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Europe
Can Ukraine avoid partition?
2014-02-28
Daniel Hannon at the Telegraph says no, it can't.

What's worth looking at are two maps in the article: a map of the 2010 vote for President of Ukraine and a second map of ethnicity/linguistics. The overlap is, of course, virtually total, as Burg readers know (but go look at the maps, halfway down the article).

Mr. Hannon makes a good point: if partition is coming let's work to make it like the breakup of Czechoslovakia and not Yugoslavia. Sadly, I think it's going to be the latter.
Posted by:Steve White

#6  I think at this time we can safely say Ukraine is partitioned.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2014-02-28 19:16  

#5  Every old country could be carved up into a bunch of older, other countries. Western Ukraine was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for a long time and so you could argue that pieces/parts of it should go elsewhere. It has a small Hungarian minority at its western edge -- give that to Hungary. Ditto a small Bulgarian minority and so on.

But in the main I think OldSpook (and Hannon, and others) are right: the big split is west/east. Pappy points out that we tried that here once and it didn't work -- the loyalists won. But one might, just might, decide that for the Ukraine, this time, it's better to divide than fight.
Posted by: Steve White   2014-02-28 18:19  

#4   There are a lot of people in Ukraine who are not happy at all to be Ukranians... In the name of what should they be forced into being citizens of Ukraine?

Something similar happened in the US in the mid 1800s, but I'll be damned if I can recall what it was called....
Posted by: Pappy   2014-02-28 17:55  

#3  OldSpppl. What is Ukraine? It is a ate who inherited the _administrative_ boundaries of the Soviet Republic of Ukraine. There are a lot of people in Ukraine who are not happy at all to be Ukranians. Cossacks for instance are not Ukrranians, are not fond of Ukranian,s and Ukraine has no articular historical rights over Cossack territory. The only claim Ukarine has on their territory is because SDtalin decided to include into Sovoet Republic of Ukraine. In the name of what should they be forced into being citizens of Ukraine?
Posted by: JFM   2014-02-28 17:41  

#2  E Ukraine and Crimea are majority ethnic Russian in large areas and likely will be carved off and incorporated into Russia in some fashion. The former due to proximity on the border, the latter for the military bases, especially Black Sea naval bases. The rest will probably go west, or else splinter further. Either way, the only thing that matters beyond these is security of the Russian gas pipelines that feed Europe and pass thru the bulk of western Ukraine. That's the major concern for Putin as a money maker, and EU because they need the NatGas. The Ukrainian liberty movement is going to get crushed and ground to bits between those two millstones. In the past, the US and UK might have changed the balance, but not anymore. UK is worn out, and the USA is led ny a narcissistic fool who favors collectivism and elitism of Eurosocialism.

In short, the Ukranians are screwed.
Posted by: OldSpook   2014-02-28 14:51  

#1  Sadly, I think the age of liberal democracy is over.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2014-02-28 13:42  

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