Elinda wrote:
Boy I hope that is not indicative of the intelligence level or sentiments of the average decision-making Russian.
Maybe it lost much in translation.
The demands are pretty much what Russia wants, and arguably they make a good case. Despite the ousted PM being tied to the East, he was elected, and he was removed through shady means, and all signs point that there was a coup and not a democratic change. (like the Orange Revolution). But Russia isn't going to go to war unless the the West pushes that as the only option (by attacking themselves, or supporting Ukraine in an assault in the east).
The language law was in place, and the first act of this interim government was to abolish equal language laws, for whatever reason. when half the country speaks Russian generally you would accept Russian as a national language, but Yats and Co. Changed that for whatever reason.
Ukraine totally needs to overhaul its government, it is way to corrupt, on both sides of the fence, and despite who gets in there they walk away millionaires and the people suffer. Even the little tart Yulia Tymoshenko abused powers of the office and was found guilty of abuse of power...and she was the hero of the Orange Revolution. Moscow is right in the sense Ukraine needs to adopt a stronger Constitution and hold its politicians to be more accountable for the people of the Ukraine and not East or West.
Elections sooner rather than later. This goes without saying. None of the people in power were elected to those positions and as such should no hold them with any longevity. This is probably the most agreeable to both sides, as the US has always been a strong proponent of getting people involved in the democratic process, and Moscow is certainly on point with third parties scrutinizing the result closely...lest you end up with another Egypt or Tunisa where change was desired by the people but never came.
Ultimately the writer is wildly off base on the only option being War. If the US stops talking in Ukraines ear and the EU and Russia can get the deal from 2 weeks ago back on the table (that all parties agreed to) then the problem will likely be resolved with a summer time election. There was no reason other than the US becoming involved that this deal would suddenly be bad, when everyone agreed to it before Washington got involved.
If this goes to war it is pretty much entirely on Obama, and the US state department getting involved in matters that really didn't concern them. But we all know that this was a planned event because a month ago Victoria Nuland and Geoffry Pyatt were discussing the players they wanted in place moving forward...and thats exactly who the EU and Russia, and Ukrainian people are now dealing with.