My father’s friend from the Crimea says that everybody in the Crimea who works, has a business [i.e. has adapted to the post-Soviet reality] is perfectly happy with the region remaining part of Ukraine.
However, the Soviet holdovers who don’t want to work and are confident that they will get better handouts from Putin than they can get out of the Ukrainian government all want to become part of the Russian Federation.
And in my native city of Kharkov, the split doesn’t occur along language or ethnic lines either. Those who want to be part of Russia are simply those who know that the RF has more money to spread around in handouts. We are seeing this split inside actual families we know where everybody has the same ethnicity and speaks the same language.
Clarissa's Blog 
More than agree!
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Well, that’s not surprising given that you are the father referenced in the post. 🙂 🙂
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The current situation is providing much work for scribes and bloviators.
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At least, this is something that matters, as opposed to a starlet’s twerking or Michelle Obama’s biceps.
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Like “colonial mentality” the scourge of “Soviet mentality” has proven extremely stubborn to adjusting to modern day realities.
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@Otto
Probably because the mentality is still fairly successful. 😦
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The first thing I’ve heard about the situation that makes sense. Thanks.
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This whole situation is very confusing for those who are not from the region. As bad as the economic situation is in Ukraine, the Russian economy has to be at least as bad.
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No, the Russian economy is many times better than Ukrainian. They are extremely rich in natural resources. Europe is completely dependent on Russian oil and gas. Russia didn’t suffer from the current recession at all. 2008 was a mosquito bite to them.
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