Read something that one of the Ossetias wanted to join Russia, can’t recall which one. Abkhazians, last I heard, don’t want to belong neither to Georgia nor to Russia. They want to be independent.
You have to understand something - as the Red Army pushed the Germans armies out of Eastern Europe in 1944-early ‘45 - in many places, for many years, there was fairly active, lingering resistance - including in Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine. They went underground, and killed communists, police officers and various officials. In many places, the entire might of Stalin’s USSR - with all their brutal NKVD and Internal Affairs troops - were unable to defeat them. Eventually, in the late 50’s, the Kremlin offered them an amnesty - and many people actually used the opportunity.
The point I’m making is that… today’s Russians would not want to “own” the western parts of Ukraine - or other places, like the Baltics - even if you paid them. Who wants to deal with a place where everyone hates you - and would be happy to stab you in the back?
And - this has nothing to do with today’s Ukraine having been “difficult”. Which they were - I heard Scott Ritter - who seems to report mostly from a pro-Russian point of view - say that Ukrainians are “fighting like demons”. I wish things had never come to this point. |
