most Russian speakers in South Eastern Ukraine, it's really swings and roundabouts which country they belong to.
The one that shares their culture or language, or the one that has been slightly more easygoing but has gradually turned into a circus, and now a fighting arena.

I wish I knew why Putin doesn't do anything. How long is he going to let this go on for. It's not like the vilification of Russia in the West could get any worse, and there are no sanctions to fear. So come on already, and don't let us get a Syria on our hands in Europe!

With each of these US manipulations, my dislike for this country grows.
Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Ukraine.
The US meddles and manipulates, or invades.

Mayhem, chaos, death and destruction follow. Because they are touching a status quo they don't understand, don't care about - all they want is to get their hands on the oil, or the strategic real estate on the chessboard of global politics.

And Tom Kalbfus: The Romans certainly didn't crucify people for entertainment. It was just a punishment to deter potential troublemakers. It was done outside the cities, and not a public spectacles. It took the crucified people over a day to die.  It was the gladiator games that were for entertainment.

Yeltsin was an alcoholic who sold out Russia and allowed gangsters to rule the country for a decade. Most people in Russia consider him a traitor, along with Gorbachev for destroying the USSR.

Of course the USA likes him! The USA only likes Russians who are defectors, hate their country or actively destroy it. The US thinks Russia was at its best in the 1990s when people were on their knees, literally not knowing if they'd last until the end of the month.
A strong Russia whether under Putin or in the USSR is a provocation for some reason.

And neither Russia, nor Ukraine is a child that can be told to "play nice".
The US has done enough damage by spurring on Euromaidan, and with all the propaganda. Without the US the coup d'etat probably wouldn't have happened.
Look what the meddling lead to - it was peaceful before, now it's practically civil war.
Hands off USA.

I appreciate that a few people here have tried to really dig into this, looking for the truth, not for confirming their prejudice. I just want to warn you, that 90% of the English speaking material you'll find online, is misleading. Anti-Russian sentiments are so strong in the West. For me, I am gobsmacked that such blatant lying about historical facts and concrete realities is possible in Europe.

The picture posted above, is misleading. I am not surprised that for an English speaking map, they start the map 1922 which is exactly when Ukraine received a very large chunk of land from Russia, to change the administrative borders of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Lenin felt Ukraine was too rural and would not be influential enough as a Soviet republic. Also, the revolution required industrial workers, and Ukraine pre1922 had none, since it was completely agricultural. So he went about blowing it up to something it actually wasn't. He simply took a chunk of Russia and added to Ukraine.  Now, we are seeing the price of such ideological overkill! He later developed the ideology so it wouldn't have been necessary anyway.

Ukraine today, is a completely artifical construction, no based on ethnic, religious or geographical boundaries like normal European countries. Some problem as in Africa where this has caused civil wars as peoples were split in the middle by colonial powers, and others pushed together in a country, who had nothing in common.

Below is a map that is correct. The yellow parts are Novorossiya, an area that was part of traditional Russian land during the Imperial area.

The actual NAME of Ukraine itself (Ukraina) is simply a mix of the Russian words for "outer region". That's what it was... nothing else. Russia fought battles in present day Ukraine with countries like Sweden, for one. There was never any suggestion of a country called Ukraine there. It was simply a battle for the outer regions of Russia.
Before 1992 Ukraine had never been an independent country.

Ukrainian was long considered simply a dialect of Russian, but in USSR times it was considered politically correct to call it a separate language, so it was developed as such. It's essentially Russian with different pronunciation and some words that are more similar to the countries towards the west. A lot of people in Ukraine speak a mix of Russian and Ukrainian, and switch to Russian in more formal situations. On Ukrainian TV, the currently strongly promote Ukrainian, but a lot of people simply can't speak it, so it's a confusing mixture (for non-locals at least) where they are randomly switching backs and forth depending on who is speaking, or what the topic is. The historical view could perhaps be compared to pidgin English of various Carribbean islands, and English.

My view now, and the view of 70% of people in Russia at the moment (not Putin, however!) is that Russia should go in and take the Novorossiya area, or that Novorossiya goes independent. Despite what fancy foreign magazines claims, that whole area is Russian speaking. Odessa certainly is. I think some people below the age of 20 who had quite strong anti-Russia curriculum in school growing up, might be against it. People older than that, would be in favour.

If Putin allows people's relatives in Eastern Ukraine and the South Coast to be killed and victimised, it might actually cost him his presidency.

