Yes, it's not like Ukrainians were second class citizens in the USSR.
It's a big country, on the sea, with a well educated population. There HAS to be a way for the Ukraine to become prosperous and stable.
Dmitry's perspective makes sense, and were interesting to read.
Well the dice is cast about the USSR - that train has left!
I guess it could have been transformed into something else - a union, minus the ideology, if people were fed up with that, and it wasn't working.
But there is no going back, so they have to decide on a future with the EU, or the CIS.
Can't keep going back and forth - really, it seems more important just to make a decision and stick with it!
In the UK right now, a lot of Scots would like to leave the Union, and they are having a referendum about it in August next year. A lot of what the pro-independence Scots are saying makes a lot of sense, actually, even if the thought of dissolving the union is very sad.
The Scots are fed up with wars, they want a more developed welfare state and policies that are more closely geared towards the needs of Scots in general. There is going to be a referendum about it in August next year. I don't think it will happen, the countries are too closely integrated, for too long. But the question is a hot potato and I guess everybody's realised that it's got to be settled once and for all.
Wow - interesting; I vaguely remember when all this happened, but I wasn't paying a lot of attention to any of this at the time. I was in school then.
Wikipedia says:
Look at the figures in Central Asia; they must have been kicked out screaming, from the USSR, if these figures are correct. That is certainly not the message that was conveyed in the news that I watched at the time.A 17 March 1991 referendum showed 76.4% of Soviet citizens voting to retain the Union. However, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Georgia, and Armenia did not participate.[7]
All of this is just tragic - I am sure there is a "brain drain" of smart and driven people out of Ukraine and to other countries.
The only business dealings I have ever had with Ukraine, was briefly with an outsourcing company of software development. They were great, but outsourcing is cr&p and I think Ukraine can do better than that. But how! It's a lovely country of nice and smart people - they don't deserve this, and I don't understand how Ukraine can be in such a mess.