R, you are fantastic.

But can Mr. R explain the crying bear?

I'm going to frame this and put it on my bedroom wall.

Again, I command on your knowledge of Ukrainian law - where were you when Yanukovich and co were in power and blatantly disregarding the law in order to enrich themselves? To answer your question again, Yanukovich fled Kiev and then Ukraine. He didn't go on "a visit" to Kharkiv - he simply fled, and he didn't hold up his end of the deal signed on February 21st. Therefore he lost legitimacy. I urge to look up the difference between the word legitimacy and legality.



If Yanukovich held any real power at that point he wouldn't have left Kiev. He did. He is no longer the president of Ukraine and never will be. Get over it. And he still has not been seen in over a week and a half - last time anyone saw him was on February 28th. Let's see what he says tomorrow, if he actually makes an appearence.


That's a lot of threats with little to no action. The Right Sector is just not that prominent a political force in Ukraine. People can talk and talk, but the reality is that ethnic tensions in Ukraine are a figment of Russian propaganda machine's imagination.



Well, I was in Russia just last year. Great country, with a powerful economy. I am not sure why you'd want to destroy all that and return to economic dark ages of the Soviet Union. Then again, I am not a pan-Slavic nutjob like Putin is.

What you see here, folks, is a classic example of Soviet propaganda tactic called whataboutism. Back in Soviet Union, any criticism of the USSR would be met with a seemingly equal criticism of the U.S. on an unrelated issue. There was even a joke that any time someone criticized the USSR for poor economy and human rights issues, the canned response would be "But in America they lynch negroes".

In this example Caius bring up a relevant issue of Russia's horrible treatment of Ukrainian population in the past (Holodomor), and Mr. R responds with a slew of completely unrelated criticisms of American foreign policy. I'm guessing it's somehow meant to alleviate the suffering of millions of Ukrainians that died in the 1930s at Stalin's behest.



You know what, GO FUCK YOURSELF. I am Jewish, I have Jewish family and friends in Ukraine and none of us want to have Russia being in charge of Ukraine again. Russia invented the Pale of Settlement, pogroms, Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Jewish quotas in universities, exit visas for Jewish emigrants, etc, all to marginalize Jewish population. The fact that you didn't gas 6 million Jews like Hitler did does not buy you brownie points - Russia has committed enough atrocities itself. For you to sit here and say with a straight face that Russia is a great protector of the Jews in Ukraine takes a special kind of asshole.

Most people here who have talked to me in the past know that I might be argumentative, but don't generally get personal. Congratulations, you have outtrolled most people on the Internet.

I've always liked Krem.

Krem and I disagree on political ideologies in some regards, but you get him Krem!

good job Krem, you did a great job confronting his bullshit.

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Stalin was a huge anti-semite and sent many Jews to the Gulags. If you deny that, then you are delusional.

I gotta say this. If the majority of the population of the Crimea wish to secede or join Russia, and if the majority will respect the minority and not discriminate against them then let them make that choice. If i believe the majority in Kosovo or Chechnya can do this then have to believe it for everyone its called consistency.

But beyond this I really cannot understand how Mr.R's brain works. Well I mean it works that same way that people I occasionally meet in my own country who curse the "english" or those "fucking tans" its bizarre abandonment of at least logic and at worst basic decency. Krem offers genuine concerns and fears, and as much as I dislike Krem's verbal gymnastics at times I can at least tell when he is being human. R treats this as a chance to be semantic and picky. if its something as minor as a movie or music argument then ok.

but how does one do this for something serious. Ok its the internet we all do it and snark it (that's what we have argos and pals for) because it means fuck all in reality, and in deed R's very odd behavior is also meaningless, Anyway I will take a bet and say Putin will not reward him for his actions but still. what does Mr.R hope happens even in this Eurasian union thing?

