Quote Originally Posted by Crocodile View Post
Based on what you said, is your position on the military presence in the Eastern Ukraine that Russian military is not involved in the conflict? To the best of my knowledge, "a group of terrorists" is not the way the official Ukrainian mass-media refers to. Indeed, if those are just "a group of terrorists", you probably don't need that much of the heavy weaponry that the Ukrainian army is so keen of acquiring and utilizing.

So, I'm also inclined to think that very few of the money sent to Ukraine will meet the local people - mostly, the money would be spent on extending and re-enforcing the military, some of it would go to the oligarchs in the form of the government contracts, and the rest will end up in the pockets of the local corrupted officials.
So, more or less, what would happen with Russia's government, too?

Russia doesn't actually share the public purse with ordinary citizens. But, many Russian nationals here don't criticize Putin for it. Instead, there's mostly worship.

I don't think ordinary citizens will receive the funds or help either. A Ukrainian government official in the Defence Ministry already claimed a lot of money being stolen. But, this doesn't mean that they're the only corrupt country. Russia's economy is not much better. Without oil, they'd be talking about default, also. I think the loans are not a saving grace. One, they are then enslaved to bankers and two, there is a historical reality that the money never trickles down to the people. They need to start over and they need new 'personnel' in charge, imho. Too many of the old guard are sitting in comfy positions.

It remains to be seen, whether Ukrainians tolerate it. Russians seem to do so. :-/