Thank you for balancing the conversation. I don't think the article is bad for portraying the Russian point of view. A lot of times when I speak to people about

Thank you for balancing the conversation. I don't think the article is bad for portraying the Russian point of view. A lot of times when I speak to people about Russia they have a heavy western bias (not a bad thing) and I think it's important to see both sides. A lot of times any Russian centric piece gets shot down. As for your first point about Kievian rus being Russia: I think it's different as up to the communist revolution, peasants in Russia had almost no idea of the change of powers and many didn't even know the language they spoke was called. Most identified through Russian orthodox instead. The same kind of hold true today. I believe that if you asked most people in Russia, Ukraine (except I think modern day Ukraine would answer different than 30 years ago) they would say they are directly descended from the Kievian rus empire. I don't think that's the case with Rome and that is what makes it different. In the long term history of Russia, the current Ukraine is a small blip and Russia views itself as a thousand year old empire and wants to last another 1000 years so a decade or two of unrest is nothing it took nearly 40 years of mass starvation and hunger before the communist revolution overthrew the czar. As long as people are fed the aren't going to do anything. But what they are doing is still pretty shitty.