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[GreatJustice]

The Russians might suffer from a pretty severe case of the Dutch disease, but at the very least they rely on something of actual value. The US these days is basically dependent on a highly manipulated bubble of a stock market and on foreigners buying American debt despite no signs of it ever being paid back.

[mainiac]

Big talk.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

Ukrainian economy is collapsing and we must reform ourself to survive as a country. If we'll fail to execute that reforms and greatly reduce corruption Ukraine will disintegrate in one way or another. That is a matter of time

Russia needs anti-corruption reforms too. But Russians don't think so. Ukraine may or may not get rid of corrupt and inefficient system. Russian corruption can only increase because that problem is ignored by a nation

I am sure that uncontrolled corruption can destroy any economy, even without military adventures and economic wars

[mainiac]

But on the plus side you guys have almost nowhere to go but up.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

I see Ukraine as an alcoholic who suddenly understood that he ruined his own life, he lost his job, he sold most of his property for booze, his health is deeply damaged... And he has no one to blame but himself.

Even that war is our own fault, we neglected our army for decades, going from one of the strongest armies in the world in 1991 to ruins in 2014. Same goes for security service and police. If our armed were ready for self-defense, Russia would never dared to attack.

[Helgoland]

I believe I said this earlier in another thread: For a big national turnaround, you need a big national crisis. For Germany, it was the second crushing defeat within thirty years and the confession of literally the biggest crime in history. For Ukraine, it may be being invaded right after another revolution. For Russia, who knows? The upper and lower bounds are all-out nuclear warfare and pictures of Putin having gay sex, but it'll probably be somewhere in the middle.

[Guardian G.I.]

eu has problems delivering aid to itself, why would it deliver to ukraine

You're jumbling up two timeframes here - EU problems will be greatly reduced once the economy is completely back on track, while the Ukraine aid is something for the next couple of decades.

I'm sure after 6 years of not being on track, the European economy will magically go back on track once the new sanctions will set in! After all, who needs Russian resources in Europe, anyway? Oh wait. Everyone.
European economy is not an endless source of free money, as many people here apparently think.
Also, helping Ukraine is going to end the same as helping Greece FYI.

There's big talk in European media about how the total embargo on Russian gas wouldn't cause significant damage to the EU, citing the total percentage of Russian gas being sold to EU. If EU was a unified country with a centralized economy, the embargo probably wouldn't cause much damage. But it isn't the case (now, at least).
If the economies of the Baltic states, Finland, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary sink due to lack of energy supplies, will it bring the rest of the EU down or not?

[MonkeyHead]

It would be nice to know what raw quantities of gas those percentages represent in order to make more sense of the situation.

[Sergarr]

Seeing as nearly all the main leaders of Maidan now have nice cozy places in the current government, I find the idea that Ukraine will suddenly become less corrupt very unlikely.

EDIT: Our big national turn-around was in the end of 1980s, when most of the country were very anti-communistic, and very pro-western. After a decade of rampart banditry, liquidated factories and finally, the default in 1998, well...

[Guardian G.I.]

Seeing as nearly all the main leaders of Maidan now have nice cozy places in the current government, I find the idea that Ukraine will suddenly become less corrupt very unlikely.

EDIT: Our big national turn-around was in the end of 1980s, when most of the country were very anti-communistic, and very pro-western. After a decade of rampart banditry, liquidated factories and finally, the default in 1998, well...

Also, the major rise of anti-Americanism among Russian public began when NATO attacked Serbia in 1999.

[Owlbread]

Also, the major rise of anti-Americanism among Russian public began when NATO attacked Serbia in 1999.

Fun fact: Alex Salmond, currently First Minister of Scotland (basically our Prime Minister) and probably the most important person in the independence campaign, was the first UK politician to speak out against the NATO bombing calling it an "unpardonable folly":

Mr Salmond said: "It is an act of dubious legality, but above all one of unpardonable folly."
   
The bombing "may make matters even worse for the very people it is meant to be helping".

The nationalist leader said Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic bore "prime responsibility" for human rights violations carried out on ethnic Albanians living in Kosovo.

"However, if we are to sanction intervention in Serbia then the policy must be capable of achieving two things," he said.

"It must be capable of weakening Milosevic and helping Kosovo. A bombing campaign will do neither, indeed the chances are it will make both worse."

There was an intervention from Plaid Cymru shortly thereafter:

But Plaid Cymru leader Dafydd Wigley also questioned the Nato bombing in his address to the Welsh nation, asking whether the action was actually exacerbating a human catastrophe.

[smjjames]

Seeing as nearly all the main leaders of Maidan now have nice cozy places in the current government, I find the idea that Ukraine will suddenly become less corrupt very unlikely.

EDIT: Our big national turn-around was in the end of 1980s, when most of the country were very anti-communistic, and very pro-western. After a decade of rampart banditry, liquidated factories and finally, the default in 1998, well...

Also, the major rise of anti-Americanism among Russian public began when NATO attacked Serbia in 1999.

Wasn't that to stop the genocide going on over there?

[10ebbor10]

There's big talk in European media about how the total embargo on Russian gas wouldn't cause significant damage to the EU, citing the total percentage of Russian gas being sold to EU. If EU was a unified country with a centralized economy, the embargo probably wouldn't cause much damage. But it isn't the case (now, at least).
If the economies of the Baltic states, Finland, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary sink due to lack of energy supplies, will it bring the rest of the EU down or not?

The gas network in Europe is rather well build out, and gas can be redistributed. It's not because they buy all their gas from Russia, that they won't have anything when the pipe is cut out.

[Owlbread]

Wasn't that to stop the genocide going on over there?

It was, yes. But that's never stopped Russian nationalists being rather cosy with Serbian nationalists.

The ultimate irony is in Serbian nationalists joining up with Russian irredentists in Ukraine, who are settlers in former Ukrainian-populated territories, after spending decades complaining about Albanians settling in former Serbian lands and trying to seek independence/annexation by Albania through irredentist movements.

[LordSlowpoke]

considering that kosovo is independent now, i doubt there is any irony to be found

they found a precedent and they're replicating it tit for tat