He is extremely popular for the enormous raise in living standards in Russia, for stability and resolving most of the problems in Caucasus against all odds. But Russians are getting really emotional about this. Most people in Russia today, see the West for what it really is, and like to have a president who doesn't bow to it. But people think "what's the point of having a large army, compulsive military service etc if we can't even protect our own family members and countrymen who happen to be on the wrong side of an artificial border...?

Nobody in Russia considered that part of Ukraine as "abroad". Their sports teams compete in the Russian league, they take part of "Russian idol" type programs, they are active part of Runet, Russian speaking internet.

Sure, there are MANY faults with the Russian state, but Ukraine is much, much worse in almost every respect. As a state, it's a joke. There is a revolution (backed from the West) on a regular basis; corruption is worse than Russia; a lot of people are very, very poor and forced to work as labour in Russia on worse conditions than Russian citizens, while in the past, in USSR times, they were equals to Russians. Language discrimination, regular fist fights in the parliament.... 

Eastern Ukraine is the economic engine of the Ukraine, and the West treats them like crap. Now they are being bombed, killed, burned alive and the West essentially applauds democracy in Ukraine. I have lost all respect for the EU and the USA because of this.
Its the biggest hypocrisy Europe has ever seen.

History is ignored, lies are spread and murders are ignored for the sake of cheap propaganda points. It makes me sick.

Again, the territorial development of Ukraine, in simple steps:
The date is the date when the area became part of what's considered Ukraine today.
The picture is of the person who annexed it to Ukraine (Russian or Soviet leaders) - for the yellow parts it just says "various tsars". Note; they never expected Ukraine to turn against Russia!

The reason for the transfer of regions?
—Lenin was ideologically motivated and felt all the USSR was one family and the rest was technicalities. He simply wanted Ukraine to be larger thus becoming more influential, and have more industry within its territories. In reality it was a big mistake.
—Khrustev, was born in the Donbass area and sympathised a lot with Ukraine. He moved Crimea to Ukraine in 1954, as a gesture, after the sufferings of Ukraine in WW2 and under Stalin. Probably rather misplaced gesture.
—Stalin negotiated and fought for parts of what's now Ukraine (Previously Poland or Lithuanian empire) in WW2. Stalin was ethnically Georgian and spoke Russian as a foreign language.

Moldovan and Polish are also minority languages in Ukraine. The biggest female pop artist in the USSR, for example, is a Moldovan speaking woman, born in the Ukrainian Soviet republic. She's still active to this day, and lives in Crimea.

The remaining parts of Ukraine (minus Novorossiya, i.e. East and South) should be left to Ukraine, Russia should forget about it and view it no differently than Poland or Romania. They should be encouraged to join the EU and use their beloved Ukrainian as their national language. That's my view and it's shared by most people in Russia. Belarus although not a big fan of much in Russia, shares the view, more or less.

Right now, the Kiev government is bombing several cities in Eastern Ukraine.
To translate to American language, this is like Washington bombing Hawaii or Alaska because they regret becoming part of the US and want to go it alone, or join another country. Or Texas or whatever.

Hundreds have died.

Complete media blackout.

I didn't support Russian intervention before, but in light of this, I do. I think it's cruel of Putin to wait, assuming that's what he's doing. These are relatives and friends of people in Russia.

Please don't think Russian leadership"wants" this region, it doesn't. There is nothing profitable or strategic about it. But the Russian people do want Russia to take it.

Now the US wants to give weapons and send troops to Ukraine. What a "surprise"!!!

It wasn't directed to me. I don't live on the Black Sea - it was the user Karov who said that he does, and his profile says he's in Bulgaria.

The reason I say EU in my profile is because I am from a mixed background. I grew up in two different countries, and now I live in a third country. So it's hard to label myself, and it confuses people - EU covers it fine.

116 burned alive in the Union building in Odessa, by sympathisers of the Kiev government.

Government forces fire into a crowd in Mariupol, on Peace Day and kill 48 people.

100 killed yesterday, as the Kiev government attacks Slovjansk and Donetsk. Ambulances attacked while driving survivors to the hospitals, and survivors executed point blank.

This extreme violence is not carried out by regular conscripts or professional soldiers in the UA army. It's either mercenaries, or extremists that were drafted because nobody else would fire on their own countrymen.

