Quote Originally Posted by diogen_ View Post
These self-style people's republics have already asked Russia to bring them back into the fold today. Actually, it’s the ultimate sanity check for Putin now. He must unequivocally reject the request and reiterate the claim for dialog about federalization with Kiev. Otherwise, consequence for his country may be very close to dire.))
Exactly. It's a long long way to Novorossiya...

Quote Originally Posted by Hanna View Post
Ok, the question is, how many percent participated, how honest was the vote counting etc...?
This to me seems less clearcut than Crimea.
It very much appears like those who are against self determination did not bother voting. The question is how many were that?

For this particular referendum, sure it gives an indication, but I don't have the impression that it would stand for much international scrutiny, whereas Crimea would have...

Not to say it's phony or that they deliberately cheated - I wouldn't know, and clearly a lot of people are FOR.
But what precisely did they vote for? They had nothing concrete beyond "more self-determination" and after the referendum the first thing they do is call Moscow and ask for annexation.

Although I sympathise with these people it's just not as professional or convincing as it could be.
Which is why it seems ludicrous to believe that Russia is pulling the strings.

And I pity the leaders of the Donetsk and Lugansk people states.
If they can't pull something off, they are at risk of some very long prison sentences I imagine.

All of this makes me think of a REAL and genuine working class uprising situation. Even the language they use. It's not polished and it's not impressive. Remains to see what they can pull off and whether they are all alone or have friends in Russia.... I have a lot of sympathy for them.
Voter turnout was about 75% in both regions. In Lugansk there were 30 International Observers. None of the Observers registered for the Donetsk referendum and they were invited. But there were hundreds of journalists in Donetsk and they were watching for cheating. A journalist caught one woman cheating and reported it. Btw, voter turnout for both Obama elections was about 65%.
Also, anyone who decided not to vote chose to let the voters make the decision. Since they didnt want a choice they didn't get the choice so they have to accept the results.
The same is true in the Obama elections. The 35% of registered voters that didn't vote had to accept the results.

Because the Observers and journalists were watching for cheating - and the voter turnout was that high - I accept the results of those votes. But it could be the start of a civil war.
The leader of the Peoples Republic of Donetsk said they need to work fast and the first things on the agenda was securing the economy and re-building the military in the region. He also said that anyone that wouldn't swear an oath would be deported to Ukraine.
That's why talks are very important right now because if the Ukraine military tries to destabilize the new Republics, they will fight back and may even ask Russia for military assistance.
It's a huge level up from just being labelled terrorists.
Btw, I don't understand why they were talking about annexation either.

About Novorossiya, you can see in the list that 3 of the regions were in the Russian Federation before the conflict, not in Ukraine: Krasnodar krai, Rostov oblast, and the Republic of Adygea. Also, the slow creation of Novorossiya involved a lot of signed treaties.