You are right - I am wrong - and I stand corrected.

I got a little emotional here - I have had a tough weekend - I had to bury my dog that has just died

I do NOT "hate" Russian's - I guess I m just a little disappointing in their actions - still I know I am not GOD - I do not attempt to judge anyone - I am just suspicious.

"On Topic" -

My wife IS an "ethnic Russian speaking" Ukrainian. She is from Zaporiska oblast - her family is from the Donbass region. They have all spoken Russian there "since there was dirt".

My wife and her family are "looked down on" by their western Ukrainian counterparts who speak "pure" Ukrainian language.

My wife is from the kholkhoz - where there was a different life. I have myself been there. They all speak Russian there - though a "mix" - they say"nye" instead of "nyet". It is a small distinction and else they speak Russki Yazike.. I have met these people and there is nothing wrong with them - they are strong - and they are not an enemy.

However - that is not like it is for most of pre-baltica - as far as I know.

These people had the "russki yazike" imposed upon them - I don't think there were many "Russian speakers" there before the imposition of the Soviet state.

This "debate" in Ukraine about language - it is just a mask to hide much deeper problems - particularly problems with corruption.

I have had problems with language in Ukraine - I brought my wife and her two children over here in 1999 - and had to have all the papers translated first from Russian to Ukrainian - and then from Ukrainian to English.

So after all of that we had to go through the American embassy in Warsaw to get everything done.

At that time - there was very little available to learn the Russian language - much less Ukrainian or Polish. So I had the PROMT software that I bought.

So - anyway - I thought I was doing a "good thing" to learn some Russian before I went to Warsaw but I had a BIG SURPRISE!

When I first met the people at the hotel - and spoke to them in Russian - one woman replied to me....

"Why do you speak Russian? You can speak anything you want here - English, Italian, or Polish, but DON'T SPEAK RUSSIAN HERE!".

So there you go - this is a real experience that I think is "on-topic".