A new CNN Comres poll is being spun as showing Ukrainian “loyalty” to Europe, but actually reflects a long-standing regional divide between east and west that is as dramatic as ever.
Though the poll’s nationwide figures showed majority support for joining the European Union (54%), the eastern regional data showed only 14% even supporting the idea of allying with the EU.
The eastern data is somewhat distinct from the protest region, as it includes not only Donetsk and Luhansk, but also Kharkiv, which is under a military occupation right now.
For the east, the EU is a distant third place option, with 37% supporting alliance with Russia and 49% thinking that not allying with either side would be the best bet for the country’s future.
The figures reflect a split between eastern Ukraine and the western region that has existed as long as Ukraine has been independent, with each side seeing their future as inexorably tied to nations they border.
CNN shows this pill, but not the Swiss poll that showed that Ukrainians (along with the world) consider the usa the greatest threat to world peace (33%), with no other country coming close, and Russia coming in at 5%.
Once aggain the choice of the people will not be heard.Politics will decide for you in the name of democracy.
Read the poll. The numbers Mr Ditz doesn't mention are very informative. The underlying assumption of the poll, which Mr Ditz accepts uncritically, is that Ukrainians must choose between the EU and Russia. Russia is itself in the course of negotiating an association agreement with the EU, so Putin obviously seees no incompatibility between a Ukraine on good terms with the EU and on equally good terms with Russia and neither does the EU. The "incompatibility" argument is a US neocon propaganda scam.
It's certainly true that the "incompatability" argument is a neocon/liberal interventionist talking point. The unfortunate situation is that here in the US, the combination of those two forces into a singular War Party creates a hegemony, an epistomological reality that must be debunked, and the first step in that process is to strip away this notion that somehow the glory of war in the Ukraine is some sort of patriotic American imperative. Of course we want to get to the point where multipolar compatibility is the rule of the day, that's why we're "antiwar". But in a situation where another nation, its people and its leaders have been demonized and continue to be demonized in the rhetoric of American "leadership", the first step is to humanize them, allow Americans the opportunity to view Russians, and Russian-speaking Ukrainians, as something other than the manifestation of all that is evil. Which those whom you routinely echo and support are in the business of perpetuating, and therefore you do as well. Motes and beams, Mr. Kenny.