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Originally Posted by Taxman
Well, yep, Ukraine did not succeed to become a democratic country after the USSR. Just like Russia itself did not. Or Belarus, if we think about it. The scars are so deep that it's always hard to make a country stable enough to be democratic after an experience like being a part of the Soviet Union.
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The reason these countries haven't succeeded in becoming democracies, is that the concept is still alien to them and if they chose to really go down this road it would probably take generations to really install anyway. Democracies despite being shaped in Ancient Greece are basically just a Western European concept that was easily transportable wherever the peoples of Western Europe decided to emigrate to. Personally I don't think it's a valid concept for a lot of countries around the world as the concept just seems so alien to them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BastardofYoung
But as for the topic, as I say not something I am familiar with enough to weigh in on what is what, so I won't really. I being half Ukrainian should look into it more, had a lot of family come from there. My dads side being 100%.
Someone fill me in on the basics here.
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Just think of the Ukraine as being Canada and Russia as being the USA (its more powerful neighbour) whether the Ukraine is part of an official Greater Russia (old Soviet Union) or an independent nation as it is now, Russia will still want to pull its strings. Mostly for the reasons that the Ukraine is its most important neighbour in terms of strength and power, it has a similar culture, similar economic exportables but what it does have in abundance is wheat and Russia has always had problems feeding its people. Also from a military point of view Ukraine being on a prime position on the Black Sea is a vital naval aspect for Russia as well.
Ukraine is also a multi-racial society of which Russians make-up the largest % there's something like 8 million of them in the Ukraine, mostly in the east and so Russia will always seek to protect their interests as well. Personally I don't think there is much difference between Russians and Ukrainians anyway and both are Eastern Slavs making them essentially brothers, it just happens that one of the brothers can pack a bigger punch
