2positive

Thank you so much. Many people in the west take their democratic institutions for granted, because the generations that fought for them are long gone. It's natural I guess.

It was always on the list. He deliberately helped a very weak leader stay in power while russian agents have been infiltrating Ukrainian secret services, army, police and local goverments for years. Protests on Maidan were certainly not planned, so after protestors won it was a now or never moment for Putin. And he acted.

I will try to be as objective as I can. 1) Yes they are. But it definitely will not be like Crimea, there will be shooting, guerrila warfare and thousands of casualties. So I'm quite sure that this will not happen, because if Putin does try it - it will seriously undermine his support in Russia. Russia now is trying to push their agenda of Ukrainian federalization, basically to give very wide autonomy to every region, to try to take over several regions without shooting eventually. My best guess is that this will fail.

2) They feel this is a military intervention and not a legit vote. I don't mind a normal separation referendum like they are planning in Scotland. It should come after a lot of debate on how to divide both assets and liabilities etc. In Crimea armed men took over Crimean parliament, declared that it voted for a referendum and that it will happen in a few weeks, took all the assets and none of the liabilities and everyone who was against it was too scared to speak and boycotted the referendum. The polls I've seen before showed between 40 and 50% crimeans want to join Russia, and much more in Sevastopol.

Yes, it was a complete surprise and everyone was shocked.

The worst lie is that Ukrainian radicals with guns took power in the country. Very large part of the population supported and took part in the protests. The whole Kiev investment community was there, most of local businessmen, artists, etc. I've met many classmates from school and University I haven't seen for years. My programming teacher was beat up and arrested, a colleague of my dad was shot and killed. The actual role of far right radicals and their support in society is not higher that any other european country, it's hust a huge success of russian propaganda to display it otherwise. Just so you know: Svoboda far right party has very little support and is quite lickely to not pass 5% barrier in the next parliamental elections. Right sector - probably the same. They posed a lot for the cameras, but there just not much of them and not much support. Out of the 100 dead there's 1 from the right sector.

Also, the parliament is the same, it appointed new cabinet of ministers with a consitutional majority and scheduled a presidential election on may 25th

Another great lie is that russian speakers are somehow opressed in Ukraine. They are more oppressed in Russia IMO and I'm a russian speaker.

It was a roller coaster. Overall we made good money on Ukrainian eurobonds but it added some grey hair.