Go ahead, Tom Kalbfus - let's hear how you justify these mass murderers, in a country that you don't really understand.... but where the USA has an agenda that you automatically support...

That's the new "democratic" government that was supported by the EU and USA, doing this. Everybody with half a braincell in their head know that this was about getting a foot-hold into Ukraine, for NATO; trying to score a point against Russia and doing yet another "colour/flower revolution".

Pathetic CIA plotters have been caught red-handed trying to start flower revolutions in China "Jasmine" and Belarus "White". In the case of Euromaidan they were able to succeed with the help of radical nationalists and nazis from Western Ukraine.

The regular conscripted soldiers refused to be part of these actions, so in order to get soldiers who would at least attempt follow orders, they had to recruit in extremist nazis and radicals from Western Ukraine into special units. There are rumours of "Akademi" (aka Blackwater) also being there. Some US army rations and misc. bits and bobs have been found and people report hearing American accented English spoken. Some ex-moslem extremists, turned Russian patriots under Kadirov (Chechens) appear to have taken it upon themselves to assist the separatists as well.

I for one have changed my view on this, and now I support the whole Novorossiya region to return to Russia. I wonder what Putin is waiting for.
Kiev had 20 years to convince people in the South and East of the country that Ukraine might work out for them, but they have failed, and now they are killing people in Donbass, in Odessa, in Mariupol.

If Putin won't help them, then I think they should go it alone. That area is the same size as many mid sized European countries, and it's got the population to support a state as well. Anyone who doesn't want to be part of it, would obviously have to move or put up.

And surprise, surprise, yet another oligarch was just chosen as president of Ukraine. The definition of madness is to continue doing the same thing again and again, expecting a different result.

What the country needs is not a greedy and corrupt oligarch, but a nationbuilder and somebody who cares about the people and not money or power.

I also came out as INTJ when I did this for work and answer truthfully. After reading the profile I have no doubt it's correct, but it's actually a rubbish personality for a girl. It's hard enough for a guy. But what can you do...?
At least if I follow the profile advise, life is easier.

If it's a job interview, I fake it so I becomes borderline E though. They get suspicious at I....   ENTJ is perfect for IT management however.

Re Ukraine turning off the water to Crimea: They also froze bank accounts of people on Crimea in Ukrainian banks. So it looks like Crimea will lose its crops this year, due to no possibility to water the fields. Apparently they offered to pay near double, but Ukraine won't budge. Apparently Ukraine blocked the canal with water for Crimea with sandbags, and now they are using blackmail about removing the sandbags. No water coming out of the taps in many parts of the peninsula.

Re gas war:  (not petrol, gas as in natural gas) It will affect the Ukrainians worst, then Eastern Europeans, then poor people in Western Europe.

Russia was perfectly willing to supply heavily discounted gas according to the agreements with the previous legitimately elected government. But not with the new government, in light of all that's happened. So now they are supposed to pay full price and in advance, since they are unreliable about paying on time.

The gas pipelines for other parts of Europe run over Ukrainian territory since back in Soviet times. In modern days Russia built a pipeline in the Baltic sea (Nordstream) and another one is being built in the Black sea "South Stream) to circumvent Ukraine, Baltic States and Poland, in order to prevent these types of problems. After that's complete the Ukraine won't be able to continue like it has.

Germany is a major customer of Russian gas + Eastern Europe.
There are some other sources of gas in Europe, but nothing to match Russia. Not all countries use gas a lot though - some deal with heating in other ways.

Essentially Ukraine can intercept the gas that pass their territory and siphon some of it off. This has happened a lot in the past

Even if some gas is available, regular people in Ukraine cannot afford market prices, only the "symbolic" low price - a fraction of the real price, with the government picking up the difference. But the government is bankrupt and at a full price it's even doubly impossible.

It's worth noting that all people in the ex USSR have horrible habits in terms of energy waste. People think their house needs to be 25C in the winter, at least! Keep hot water boiling 24/7 on the stove. Window open while using the radiotor..  Houses are not particularly well insulated, or in the case of 1960s house, not well ventilated either. Partly they could change their habits, insulate better and halve their gas consumption. Heating was free in USSR days, and people have a hard time accepting that this is something they need to pay for, and that you need to be careful with how you use energy.

This pic shows where the gas pipelines run, and which countries use the most Russian gas. Dotted red lines are Nordstream (finished) and South Stream (in progress).