Some three million Ukrainians in the eastern oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk will go to the polls Sunday for a referendum on the status of the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk.
It’s democracy on the cheap there, with officials saying they spent about $1650 on the vote, almost half of that on toner cartridges to print the ballot papers asking if voters “support the act of self-rule of the People’s Republic of Donetsk.”
The simple sentence means different things to different protester factions around the oblasts, with some supporting outright secession and others seeking increased autonomy within Ukraine.
Between that and the ongoing Ukrainian invasion of the region, it isn’t clear what the referendum will actually accomplish, though it hopes to grant some level of legitimacy to the protesters’ leadership, as Western governments continue to back the military attacks against them and call for them to abandon public shows of opposition to the new central government.
Jason Ditz' coverage of the situation in Ukraine has been incredible. Thank you very much.
That’s their total right within the framework of their nationality, their heritage, their language and above all not wanting to live under the a fascistic regime which is a in-planted, self proclaimed regime consist of fascism sand Neo liberals feed by the Swedish Neo liberalism fascism and EU governing body. Kosovo was created by injustice and militarism regimes of far right democrats as Bill Clinton, Madeline Albright and Tony Blair and in general the NATO militarism regime being against Yugoslavian governing system, as Obama is against Venezuelan people and their rights in choosing their political and social economic system; therefore west has no moral or any other legitimate rights to think otherwise. This is IMF hand in hand with USG and EU manipulative ideas about a falsified democracy with Neo fascism killing unarmed, elderly, young and those at their range of shooting. These mercenaries are hired professional killers, paid by millions of American working people that are paying taxes to federal government, whereby, these elements are supported, as USG, Saudis-Wahhabis and other state terrorists sponsored government giving away arsenals to terrorists in Syria for continuation of Syrian war.
The total population of the two provinces is about 7 million, so that it seems that only about half the population is being allowed to vote. That, in itself, renders the whole thing a Crimea-style farce. And the absurdly vague referendum question suggests that the Russian minority are starting to lose hope. In any event, since Putin asked them not to hold the referendum, the fact of their doing so is a slap in the face for him.