Clarissa's Blog

I often get quite desperate after reading my news feed because so much really stupid stuff gets published concerning the events in Ukraine. But there are people who write intelligently about Ukraine, even though they are very few.

First of all, see this inspiring photo provided by a blogger writing from Africa.

And here is some intelligent analysis:

In so far as the Russian Empire and later the USSR were great world powers, possession of Ukraine was absolutely vital to their global status. Without the population and resources of Ukraine Moscow could not even afford to keep subsidizing the Central Asian republics yet alone clients in far a way places like Cuba, Vietnam, and Ethiopia. The USSR was a state that systematically transferred resources from the richer western republics including Ukraine as well as the even richer, but much smaller Baltic States to poorer republics in Central Asia.

This should be enough for those who keep hoping that Russia will tire of its aggression against Ukraine and just go away. Putin is not an idiot. He knows that relying solely on oil and gas is a shitty long-term strategy. He needs some area of the Russian federation actually to produce something. At least, the most basic food and consumer goods, which right now Russia overwhelmingly imports.

And somebody else makes a good point:

I subscribe to the New York Times on-line. Twice this week I received notifications that there was breaking news. My fear was that the “Breaking News” was something about the United Soviet Socialist Republic restructuring and that the Ukraine was now part of the New USSR — shades of Uncle Joe Stalin.  But, no. The breaking news was that David Letterman had announced when he would retire from Late Night with David Letterman.

I had the exact same experience this week.

Everything else that’s good on the subject is written either in Ukrainian or in Russian. 

And to conclude, here are some beautiful photos of Kharkov:

If you follow the link to the blog of the talented photographer who took this photo, you can see more, including a photo of the Kharkov synagogue.