Quote Originally Posted by it-ogo View Post
The woman is a cold-blooded power-hungry b@@@ch, she does not ever think like that, but easily can make a public performance (playing a common simple-minded person) to raise up her nowadays low ratings. So I believe that the leakage is intended and is an internal PR action of Julia: she wants to show that she shares the emotions of the people.

As for Russian language in Ukraine, didn't I explain? It is more common than Ukrainian. As for "8 millions of Russians" JD already commented about a "petty" misinterpretation in translation. Keep in mind that former opposition, current government, the list of killed people in Maidan ("Heavenly Hundred") etc. all are full of ethnic not-so-Ukrainians. And Julia Timoshenko herself is also ethnic not-so-Ukrainian despite of her Ukrainian last name that she took from her husband.
It-ogo, I just want to point out that Western media makes a VERY big thing out of Ukrainian language.
Essentially they would have the rest of Europe believing that the language that most people in Ukraine speak, is Ukrainian. This didn't tally with my experience, but I only visited two cities and was really beginning to question myself, sort of "maybe they WERE speaking Ukrainian and I just didn't notice (however I can definitely tell the difference).

So there is a big campaign of mis-information going on about this, as if Russian was forced on Ukraine and people are now happy to speak their own language.

The conversation was far too muddled and fast for me to hear much at all, I only understood snippets here and there. Without the translation I wouldn't have understood what they were talking about. So I didn't notice the editing, but if it everyone is certain, I trust you on this. Very sneaky to edit the tape!

Julia Timoshenko seems very unpleasant! I liked her at first, simply because she's a woman, and I thought the braid was a cool touch.... But I understand now she is a ruthless and corrupt business woman/oligarch who wants to manipulate Ukrainian politics for her own ends.


Quote Originally Posted by Paul G. View Post
Yes, we have an objective opinion about Ukrainian dialect. According to the rules, Ukrainian dialect can't be considered as a language. If someone doesn't agree, it's their problem. I don't need to support somebody's political decision and call white black.
If they say they have their own language, then they do! I think you should respect that.
Just because you as a Russian can understand some of it, doesn't mean it's not a separate language.
The two languages are not even fully mutually understandable, you can't understand ALL Ukrainian, can you? Nor could you speak it, could you? It has sounds that Russian doesn't have, and some different letters, as well as words that are completely different. Even I know this!

As a Swedish person I can understand ALL Norwegian, and Norway used to be Swedish territory. I could even pretend to speak Norwegian if I wanted. But it would never occur to me to claim that Norwegian is not a separate language. They say it's a different language, they have their own spelling and some words that are separate.

Saying that Ukrainian is a dialect of Russian and not a separate language seems to be deliberately provocative towards [some] Ukrainians, and it gives fuel to the anti Russian sentiment in Ukraine. Is that really helpful?