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In Crimea and Georgia, Russia used the argument of defending Russian speaking populations to justify military intervention. Perhaps, they see the Russian langu

In Crimea and Georgia, Russia used the argument of defending Russian speaking populations to justify military intervention. Perhaps, they see the Russian language as a threat to their independence?

disordinary 8y ago
I think it's hard to understand how people view their ethincity as different from their citizenship for people from countries with a colonial heritage. People who are of Russian ethnicity but live in another country like the Ukraine, or Latvia, or Lithuania, or Estonia, or any number of other former Soviet or Russian Empire states often consider themselves as Russian, they also often feel like they're marginalised in their homes and face racism so I could see the Russian ethnic regions of the Ukraine wanting to annex themselves to Russia. On the other hand these people have also been in these countries for generations, and in a lot of cases the borders that they have now are only a new construct from the last thirty years.
- rimliu 8y ago
  I can add about the "marginalisation" — if you live in the country for decades and still refuse to learn/speak the local language—you have marginalised yourself. Alas, the examples are plenty. These cases are an example of chauvinism ("велик и могуч русский яазык“, others are subpar) not racism.
  - disordinary 8y ago
    Well, the example that I know best are the Baltic countries and most of the Russian minority in those countries do speak Estonian or Latvian or Lithuanian fluently. It's not a case of people in the Crimea speaking Ukrainian but whether they have the freedom for their own culture. We're not talking people who have lived in a country merely for decades either, we're often talking people that have lived in a country for generations, certainly back in the tsarists period of the Russian Empire.
- Yizahi 8y ago
  Lolwhat?!! Are you even aware about state of Russians in Ukraine before invasion and especially in Crimea? They were aggressively removing teaching Ukrainian language in Crimea for the last decades (same in Donbass) to the point of nonexistence. Whole Ukraine was predominantly Russian speaking and maybe still is. And as for "racism" - after invading 4th independent country in last 30 years and occupying its territories Russians have somewhat "bad" reputation and justifiably so.
  - disordinary 8y ago
    No doubt, all I was saying is I can understand why the Russian speaking population would want to leave. Multiple wrongs don't make a right.
konart 8y ago
>Perhaps, they see the Russian language as a threat to their independence? Maybe, but changin the alphabet for your own language won't change the fact that many people are still speaking russian and many people are actually russian nationals.

In Crimea and Georgia, Russia used the argument of defending Russian speaking populations to justify military intervention. Perhaps, they see the Russian language as a threat to their independence?

disordinary 8y ago

I think it's hard to understand how people view their ethincity as different from their citizenship for people from countries with a colonial heritage. People who are of Russian ethnicity but live in another country like the Ukraine, or Latvia, or Lithuania, or Estonia, or any number of other former Soviet or Russian Empire states often consider themselves as Russian, they also often feel like they're marginalised in their homes and face racism so I could see the Russian ethnic regions of the Ukraine wanting to annex themselves to Russia. On the other hand these people have also been in these countries for generations, and in a lot of cases the borders that they have now are only a new construct from the last thirty years.

rimliu 8y ago
I can add about the "marginalisation" — if you live in the country for decades and still refuse to learn/speak the local language—you have marginalised yourself. Alas, the examples are plenty. These cases are an example of chauvinism ("велик и могуч русский яазык“, others are subpar) not racism.
- disordinary 8y ago
  Well, the example that I know best are the Baltic countries and most of the Russian minority in those countries do speak Estonian or Latvian or Lithuanian fluently. It's not a case of people in the Crimea speaking Ukrainian but whether they have the freedom for their own culture. We're not talking people who have lived in a country merely for decades either, we're often talking people that have lived in a country for generations, certainly back in the tsarists period of the Russian Empire.
Yizahi 8y ago
Lolwhat?!! Are you even aware about state of Russians in Ukraine before invasion and especially in Crimea? They were aggressively removing teaching Ukrainian language in Crimea for the last decades (same in Donbass) to the point of nonexistence. Whole Ukraine was predominantly Russian speaking and maybe still is. And as for "racism" - after invading 4th independent country in last 30 years and occupying its territories Russians have somewhat "bad" reputation and justifiably so.
- disordinary 8y ago
  No doubt, all I was saying is I can understand why the Russian speaking population would want to leave. Multiple wrongs don't make a right.

konart 8y ago

>Perhaps, they see the Russian language as a threat to their independence? Maybe, but changin the alphabet for your own language won't change the fact that many people are still speaking russian and many people are actually russian nationals.