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Comment by egao1980 | Hacker News Reader

egao1980

And if we are going back to the times of Polish annexation we can remember Polish people robbing Russia, burning Moscow, trying to put Polish dude on the throne and best part - exploitation of Ukrainians :). And yes, Poland is also known for imperial ambitions. Generally European history is full of wars and mutual blame. Take UK for example - conquered by French and ruled by German dynasty.

So once again, please, stop blaming Russia, go on with your life, build better country for you to live in.

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That's what we're doing. But Russia again started changing borders of our neighbor. This is scary stuff.

NATO is expanding and Russians were not happy about that way before current situation. Being Crimean myself I would say that so much feared 'annexation' was forced on to Russia by Crimean local establishment. Not that Russia was against it though. As a matter of fact - throughout 23 of the Ukrainian independence it was never less than 65% of Crimeans that were ready to join Russia.

Ukrainian crisis is the result of building nationalistic state in the country with two different cultures, frequently incompatible. And also grave incompetence of the Ukrainian government leading to escalation of the conflict.

Poland and Baltic states - these countries are outright hostile toward Russia, yes, it has historical reasons. But now it's easier to trade and use economic power than to conquer and control territory. These countries are part of EU, and Russia will never - until forced - engage in any military confrontation with them.

I think saying "NATO is expanding" you mean that Ukrainian choice of signing agreements with EU left Russia no choice.

From Ukrainian point of view, they are an independent country - which may, at different times, get into different unions with different partners.

So, Russian (actually, Russian government) point of view that any Ukrainian motion towards EU signals a threat to Russia doesn't justify Russian hostilities, because Ukraine is an independent country. And when Russia in turn decided to protect its perceived interests, it went against that independence - and all things associated with that.

Ukraine is acting in its (perceived) interests, and Russia -- in its own. Where is the problem?

The thing is, there is a handful of superpowers in the world, which dictate the geopolitical motions. A smaller country bordering a superpower can be friends with it, be strictly neutral (see Finland) or be friends with opposing superpowers (see Ukraine). The last scenario means you are asking for all sorts of shit to happen to you. It's not "good", but that's how things are.

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