XPost: soc.culture.china, soc.culture.usa, soc.culture.latin-america   
   XPost: soc.culture.europe, soc.culture.russian, soc.culture.iraq   
   XPost: soc.culture.pakistan   
   From: acoustic@panix.com   
      
   Ukraine's 2013 year-end crisis and its dissolution showed a few things:   
      
   1) Putin is strategically plenty smart.  (He reasoned that the   
   billions that the Russians gifted their mostly slavic brothers were   
   good investment to protect themselves against US/NATO missile   
   encirclment.)   
      
   2) Western countries who are aching for an upheaval in Ukraine are   
   financially weak.   
      
   3) Yet these same foreign countries would rather see the Ukrainians go   
   through perhaps another "birth pain", just as Condoleezza Rice had   
   wanted the same for the poor Lebanese, when Israel's IDF madly bombed   
   the defenseless country in 2006.   
      
   And so just as insensitive as the former US Secretary of State, these   
   foreigners - mostly politicians and newspaper pundits - didn't realize   
   that there was nothing to gain for the majority of the population to   
   oppose a plan that would allow them to have bread and butter on the   
   table every evening, especially during these bitter cold days that   
   have enveloped much of northern Europe.   
      
   And these same "let-them-suffer" foreign freedom talkers had also   
   mistook the protesters for a majority of the population, despite the   
   clarity of the numbers.  To wit, the population is 45 millions while   
   the size of protest never went over half, or even a quarter, of a   
   million.   
      
   To the Ukrainians, the Russian deal didn't require them to give up   
   something sacred like seeing KGB agents around street corners   
   eavedropping on their conversations.  So, getting burdened down by the   
   IMF's stringent austerity program as the Greeks have been, instead of   
   gaining an economic freedom of their own, can't be such a good idea,   
   can it?   
      
   Unemployment, sickness, and poverty aren't exactly freedom, are they?   
      
   lo yeeOn   
      
   ----------------------------------   
      
   Why Did Ukraine's Eurolution Fail?   
      
   How the Christmas holidays and a cash infusion from Russia combined to   
   deflate the protest movement.   
      
   http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/05/why-did-ukraine   
   s-eurolution-fail.html   
      
   "Putin has agreed to purchase 15 billion dollars in Ukrainian debt and   
   slash the price of gas by a third. What do you think? Is this going to   
   inflame the protestors further?" he asked.   
      
   . . .   
      
   Zhenya, a hair salon owner, who had been a vocal supporter of the   
   protests, now distanced himself from the activists.  "There's no   
   reason for them to be there any longer. It's like hanging around at a   
   party after all the girls have left," he said.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)