Can i at least assume he wants what normal sane people want? that people in this area have jobs, that they have a family, that they live a good life, that they die happy. otherwise wtf is the point of defending any of this, for some bizarre empire crap? For the people at the top I get it. For the powerless tiny acolytes on the internet not as much.

Nationalism is a powerful force.

The vote will happen today. It will be overwhelming regardless of how the Western media spins it. Crimea is going Back to Russia and that's that.

there will be economic sanctions. It sounds like Germany is going to play tough and make Russia pay. The Europeans can at least make a statement. The main thing is try to keep Russia from taking the rest of Ukraine or think they can do this to other neighboring nations.

Are you fucking insane? USSR collapsed because a communist economy built around exporting natural resources could not sustain itself and the ethnic tensions it created in a world with falling oil prices. It has nothing to do with millions of Ukrainian lives lost due to a deliberate extermination policy 60 years before.



"Hi folks, I'm back with more whataboutism. This time I won't bring up the U.S., because I got bitchslapped for it the last time; instead I'll blame Russia's problems on the Jews as is time honored tradition (but hey, Russians like me will totally protect the Jews in Ukraine). Oh, and here are some Ukrainians to boot. And hey, Georgia is to blame too, but definitely not Russia."

Listen up, you halfwit. First of all, nobody here was bringing up people's ethnicities outside of you. In English, unlike Russian, there's no separation between Russian as in nationality and Russian as in ethnicity (for others still reading, Russian language has two distinct words - Russkiy (ethnicity) and Rossiyanin (nationality)). Rest assured, that when people say "Russian" in English they mean Rossiyanin, and it doesn't matter what ethnicity they are.

Second, what exactly are you trying to say? You keep saying how you want the old Soviet Union to be recreated and then turn around and admit that the Soviet Union was responsible for all these atrocities against Jews and Ukrainians. And your pitch to Ukrainian Jews is that they should be on board with your plan?

P.S. Nothing shows how deeply you care about the Jews as recounting which Soviet officials were Jewish or had Jewish wives.

As a libertarian, I am one hundred percent in agreement with you. The right for self-determination is definitely one of the most basic rights that a group of people has.

And as a Ukrainian, if we knew that Putin's plans for Ukraine stopped with Crimea most people would be OK with honoring the wishes of Crimeans - provided that the referendum was honest, with enough time to consider the choices and with guarantees for minorities.

But of course nothing in life is that easy. What is actually happening is that Putin is using Crimea as a test to see what he can get away with. Crimea today, Lugansk region tomorrow, rest of Eastern Ukraine and Odessa (my hometown) next month, etc. Crimea was easy to sway - after all it is populated with people who already wanted to be a part of Russia. The rest of the Southeastern regions - not so much, but the worry is that Putin will stop at nothing - including bloodshed.

As of right now the Putin regime is one of the most vile things on Earth. Over the past couple of days the leading opposition news website (lenta.ru) had its editor in chief replace with a pro-Putin guy, the leading opposition politician's (Alexey Navalny) blog was made inaccessible within Russia, along with Garry Kasparov's website, and a few other opposition publications. Having solidified its grip on broadcast media, the regime is using Soviet tactics to shut out opposition Internet press as well. And people like Mr. R are ready to lap it up.

So I guess Crimea is now part of Russia?

Looks like it

Cold war begins again.

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I don't think Ukraine will join NATO at least not in the near future. However, we will defend the countries in NATO, like Estonia. If Russia wants it, they will start WW3, but I don't think Putin is that stupid. Its not really a true Cold War, as I don't see Russia to try to spread their power beyond Eastern Ukraine. It isn't like they can create satellites in Eastern Europe now. And if they want those crappy Asian republics they can have them as satellites. Those nations are basically 3rd world nations.

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We would never go to war because of nukes. Russia wouldn't attack the west for the same reason we wouldn't attack the east. If war occurred between the west and Russia, it would lead to WW3 and there would be nothing left but the cockroaches and jellyfish.

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