Ukraine: Battle for Crimean minds

Kyiv Scoop discusses how pupils and people in Crimea are influenced to love Russia and loath Ukraine.

8 comments

  • m

    You obiviously dont know what you are talking about. They do not have to be influenced to loath Ukraine. No one asked them if they wanted to be Ukrainian and basically they are forcing their Ukraine language and culture on a group of people that have no interest. They were Russian and still consider themselves Russian.

  • Yuriy

    Well Crimea was not originally Russian… Tatars lived there way before Russians did and Tatars were forced out of there. In fact using your own argument most of Russia is not Russian as Russian military forced out many nations and Russianized them, the further east you go the less Russian it is. No one asked Tatars if they want to be wiped out by Russians.. no one asked Ukrainians if they want to be starved to death during 1930’s, no one asked Chechens if they want to be part of Russia, in fact most of the nationalities that make up Russia were never asked if they wanted to join the great mother Russia.

  • Al

    In most countries minority groups adhere to the majority culture and language of the country they live in. Apparently for Russians this does not apply. Well if they dont like it they should go back to mother Russia and feel more comfortable there. Note that the British are no longer in countries that they occupied for hundreds of years. By the way when will the Russians insist that Alaska be given back to them as they occupied it at one time too.

  • A.

    Past history, whatever it is, does not justify anything that is happening in Ukraine right now under current Ukrainian leadership.

    Now significant part of Ukrainian population (and Crimean population in particular) is not able to make their living in the country and forced to go abroad with majority going to Russia to work and to live a better life. Today you hardly will find a family in Crimea who can sustain themselves without work in Russia or for Russia in this or other way.

    In the same time, the elected leaders of Ukraine do very little to improve quality of life of Ukrainian residents. Instead they spend a lot of country resources on fights between themselves and on policies imposing Ukrainian culture and language on a half of country’s population who do not consider this as a priority and “have no interest”or often see as disturbance in their every day’s fighting for living.

    Do not look elsewhere, there is nobody else to blame except Ukrainian leaders for that many people of Ukraine do not see/have a better alternative than to become a Russian citizen and to loathe current Ukrainian leaders.

    A.

  • Dear M,

    Unnecessary as it seems, I should perhaps point out to you that the above piece is accounts for views that blogger Kyiv Scoop accounts for, viz. they do not represent my own views nor those of Global Voices. Thus, the piece is a referral to a piece on the “Battle for Crimean minds”. I am sure that the blogger in question would welcome a discussion about this theme on the Kyiv Scoop blog, which I hope you might find stimulating, and I recommend you to read the blog piece in its original.

    Yours,

    Vilhelm

  • A.

    As an answer to Al:

    >> In most countries minority groups
    >> adhere to the majority culture and
    >> language of the country they live in.
    >> Apparently for Russians this does not apply.

    It does apply to Russians very well.. Russians assimilate very well in the US, in the UK and all over the world.

    The drama here is actually in the fact that you call “Russians” those people who are not less Ukrainians than you are.

    >> Well if they dont like it they should go
    >> back to mother Russia and feel more
    >> comfortable there.

    How is about following rhetoric.. Should the Ukrainian nationalistic extremists go back to Poland? I guess they should be happy there and will not spoil the life of majority of Ukrainian population.

    >> Note that the British are no longer
    >> in countries that they occupied for
    >> hundreds of years.

    British are not, but their legacy whether this is language, culture, education or science is treated with respect and appreciated in all post British countries.

    >> By the way when will the Russians
    >> insist that Alaska be given back
    >> to them as they occupied it at
    >> one time too.

    Comments are unnecessary..

  • m

    Now significant part of Ukrainian population (and Crimean population in particular) is not able to make their living in the country and forced to go abroad with majority going to Russia to work and to live a better life
    ————————
    you have to be joking right??? better living in Russia, you must be a comedian, if anything people from Ukraine will move to North America or Europe not Russia. Go 20 km utside of Moscow and you will see the real Russia…. because by the sounds of it you have never been there. Standards of living in Russia are just as bad as in Ukraine.

  • A.

    m,

    I am not joking, I really do not.

    I visited Russian country side in Belgorodskaya oblast’ (more than 600km from Moscow) in August. I have close relatives in both countries. 1/3 of my Crimean relatives and friends for many years live and work in Russia for 3/4 of a year, almost all from them applied for Russian citizenship during last couple years.

    “Standards of living in Russia are as bad as in Ukraine” are only for those who do not want to lift their butts. For those who does, there is plenty of opportunities in Russia and very few in Ukraine.

    “if anything people from Ukraine will move to North America or Europe not Russia” – as a matter of fact, almost everyone who could – already did.. But if it goes like this, in Ukrainian politics & economy, those who did not even plan go, will go to Russia – I already see this happening..

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