- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
Once again, I cannot speak for everybody, but the majority agree the government change in 2014 was not an organic, grass roots movement. The reasons for this are many, but the two most prominent ones are as follows:@Borscht how many people in Russia consider what happened in Euromaidan to be a "coup"?
1) the majority of Ukraineans did not have an axe to grind with Russia until the Crimean debacle, so the openly antagonistic course of the new government (breaking the trade agreement, threatening not to extend Crimean naval base lease, immediately establishing course towards NATO) gave most Russians a whiplash. Of course, the sentiment changed over the following 8 years, but we are talking about what it felt like then.
2) the US was openly gloating about the success of yet another "emergent democracy" they spent 5 billion dollars to "support". And, of course, there was the optics of Victoria Nuland handing out cookies to protesters. This is a hilarious example of cross-cultural miscommunication: in the US, handing out baked goods is perceived a sign of support and goodwill, but in Russia it is the ultimate sign of betrayal (we have a kindergarden tale about a boy who ratted out his WW2 resistance cell and had them all killed over a barrel of jam and a basket of cookies).
The Ukraineans desire to lead a better life within European Union was/is understandable, but the inherent Slavic cynicism makes many Russians think the Ukraineans would be treated as second-rate citizens in EU at best (thus all the "cleaning Polish toilet" jokes) while in Russia they would be/are treated as equals. With every other family having relatives in Ukraine and about 5 million Ukraineans earning money here, they are/were not discriminated against, at least compared to the muslims.
I reiterate that I speak only from my personal experience and expouse the opinions of the people I personally know.
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